by Linda @ Triage Consignment Showcase.
Last week I talked to a very regular customer of mine. She is a commuter from St Pete. First of all she said she has a Citgo gas card and for her entire life as a commuter she always filled up there on Friday after work. Now with the median she has found another more convenient gas station. She said she used to come by my store more regularly but the construction along Gandy puts her in such a sour mood, she just drives through the mess these days.I asked her about the overpass. She said she would use it but she also said she is like any other consumer, she is not about to be terribly inconvenienced by re routing her trips to enjoy the shopping experience of the Gandy merchants. I think this is about the most important fault of the logic of THEA. They are telling us our consumers are not going to use the overpass when they want to shop with us and our customers are telling us they simply will not be that inconvenienced. Most of them do not stop and ponder the trip home before the auto pilot kicks in, by the time they think of an Empanada for dinner, they have already gone past the exit.
I sincerely believe we are being duped into the theory that we have a say. Sue of THEA was wrongly quoted as saying this goes to City Council and to the mayor, the only thing going through their channels is their “presentation” which they are only too happy to show to anyone who wants to see it. I noticed that in addition to referring to the overpass as beautiful, Marty of THEA kept saying the word probably every time he talked about the likelihood of the connector. He said “we probably” won’t build it if we have a lot of angry retailers. I am hopeful we can get some giants in our corner because we are small potatoes.
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