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Working with the public can be a pain. Especially nowadays. I helped run my Dad's bicycle shop for nearly 30 years and it seemed like every year the public got more and more demanding and rude. My dad continued after the shop closed with a little retirement business selling small toys and novelties out of a nice trailer at local festivals. Kids would routinely walk around and try to steal a small toy and when Dad or Mom would catch them, their parent would finally notice their kid and swoop in and yell at my parents, dragging the kid away and cussing my parents.



Now that we have the internet and a way for the nastiest among us to libel others anonymously, complete jerks can treat retailers and their employees like dirt and then make up nonsense and post it for all to see. I've actually had a few people try to extort me by threatening to write a nasty review. To this point I have resisted the temptation to rearrange their facial features. I do fire a customer about once a year and suggest they take their business down the road. I usually suggest a particular competitor who has not endeared themselves to me.

We all like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists. But when push comes to shove most of us are sheep who do what we are told. Worst of all, a lot of us become unpaid agents of whoever is controlling the agenda by enforcing the current dogma on the few rugged individualists who actually exist.