A shout-out to the little guy

Conventional wisdom states that while a large chain store, such as Walmart may offer lower prices and other extra conveniences , the small shops and stores lend a personal elegance to their business with quality customer service and a good trust-relationship between the employees and the consumer.

Usually, I just gloss over this sort of thing. I'm kind of a fickle person when it comes to parting with my money and ike to keep most of it, while at the same time have the convenience of quick-and-dirty "buy and fly" shopping. This can also be done online these days as well.

Recently, however, I took the opportunity to try out a local camera shop in my town. I had to get my camera's digital sensor cleaned and was faced with the choice of sending it away to a manufacturer, buying a kit and doing it myself, or taking it to the local shop and having them do it. After reviewing my options, I figured that sending it to the manufacturer could be both expensive and also separate me from my camera for too long. The cleaning kit was another option, however, I have never cleaned a camera sensor, and from what I gather, doing it wrong will cost you dearly in repair costs if you mess up. Being a bit skeptical about my abilities to clean my 1-week old camera myself, I chose to try out the camera store in town.

I arrived about 5 minutes after the shop closed and for the sake of persistence decided to knock on the door anyways. The shop owner eventually came to the door, heard my pitiful excuse on why I'm standing there after hours and decided not only to treat me with dignity, but to quickly allow me to drop off the camera and explain the cleaning process to me for reassurance. I was extremely grateful for his help and expertise. My camera was ready early the next day and when I check it, it appears the the service made things as good as new.

So to conclude, my experience with "the little guy" camera shop was a great one. They offered exceptionable customer service, proved to be efficient (and not too expensive, either). I can hardly expect that a larger camera shop would have opened their doors for me after hours, and my experience with larger stores certainly pales in comparison to how I was treated and respected at this place. Here's to the Little Guy!!!