I don’t like to shop. I don’t mean I don’t like to buy things or look at cool stuff on the shelves. I can spend all day looking at the gadgets in hardware and music stores, and don’t ever expect me to leave a restaurant supply store in less than an hour.
I probably should have said I don’t like shopping for clothes. I generally know what I want, but always know what I don’t want. I don’t want to spend a lot of time looking for the right size or the right color. I have my list of stores I don’t fool with, but I have a short list of favorites.
Abraham's Men's Store in Cleveland was the first. I was just a broke college student with little or no budget. Danny Abraham would spend as much time as it took to help me find what I needed at a price I could handle. He didn’t push me toward trendy things. He tried to teach me that I was better off taking the time to find better quality and better fit.
Years later. I realized that lesson applied to other things in life, not just clothing. Maybe Danny’s advice was why I broke up with the girl I was dating and found a new girlfriend. She’s still top-quality and a better fit that has worked pretty well for more than forty years.
The second store was Maison Blanche on Canal in New Orleans. The ladies there knew more about what I needed than I did. I would go in the store thinking I knew what I wanted.
Our conversations usually followed a set script.
Me: I need this and that.
MB Ladies: That sounds nice. Where are you going to wear that?
Me: To this function.
MB Ladies: Oh, no, darlin’. You don’t want that. You want this.
The MB ladies steered me away from many bad decisions. Their attitude, like Danny’s, was that the customer wasn't always right, and part of their job was to educate.
The third was Sammy's Man of Fashion in Southaven. I'll never forget the salesman who refused to sell me a pair of shoes because he didn't have anything that would go with the pink suit I had just bought for a part in “Hairspray” at Panola Playhouse.
The people at my three favorite stores of all time all had one thing in common: They treated me like I was the most important person they would see all day. Danny Abraham steered me to the things that looked good, would hold up, and were in my price range. The MB ladies listened and realized I wanted to be taught. The guys at Sammy's listened and helped me find what I needed, not necessarily what I wanted.
More to the point, they had another thing in common-they listened to me.
I think I’ll try to do more of that.
