[cupcakes]

That is simply not true. I've had bad service in small "mom and pop" shops and in larger stores and vica versa. There is no rule that you will get better service in a small store or terrible service in a large chain. Chances are, yes, the large chain will have more employees who could give a flip and your assurance of service is not always known due to the anonymity of the environment, but I can think of one store in my area that sells scrapbook supplies(no two stores of that persuasion) who have LOST business due to how poorly they were managed or the employees who worked there. I can think of one other store(not those other two) who changed managment to improve things and this is just among small, privately owned hobby shops in my area so very small cross section! I know I get more livid when I walk out of the mom and pop shop with little or no help because they are SPECIALIZING in certain types of items or services--if they don't know or don't care to answer, I can assure you I will never walk in that store again, where the larger shops there is this 'forgiveness factor' because you don't expect every employee there to be a specialist in the lumber or masonry dept.

[yankeedame]

Very good point. My mother (RIP) owned two (really)small businesses -- a fabric store and a beauty parlor. And her stick rule was, if it was at all humanly possible, to never let a person walk out of the store angry.

"Every costumer that walks out that door angry," she used to say, "takes 8 others with her."

Which ties in with her second favorite adage: "You only make money off your friends. You're enemies will not do business with you."