No soup for you!

I don't know how many small business owners there are that listen to the show or are going to read this blog, but I wanted to share a little thought with everyone that I think is pretty universal. We are living in a time where things are hard. Businesses are struggling and trying to find new ways to bring in new customers and keep their old faithfuls. At least most are.

I wanted to talk about businesses making horrible decisions that adversely effect them in regards to how they treat their customers. And I've had a couple of instances within the past 2 weeks or so that makes me think to myself, "What the heck are you thinking! Nice way to shoot yourself in the foot".

To start off with, yesterday Ryan and I went to lunch at a local deli, where after being told we couldn't sit at the table we wanted to because there were only two of us, the waitress also told Ryan that the sandwich he had requested "wasn't really their best and that you should really get something else." You would think that if they really couldn't make a Cuban sandwich well, they would take it off the menu instead of telling their customers who request one not to order it. What if he was on a strict Cuban sandwich diet? All of this resulted in Ryan telling me as we exited that he would never eat there again.

Another place that I reluctantly frequent is a sub shop here in town where I think that the owner/sandwich maker is the Florida version of the soup Nazi from Seinfeld. I once asked him to put mayonnaise on a turkey sandwich but was then informed that doing so would "ruin the sandwich". Let me start off by saying that at the time, I had had probably about 2537 (ballpark figure)turkey sandwiches in my life, both with and with out mayo so to explain to me that the sandwich, which I'm going to be eating is going to be ruined with a little white sauce is possible the most asinine thing I've ever heard. But it's not out of character for this guy. He has also told someone else we know that he will not toast a sandwich because that is not how they were meant to be made and literally refused to do it.

The thing is that the point of owning a business is to make money and support yourself and employees. Driving customers away because of your pride or your lack of people skills isn't really the best way to make it. And I think the saddest thing about it is that these places are aren't bad. The food really is good. It's just too bad that these places bring the struggle onto themselves.

This has been an installment of "Just Put Mayonnaise On It You Sandwich Making Freak" by Josh

Conan Watch Out!

First off, welcome to the Let's Just Be Friends blog! As if Josh and I don't have enough outlets for our thoughts, right? Well we don't!

As we have discussed in the last few podcasts, it is becoming increasingly difficult to schedule time where both Josh and I can sit down, prepare for an episode, and then record and edit it. As a result, a lot of material that we intend to discuss becomes dated. Although we are not the staple of professionalism, we still think it is poor podcasting to ruminate on aged issues. Therefore, I thought it would be cool to have a blog where we can convey thoughts in between episodes.

That leads me to the topic of the first blog: Conan busting his head on Friday.

On Friday night, I accessed my DVR and got ready to indulge in my pre-sleep ritual of watching "The Tonight Show" while checking email. The description of the show seemed decent; the guests were Teri Hatcher, Seth MacFarlane, and some latino music group. But when I played the episode, the guests were Jeremy Piven, All American Rejects, and some circus people. I instantly cursed my Motorola cable box along with the equally crappy Verizon cable television service (their internet service is awesome though!) because I expected yet another strange screw up where the DVR information was incorrect. But then other people I spoke to on Saturday said they saw the same episode. I wondered what was going on.

Tonight Conan explained the reason. Apparently he slipped during a bit where he was racing Teri Hatcher and suffered a concussion! They ended up taking him to the hospital and the show did not air. However, tonight they showed the footage of Conan slipping. Holy crap! He nailed his head on the hard surface of the stage. My head was in pain just watching it. But Conan, being the trooper he is, sat up and led the show to the commercial. He's hardcore. Jay Leno probably would have cried. Or died.

The moral of the story? Wear a helmet. Always. And watch "The Tonight Show".


- Your Friendly Neighborhood Podcaster, Ryan


***UPDATE***

I posted the video of Conan falling in the "Moving Pictures" section. It's a playlist of videos. Check it out!