Downtown Notes

• I got takeout from the 99 on Sunday night. I don't know if there was something going on at the DCU or what but the place was packed. Good to see for a Sunday night in downtown Worcester, even if it is a chain.
• I think one of the bigger challenges to the Mom and Pops is to remain as incredibly consistent as the bigger chains are. I went over to D'Errico's on Sunday to grab a gallon of milk. I walked up to the front door at 6:46pm to find the doors locked and people still shopping inside. This would make sense to me if they closed at 6:30pm but that seems like an odd time to close and it also seems odd that they would close at 6pm and still have people in there 45 minutes later. But what do I know. I was really just irritated that I couldn't go in and buy milk. No posted hours by the way. I guess they can open and close whenever they damn please. Doesn't mean I have to continue shopping there though.
• I was going over there for milk because I have stopped buying anything from Honey Farms. This is due to a small inconvenience turned into a larger irritance the other day. See I have lieved downtown since the middle of October of 2007. On my way back home from work it is really easy in the morning to come up Central St and take a left on Commercial and stop at the Ho Farms at the corner of Commercial and Foster for whatever small food items I might need. They have this really delicious frozen coffee type concoction that I'll pickup sometimes when I am in there. This stuff is good but I do not need 44 ounces of it. Problem is that the super large cup is the only size they have with a complete cup and lid set. It's been like this almost every time I have gone in there since mid October. So I point this out to the girl behind the counter and she says to me, "Oh they are on order." I then explain to her that they are out almost all the time. She disagrees with me. This is where I get a little pissed. I mean I've stopped in there a few times a week, every week, since I have been living downtown. I probably try to get a small helping of frozen coffee deliciousness once a week. I think I have been successful maybe about 4 times. I tell her this and she disagrees again. We exchange a few other things and I leave bidding her good luck running a business with that attitude in downtown Worcester. I then call Honey Farms corporate to file a complaint. They give me a voice mail where they play a message that tells me to leave my number and they will call me back. They never do. Adios Ho Farms. I will not be shopping at your stores anymore. It was nice knowing you.
• So my last stop Sunday before I went home was the White Hen at the corner of Main and Franklin to finally get my milk. As I am checking out this kid, looking all of about 16 comes into the store looking absolutely horrified. "How do I get to route 9 from here?" I give him some quick directions, asking him where he is tryin to get back to. "Westborough, I am lost and I lost my cell phone.", he says in a quivering voice. I always forget how sheltered some folks are in New England. I wonder how he would have been doing if he got lost over by Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

So there are some downtown notes from Sunday night. Wow do I sound like a cranky old man. Why shouldn't I expect good customer service and a store to post their hours and stick by them? Why should I not write about an establishment in these pages if I have a bad experience there?

I do have good experiences too like the one I had at KJ Baaron's on Monday night. I will post about that later on in the week.