Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market!
I hope everyone is having a good week. The weather continues to be nice, although we could probably use some rain at this point. No doubt, we will probably get it Halloween night when the trick-or-treaters are out.
We have had a good week at the store so far. It started out slow, probably because of that dumb football game Saturday, but seems to be gaining momentum as the week goes on. It’s hard to believe, but after Halloween on Saturday, it will be time to bear down on Thanksgiving and then on to Christmas.
You know what that means? It’s almost time for the 12th annual Rocky Hill Christmas Parade. Easily the biggest event each year in the Rocky Hill community. If you have never attended the parade, you’re missing out on the event of the year. The parade gets bigger and better every year with attendance following suit. The store always sponsors the parade, and we also provide a float to Rocky Hill Elementary School for the kids to decorate and ride in the parade. It is a lot of fun, so I hope you will plan on attending this year and as always, it is free! The date of the parade is Saturday, December 5th. The parade itself starts at 6:00 pm, but there are lots of festivities before that, so plan on coming early and enjoying those. As I learn more details, I will let you know about them.
Well, I had a little personal satisfaction this week. My old nemesis, Getty Images, filed for bankruptcy recently. They are a multi-billion-dollar corporation that buys and sells pictures. Getty owns some of the most famous photographs in the world, and if you want to use one of the photos they own, you have to pay them for the rights to it.
Several years ago, I inadvertently used one of their photos in one of these Grocery Life letters, and somehow, they discovered this and sent me a cease, desist, and a lot of other ugly words letter along with a large bill to get me out of legal trouble. Comically to me, it was addressed to our legal department, which we didn’t have and still don’t have. Anyways, I just used a random picture we found online of a dog lying next to a Christmas tree. It wasn’t like it was Lassie, Benji, Scooby-Doo, or some famous dog. It was just a generic dog, and it’s not like the Grocery Life is a reputable publication like National Enquirer or Playboy. It’s a dumb blog about a guy who runs a corner grocery store. I don’t disagree I was in the wrong. I just disagreed with the financial compensation they were insisting on and getting bullied month after month by their legal department. Well, after several months of back-and-forth legal wrangling, I finally settled with their collection agency for a much smaller amount, and I have pretty much hated them ever since. Hate may be a little strong so maybe I’ll just say it didn’t hurt my feelings when they bankrupted. I wrote several times about this when it was going on several years ago, so I went back and read them when I started writing this, to refresh my memory. The last one I wrote when we settled the dispute I stated, “I feel like a billion dollar company that picks on widows, orphans, and small local grocery stores will eventually pay their own price.” Well, nine years later, it has finally caught up with them and selfishly, I’m glad I’m still around to see it. My demise may come tomorrow, but I’ve outlasted them…at least until they reorganize under bankruptcy. I would like to think if we continue to try to treat people with kindness and respect in our business and community, we will continue to outlast the bullies of the business world. If you are really bored, you can go back and read the Grocery Life’s I wrote about them at the time on our website. The dates of those are 9-30-2014, 10-3-2014, and 5-1-2015.
Another company that I once highly respected is Buc-ee’s out of Texas. I have kind of followed them for years from afar, and when I am near one of their stores, I always go in. They do a ton of business, so I’m always intrigued by how they operate, hoping to learn something useful from them that we can apply in our store. Well, I recently decided I’m no longer going to support them with my money or admiration. I discovered they are suing little mom and pop operations around the country in what a lot of people are calling frivolous lawsuits. I’ve read up on a few of them, and I have to agree. While they have done nothing to harm me, they are causing great harm to businesses like mine and the people that own them. They are starting to get some pushback from the communities that these small businesses are in, so we will see how their bullying tactics turn out in the long run. They have already lost the twenty bucks a year I used to spend there.
I realize I’ve been on a rant about bullying lately. I just don’t understand why some big, successful businesses and people doing great things can’t enjoy their success without punching down on those not big enough to defend themselves. I guess there have always been bullies in the world, but they seem to wear it like a badge of honor now, and it has just become exhausting to me. From politicians, to big business it seems to be the new recipe for success. I guess it works in the short term, but my hope is that all the folks and the little mom and pop businesses in communities like ours can outlast them in the long run? So far, so good….
Don’t forget to put the Christmas parade on your calendar, and thanks again for letting us be a part of your community!
Tom Butler