Several customers have complained several times about the Spirit humour cards we have at one of my newsagencies. One makes a scene when they complain. Excellent sales t sales tell me that many customers are happy we have the range. While I don’t like offending customers I don’t see it as my job to shield people from everyday languages and images.
We listen to the complaint, thank them for their concern and explain that ours is a shop for a broad cross-section of people. While most accept this and appreciate us listening to them, there is this one customer I expect to see out the front one day with a protest sign.
All day I hear people laughing in my shop, and I don’t even have to look up to know where they are. They are reading the Spirit cards. I love this range. These are what humour cards used to be like before PC came along and took all our fun away. If Betty Smith or Bob Brown don’t like them then don’t read them. Whilst we haven’t had a complaint about them I would do what you have done Mark. Maybe I would invite the complainant to sit in my shop and count how many people stop and have a laugh versus those who complain. As for the protest signs Mark, blow the card images up to the same size as there protest signs and have your staff walk around them chanting “our signs are way more f*#%ing funnier than yours”……!
Geez, the card headers warn that they are “REALLY naughty” cards. We place these ones at the top of the spinner out of reach of young children so an adult choosing to read a card noted as “REALLY naughty” has no real reason to complain. Every one has a customer or two they’d prefer was an ex customer, this sounds like yours.
We had a customer complaining about the porn we peddled at a recent book sale, the offending items were the Sports Illustrated Swim Suit calendar and like. She was extremely insistent that I would burn in hell for showing this terrible product. I advised her that after complaining to me, she needed to visit the local council and have all the local pools shut and the dress code is the by her definition pornographic there too. I said “you’ll be very busy as next you must visit all the bayside councils to have the beaches cleared of this pornography”. Finally I finished by asking her to leave the store and not return. This was all done calmly and to my surprise the other customers in the store even complimented the handling of the situation.
Definitely one customer we can do without.
There are one or two that I place a censored sign over because kids do shop in this area but it only makes the Adults take a look and buy.