Is it all about the gadgets?

We’ve just returned from the enormous semi-annual World Market where manufacturers from all over the world show their newest designs in furniture, floor coverings, lighting and home décor accessories.  We attend this trade show once a year in hopes of finding new answers to the age-old question:  “We need more stuff.”

Interestingly, on a visit to a showroom packed high and deep with some very unappealing sofas and recliners of a type that once again put us in mind of Jabba the Hut, we heard an answer to a question no one’s ever asked.  As we sank in and started fiddling with the on-board cup holders, reading lights, power leg rests, vibrators and remote control storage compartments, the self-omniscient salesman announced with the authority that comes naturally to those who peddle such things, “It’s all about the gadgets.”

Can it be?  Have we completely misunderstood what drives our customers to furnish their homes as they do?  Is it really all about the gadgets?  We’d thought for many years that it was all about design, particularly good design, and about innovative use of sustainable materials and about performance for families over a long lifetime. 

Have the giants of industrial and interior design had it all wrong?  We prefer to think that disciplined design processes make a difference, that attention to ergonomics, to quality construction and to sustaining our natural environment are things that matter.

We’re a little stubborn, so we’ll go on thinking what we prefer to think and doing our best to find and bring to our customers the kind of home furnishings they can be proud of and that their children and grandchildren might one day fight over. 

In truth, thank God, there was a good representation of new things of quality at the show as well. You’ll soon see some of them at Port Madison Home.

Let justice roll down...

I've just returned from a ceremony I'd never have expected until very recently to witness firsthand and that I don't expect I'll ever witness again, the swearing in of a Washington State Supreme Court Justice, in this case my friend and fellow Bainbridge Islander Charlie Wiggins, pictured here.

Must I from now on address him as Justice Wiggins?  I doubt it.  Charlie is a humble and approachable man of the highest integrity.  The theme of his career is expressed in the book of Amos:  "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream."

This was a gratifying experience because what I heard were the voices of real people with real lives, real families and genuine passions -- people who have achieved some great things and who are now at the pinnacle of their careers in an important and respected profession.  I came away feeling that our courts are to a very high degree in good hands, that they're vital to the protection of our liberty and our cherished unalienable rights as Americans and members of the human race.

Is justice delivered perfectly?  Not always, and I feel certain the Judges and Justices I met today in Olympia would acknowledge that as fact.  Charlie today eloquently affirmed his desire as an attorney and now as a Supreme Court Justice to bring to his work the effort he's made throughout his career to restore balance to relationships that have gotten out of sync.  I couldn't be more proud to call him my friend.  All of Kitsap County and of the State of Washington can likewise be proud of their decision to invest him with this responsibility.

John Hays

More for Less?

Does the American consumer want to be lied to?

This is a serious question, though it would seem at first glance that the answer is obviously "No way!".  We want truth in advertising, we want to know for sure what's in our food, we want to know what to expect from the products we buy.

So why do we fall for offers of 60% or 75% off furniture, rugs, appliances, business suits and just about everything else?  Why do we think we can get two suits free when we buy one at the regular price?  What's up when the marked price of soda pop is ostensibly competitive, but you can get three 12-packs free when you buy two?

A business associate of mine recently said with both the conviction and despair that come from bitter experience, "I guess people just want to be lied to."  And so there are those in the home furnishings business who shout about deep discounts on furniture every day.  More furniture for less!

If you want to be lied to and want to believe the lie, straight-faced swindlers are seldom in short supply and are eager to be "your friend."  You'll never hear that language from Port Madison Home.  We work hard to be certain our prices are honest, fair and competitive and we guarantee the low price every day on the things we sell and, yes, we occasionally mark prices down to liquidate goods that apparently didn't just excite our customers.  We offer only quality merchandise and never mark it up high enough to permit those ridiculously deep daily discounts you hear in high decibels with multiple exclamation marks.

Think local, buy local and retain the lifestyle we enjoy here for the next generations.

$50 Parking Fines?

Our Mayor and City Council seem determined to put our downtown out of business.  After three years of the most difficult economy since the Great Depression and now, when faced with the specter of Winslow Way main street dug deep with trenches and piled high with dirt and asphalt, do they really think it prudent to raise parking fines from $20 to $50?  This strikes us as one more obstacle deliberately placed in the way of recovery.

Mayor Scales was quoted as saying “Parking tickets may go down if people stop violating parking (rules), and hopefully it has that effect.”  If he were not away from the island at his job on the other side of the Sound most days, he might know that a shortage of parking is not a problem we’ve had recently.  The effect he hopes for is a near certainty, because after their first ticket people will simply stay away and our commercial center will take another hit.

Already we have a parking enforcement officer issuing citations right up to and after 6 pm for overstaying the limit in spite of an abundance of unoccupied parking spaces.  Now, because the City is broke, should we hire an additional officer to more efficiently nail both our local citizens and visitors who have the temerity to spend more than 2 hours in our downtown?

Our merchants have plenty of competition in Seattle, on the web and at the big box stores with big paved free parking lots.  At a time when everyone else is thinking sustainability, our City Council is happy to drive people out and compel them to drive to a more welcoming emporium owned by investors who live very far away and care not a whit about this community.

Post Script, April 2011
The city council changed the time limit on our main street, Winslow Way (but not on other downtown streets), from 2 hours to 3 hours and retained the $50 fine.  We think this is an incomplete solution.

Tell Bainbridge Merchants What You Want

Substantive merchant cooperation is difficult to achieve on Winslow Way.  While the following are practices that typically set individual merchants apart from others, we think that, to sustain the kind of neighborhood commerce we've enjoyed for many years, Island merchants must think of their downtown as a single shopping destination, and in so doing, make it our population's favorite.  Here are some practices we'd like to see Bainbridge merchants adopt in common:

Uniform Retail Open Hours 
Shoppers must be able to rely on businesses being open when they’re ready to shop.  If they have to remember every store’s open hours or go out of their way to find out if a particular store is open, they simply won’t bother and will go where they have confidence that their destination is open for business.   Ferry commuters routinely shop in Seattle because so many Winslow Way stores are closed when they arrive on the Island after work.

Low Price Guarantee
Under a low price guarantee, the merchants do their best to assure  their prices are competitive or lower than the competition's in brick and mortar stores, online sites and catalogs.  But because it’s impossible to keep up with all the prices being offered out there, a 30-day guarantee gives our customers confidence.  Here's ours:

“If, within 30 days of your purchase, you find the identical product offered by a nearby authorized dealer under the same terms and conditions and at a similar level of service and warranty at a lower     price, we’ll confirm the offered price, terms and conditions and happily refund the difference.”

Customer Service Training
Every place of business should actively greet and welcome guests and make them at ease shopping and asking questions.  Product knowledge and demonstrated helpful attitudes go a very long way.

Merchandise Return Practice
Returns should be accepted on full-price purchases within a period of time reasonable to both the customer and the merchant.  The merchant is free to sell at final sale/no return terms on special orders (goods not from store inventory), when liquidating merchandise at deep discounts or making other special offers at unusually low prices.

Satisfaction Guarantee
Merchants need to care enough to take care of problems, if/when they arise, to the customer’s satisfaction.  This may mean bending the normal rules.

Home delivery service
Delivery of purchases large or small will make it possible for customers to buy when they have no capacity to get the goods home or when they simply can’t carry them due to time constraints or other burdens. Those merchants who have no delivery vehicle can contract with those who do.  This must be available without fear of customer “kidnapping.”

PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!