A Lack of Vision

A LACK OF VISION: GOOD AND BAD BUSINESS

I had two interesting related experiences. Last Saturday, I went to a Filipino restaurant called Pinoy-Pinay located in Las Vegas. I spoke with a nice lady named Mely who happened to own the restaurant with her siblings. They have three restaurants in California aside from their Las Vegas location. I ordered some food for the night. I made a comment about their cash only policy and asked her if she's had a lot of bad experiences with checks and credit cards. She said that she's had large volumes of bounced checks from Filipinos and lamented that checks bounce no matter how small the amount is. And it didn't matter if the checks come from business owners, Filipino doctors or nurses....she's had checks bounced anyway. So she had enough and instigated the cash-only policy. She also installed an ATM machine in the premises. Granted there is a premium of fees when it is used---but she's not had any problems when people have to pay cash. She also made the comment that it's so sad that its mostly Filipinos who bounce checks or use stolen credit cards.

Of course, most of her patrons are Filipinos since its a Filipino restaurant. Her family used to own the famous Liwayway Bakery in Baliuag, Bulacan and that establishment has been in existence for decades because she believes in honesty and that businesses have a longer life if it is run with integrity. And she's not kidding. Every time I order food from her, it's always more than I expect and she never shorts me. The food is always good, hot and the volume is always generous. So I keep on patronizing her establishment. It's a good place. And it's always full. It's an inspiration to see her doing so well. But so sad that she's had these bad experiences with her own countrymen. Of course, if she were a burger joint, she'd probably have the same problems with all kinds of folk since check bouncing is not limited to Filipinos.

Yesterday, Natascha, Hannah and Catherine went shopping with me. We went to Chinatown. Last week, there was a promotional week-long trade show in the Chinatown mall and a merchant gave us a coupon to encourage us to shop in his store. We liked his merchandise so we went back to look for his store. After we chose the items that caught our fancy, I presented the coupon to the cashier.

She told me that the coupon was no longer valid.

I had over $200 worth of goods in my hands so I was incensed and I said,

"But of course the coupon is no longer valid! Because we're here now and I'm holding all these merchandise!"

So she said that I could choose one item from a clearance rack instead of giving me the 20% off. But there was nothing that we liked from the rack and even if we did, everything was small.

So I told her to just honor the coupon because it has no expiry date on it and I just got it last week. She refused. I got mad. So I said, you either have $150 worth of sales today and I don't see any other customers around (there were none...) or zero sales. She refused to budge.

Well, I really liked the 5 pairs of shoes and other items so I got really mad and said, "You know, this is no way to treat a customer. I could be having a great first experience in your store and come back every month and spend a hundred or so every time or you can lose this sale and other potential sales. What is it going to be? Or do you want to call the owner?"

She finally gave me the discount and took the coupon grudgingly. So I was mad. Crazy, stupid Chinese. How dumb is that?

Anyway, I got what I wanted and I'm never going back to her stupid store. But this is so common among the Asians that I deal with. For example, the Korean-run dry cleaning stores will send us coupons and then when we get there arms full of shirts and suits, they tell us the coupons are no longer valid even when there is no expiry date. So then, we are caught literally with our clothes hanging on our arms with no desire to haul them back to the car. Then another battle has to be fought. This type of shenanigan gives us such a bad reputation. It's so stupid.



Anyway, that's my shopping experience for today. Tomorrow, I'll just hit the mall and get my usual good deals at Nordstroms clearance racks. Crazy.