" A Silver Reflection "

The other day, I was writing an entry into this blog, and I mentioned that this year,
2010, was Box Brothers 25th Anniversary, since we opened our first location in Woodland
Hills, in 1985.

I know that there are several ways to reflect on time passed, but while I recall birthdays
and anniversaries of my parents, 25 years is both a long time and a short time—it just depends
upon what you are measuring:

How many places have I lived in those 25 years;
How many cars have I had in those 25 years;
How many friends have I made and lost in those 25 years;
How much was gas, or a pack of cigarettes, or a pair of shoes?

The point is that I was thinking about 25 years, and to be honest, I was not in a mood
to celebrate, and this has bothered me. I mean, for a business to survive that long,
we must have done something right, and I do not think that being around for 25 years
was some kind of lucky event, either.

So much has happened as I have seen our relationships change with our biggest freight providers
as both UPS and FEEX are clearly done with masquerading as something other than monopolisitic
companies who only give lip service to customer service. Likewise, dealing with the bank has become
something monopolistic, as well. I cannot even get a return call from my banker from 2 months ago.


The economy and the nature of our politics right now, indicates to me that large firms can do what they please,
pretty much. I think they have forgotten that it is customers that bring them to work—and that the reason that
they go to work is due to the fact that their companies have customers. I cannot figure out how they can treat
us the way they do, and it does not matter to them.

Competition, it seems, on their level is gone. The feeling about banks is that, where are you going to go,
they are all the same. It is even hard to even tell the stories about their practices, as nothing they do is
surprising to me, anymore.

I say this because it is precisely the service we provide on a customer to customer basis, that has to be the reason
why we have been around for this 25 year anniversary. Not one of my vendors really cares, and maybe they should not,
but if we treated our customers the same way we are treated by these large firms, I would not be sitting here blogging
on this blog today.

I know that some may feel that business is business, but I have the experience and wisdom to have seen many things
in my years “in business.” I am proud that we do take care of our customers and I truly hope that we can offer more
of our services to more of the public, as then we can then be speaking about our 50 year anniversary.-