Dear Grand Marais merchants, remember us? We were the middle-aged couple shopping in your store a couple weeks ago. I didn’t think so, as you never greeted or thanked us for coming in your shop.
We have been shopping in your town for over 50 years and I’ve never felt so unappreciated as this summer. We enjoy and prefer supporting local stores and spend accordingly but if no one cares, Amazon and others will ship right to our cabin door and we don’t even have to park the canoe.
Shouts out to World’s Best Donuts, Beaver House, Betsy Bowen Studios, GM Art Colony, Joy & Co, Birch Tree, Voyageurs, North House, Grand Marais Mercantile, the Co-op, Stone Harbor, Buck’s, Farmers Market, Ben Franklin, North Shore Winery, Trail Center and Norwester Gift Shop. If you are not listed, rest assured we most likely visited but were not even acknowledged. Many times we were the only ones in the store at the time. I’ve worked in retail and currently in the educational outreach field for many years and in this day and age customer service is essential. To not even look up from your cell phone is unacceptable, so is visiting with your friend the entire time we shopped.
Store owners and managers: please educate your staff or yourself. You owe it to your customers and community. Grand Marais is and deserves better. See you next time, or maybe not.
Lee Hecimovich
Palmer, AK
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