That's mighty fine pie

Perhaps we're just weird, but we like true customer service. In fact, we expect it. Unfortunately, in this day of phone trees and automated responses, it doesn't occur often. Today we experienced the best and the worst of it at the Home and Garden Show in Durham.

We might as well get the icky out of the way first.

Many people working at the trade shows we've attended recently seem to not understand why they are there. Let us (gently) remind you: give out samples, talk up your company, maybe make a sale... Overall, create a positive impression for potential new customers.

Speaking to the creepy older gentleman representing Wick-It Cool Candles who felt it okay to smear scented candle wax all over my hand while commenting on Victoria's Secret and attempting to massage my digits. Could it get any worse? No sale. And to the incredibly crabby lady with the flavored dips, if you want to increase your customer base, I would highly recommend you ditch the desire to critique the amount of free samples people are consuming and to absolutely rethink negative comments on attendees' kids. Not smart.

But some vendors get it, and they get it right. Simply, they are friendly. They smile and give some information about their company. They know that samples that aren't given away represent missed customers. They know that families with children present are families consisting of future customers. We leave their booths happy. We like them and we follow up on their companies.

For instance: the lady in the Cabot Cheese booth (www.cabotcheese.coop) who happily offered all of her cheese flavors to our family and was smitten by our son Jack, offering him a job with the company (in eighteen years or so...) And the people from Lakonia Olives (www.lakoniagreekproducts.com) who quickly explained their company history and offered fine samples of their olives and oils.

But far an above the pack, we loved our interactions with Saffie's Neighborhood Bakery (www.nhbakery.com).

Greg and Kathryn offered samples of several types of delicious Whoopie Pies to our whole family. Want another taste? Fine. When we came back to buy a few pies for the road, Greg gave us an extra Woopie Pie, since Ophelia kept giving her samples to Jack. And Kathryn gave Avery a gigantic cookie-- just because. We are officially huge fans of Saffie's. Thanks for their great service and attention at the show. Kudos to these folk who recognize their customer base and roll out the red carpet.