When I asked the customer yesterday if they would like to renew their about to expire Tatts player card yesterday they said no and looked away. Noticing a tear I asked if everything way okay even though I could see it wasn’t. (Why I asked such an obvious question is beyond me.) My customer had earlier in the week found out she did not have long to live so renewing the card was not an option and the question reminded her of what she is facing.
It was a sad moment made all the more difficult because of a line of customers behind her. It was a busy Saturday. She picked herself up, smiled and said she was off to treat herself to a new hairstyle.
I’m not the only newsagent with a story like this from yesterday or any day for that matter. Our businesses are very personal – in part because we are local and in part because we are small. That we (the owners) spend time behind the counter also makes them personal. It is a privilege some days listening to and talking with customers. The confidence they show is moving.
While running a financially profitable business is important, being emotionally profitable – if I can put it that way – is more so. I find that it is this emotional connection with our customers, those we know and those we do not know, where newsagents make a real difference in the community.
Thinking back to yesterday, call me soppy, but I should have renewed the Tatts card and paid for it myself. Ah, hindsight…Â