Over at Mr. Brown Thumb he mentions my post on Home Depots new CEO’s plan to bill the mega-retailer as the “friendly local retailer”. Mr. Brown Thumb says “On his blog (thegoldengecko.blogspot.com) he's criticizing Home Depot for their latest ad campaign that tries to brand HD as the "'friendly local retailer.'" I'm not sure Trey has much to worry about because I don't think anyone will ever really buy into the idea, but what I don't agree with is how he puts local retailers on a pedestal.”

Mr. Brown Thumb then goes on to relate how “’friendly local retailer’” is a myth created by Hollywood and people's selective memories of days gone by.” In my post I had mentioned “The only thing that Home Depot has done is work on running most of the local friendly retailers out of business. I’ll admit that some of those retailers needed to go out of business…”.

Mr. Brown Thumb may be correct. I don’t know about the Hollywood myth part but he is right in that the way it's worded I did put the local friendly retailers on a pedestal. It was unintentional and just sounded that way. What I should have said was “most of those retailers needed to go out of business”. Just like Mr. Brown Thumb I have no illusions as to the state of the retail sector as it relates to customer service. Its poor, and shared equally by box stores and local retailers.

We found out about Mr. Brown Thumbs post after I goggled “Golden Gecko Garden Center”. I do that every now and then just to see what comes up. I followed a link Mr. Brown Thumb had on the post to message board by a disgruntled customer of a well known nursery in the Chicago area. This nursery apparently has no web page but they are sure getting interest on the web. The first entry takes you to a posting at Gardeweb.com that has a lively conversation going on. I would think the owner of that store would want to take action to rectify these customer’s complaints. However if they don't check the web they won't know what being said.

People using the computer are exactly the type of consumer that might very well patronize a smaller independent nursery. People are creating communities of like minded individuals on the internet. Because they are communities what is said often has more meaning to the readers than other forms of communication and bad news as well as good spreads fast. Google your name or your business name today and see what comes up.