"trying to stop a rumour is like trying to unring a bell" ---Somebody
"I cannot know the owner's heart and mind, I can only speculate. . . " And so it goes.
This blogging has been brought to my attention by a dear friend and previous workmate at Breadworks. She was mildly amused at first, a little sad and then outright astonished and concerned wanting me to do something. She turned to me, no doubt, because having been the original manager of the Douglas Loop BW ( and previous other stores as well... it is decidely NOT a franchise ) I might provide a more rational offering to the discussion, or at least an informed perspective. And that is ALL I have to offer and I would never claim to own this experience for anyone else.
The image that comes to mind is the game of Telephone wherein a secret thing is whispered and passed ear to ear, with the intended delight in misunderstanding shared by all. It probably happens more in our daily conversations than we ever realise as we can only assume we are being understood and go about our day as if. I won't be so bold to say that people only hear what they want to hear. In fact, I think people may more often hear what they DON'T want to hear, such are our fears and the hold they have on us. How many may actually savor such personal slight and felt injustice?
It's just TOO D*** EASY to be misunderstood, and to misunderstand.
Fer instance: I could take the following sentence a number of ways: " Maybe soon they will be taking the tables and chairs out altogether " . ( as the very last line in the first entry that started this thread). In the context of the previous paragraph speculating on the ultimate demise of Breadworks as "another empty storefront" I am inclined to suspect that this is some secret deliscious wish of a bloggerhead from her bully pulpit and with a simple wave of an internet wand: "poof" & gone ( How many people in just this short thread have admitteded to having never been there, but on the basis of what has been written here have decided to NEVER GO ??? How many others who have been long loyal customers are have been forced to re-think the nature of their relationship with the business due to mere speculation ?? I find that absolutely frightening).
But I would be wrong. ( let me state specifically: I do NOT believe that to be the blogger's intention, and from later posts can only glean that she would genuinely like to see breadworks thrive ... although I cannot say the same for some of the other posters. Though again, mere speculation on my part.)
Similiarly, how to take the verified quote: "want a new group of customers" as a direct quote from the owner? Though I am not sure that this can be taken as a "direct quote" as there seems to be more than enough paraphrasing and She Said, He Said going on I am likewise not even sure that it matters. What business person WOULDN"T want a new group of customers ?? This should not be taken to mean that it is the wish of management to get rid of the older clientele, but rather to make room and changes that may be more welcoming for the new. But from this blog, but for a few posters who are waiting to hear another side, has come a serious rush to judgement and condemnation without ever acknowledging that this is getting vetted through a single filter. The effect has been a virtual "piling on" of negative reinforcements. ( with the exception of Judith who I can only applaud for such difficult poise and restraint ).
Here is another perspective, and admitted speculation: Hanna has been charged with uneviable task of initiating changes to the Douglass Loop store in light of slumping sales. Changes that have been postponed or avoided for years for fear of upsetting the applecart (myself as both witness and managerial coward during the first five). NO-Body wanted things to change there. Least of all me! I can barely bring myself back in for fret of seeing something different than as I remember it. Better to preserve such good times in my memory ( and the metal bread box given to me on opening day by Hanna to be placed on the shelf above the door that served/serves as my timecapsule of all the postcards sent, pictures taken, and articles clipped from the NYTimes [such treacherous times] and saved for some future date. It was still up there when I last stopped in though I didn't take a peek inside.). There is no small calculus in making the decision to initiate changes to a place so deliberately rooted in history. The shop needed a new infusion( and a new paint job having had the same colors since 1995?! ) If she had asked me what I wanted I am sure I would have balked at any changes. (Thankfully she DIDN't Ask me.) I would suspect the same from many other customers and I think it telling that some of these seemingly innocuous changes of decor have still been met with lament. Is this what we're missing? What is being taken from us. Such pain can be acutely felt, not the least by Hanna herself who faced with the decision to change or stay the same, knows that in a simple business sense she runs the risk of alienating the very people who have proven loyal for so many years. To not make the changes however runs the equal risk of relegation to the dustbin of history ( and "another empty storefront" ...and there aren't alot of people starting new retail businesses in this economy.) So what has apparently come off as crass commercialism and bad business decision-making was likely an anguished, yet steely-minded survivalist pragmatism: " This sucks. I have to make these changes. It's going to piss-off the entire existing clientele who balk at the changes (as evidenced here whether the loss of blinds, free refills, chessboard, butter or any other mundane artifacts that have nevertheless been charged with a sense of history of how things were.) but it's do or die." And so the decision is made and, when inquired about, a seemingly simple statement about "want[ing] a new group of customers" is taken to mean wanting to get rid of the old when, in fact, all it likely means is that she was aware ( though not insensitve for having anticipated the reaction) that such changes would likely drive off the older established customers. (As indeed these changes have). What to do but bite your lip, take your licks, and hope that nobody gets hurt or left behind.
I would like to comment further but I have to have breakfast --- this is NOT what I wished to wake up to ( rather a good cup of 100% organic fair trade coffee, and a GOOD bagel). This seems like an important issue as it has generated such a buzz, furthermore potentially derailing a long established LOCAL business venue.
Many of us who have responded to the happenings at Breadworks were there and to some of us these things were said directly. We also could hear and did what was being said behind the counter. We could have given names and direct quotes but chose to keep our comments more general to protect each other and keep things on a a more level plane. No one mentioned the overheard comment that if anyone stayed more than one and a half hours that they would call the police.??? Or when someone asked about the back door being locked being told that she did not want the customers who came through the back door. No one mentioned the reception that someone got when he called Hannah in an attempt to understand.
At first the locked back door wasn't a big thing but then we began to think about how many handicapped people whom we had seen come through that back door. One who was a regular was a woman in a wheel chair who works there on the loop, I think. Through the years many people we know have had operations and various broken bones and still came in to buy coffee and bread and chat.
Many of us remember Myron when he was manager of BW. What was his message in that rambling diatribe? Was he spreading gossip with his reference to a former co-worker asking him to do something. It's not hard to figure out who that friend co-worker was.
"trying to stop a rumour is like trying to unring a bell"
ReplyDelete---Somebody
"I cannot know the owner's heart and mind, I can only speculate. . . " And so it goes.
This blogging has been brought to my attention by a dear friend and previous workmate at Breadworks. She was mildly amused at first, a little sad and then outright astonished and concerned wanting me to do something. She turned to me, no doubt, because having been the original manager of the Douglas Loop BW ( and previous other stores as well... it is decidely NOT a franchise ) I might provide a more rational offering to the discussion, or at least an informed perspective. And that is ALL I have to offer and I would never claim to own this experience for anyone else.
The image that comes to mind is the game of Telephone wherein a secret thing is whispered and passed ear to ear, with the intended delight in misunderstanding shared by all. It probably happens more in our daily conversations than we ever realise as we can only assume we are being understood and go about our day as if. I won't be so bold to say that people only hear what they want to hear. In fact, I think people may more often hear what they DON'T want to hear, such are our fears and the hold they have on us. How many may actually savor such personal slight and felt injustice?
It's just TOO D*** EASY to be misunderstood, and to misunderstand.
Fer instance:
I could take the following sentence a number of ways:
" Maybe soon they will be taking the tables and chairs out altogether " . ( as the very last line in the first entry that started this thread). In the context of the previous paragraph speculating on the ultimate demise of Breadworks as "another empty storefront" I am inclined to suspect that this is some secret deliscious wish of a bloggerhead from her bully pulpit and with a simple wave of an internet wand: "poof" & gone ( How many people in just this short thread have admitteded to having never been there, but on the basis of what has been written here have decided to NEVER GO ??? How many others who have been long loyal customers are have been forced to re-think the nature of their relationship with the business due to mere speculation ?? I find that absolutely frightening).
But I would be wrong. ( let me state specifically: I do NOT believe that to be the blogger's intention, and from later posts can only glean that she would genuinely like to see breadworks thrive ... although I cannot say the same for some of the other posters. Though again, mere speculation on my part.)
Similiarly, how to take the verified quote:
"want a new group of customers" as a direct quote from the owner?
Though I am not sure that this can be taken as a "direct quote" as there seems to be more than enough paraphrasing and She Said, He Said going on I am likewise not even sure that it matters. What business person WOULDN"T want a new group of customers ?? This should not be taken to mean that it is the wish of management to get rid of the older clientele, but rather to make room and changes that may be more welcoming for the new. But from this blog, but for a few posters who are waiting to hear another side, has come a serious rush to judgement and condemnation without ever acknowledging that this is getting vetted through a single filter. The effect has been a virtual "piling on" of negative reinforcements. ( with the exception of Judith who I can only applaud for such difficult poise and restraint ).
Here is another perspective, and admitted speculation: Hanna has been charged with uneviable task of initiating changes to the Douglass Loop store in light of slumping sales. Changes that have been postponed or avoided for years for fear of upsetting the applecart (myself as both witness and managerial coward during the first five). NO-Body wanted things to change there. Least of all me! I can barely bring myself back in for fret of seeing something different than as I remember it. Better to preserve such good times in my memory ( and the metal bread box given to me on opening day by Hanna to be placed on the shelf above the door that served/serves as my timecapsule of all the postcards sent, pictures taken, and articles clipped from the NYTimes [such treacherous times] and saved for some future date. It was still up there when I last stopped in though I didn't take a peek inside.). There is no small calculus in making the decision to initiate changes to a place so deliberately rooted in history. The shop needed a new infusion( and a new paint job having had the same colors since 1995?! ) If she had asked me what I wanted I am sure I would have balked at any changes. (Thankfully she DIDN't Ask me.) I would suspect the same from many other customers and I think it telling that some of these seemingly innocuous changes of decor have still been met with lament. Is this what we're missing? What is being taken from us. Such pain can be acutely felt, not the least by Hanna herself who faced with the decision to change or stay the same, knows that in a simple business sense she runs the risk of alienating the very people who have proven loyal for so many years. To not make the changes however runs the equal risk of relegation to the dustbin of history ( and "another empty storefront" ...and there aren't alot of people starting new retail businesses in this economy.) So what has apparently come off as crass commercialism and bad business decision-making was likely an anguished, yet steely-minded survivalist pragmatism: " This sucks. I have to make these changes. It's going to piss-off the entire existing clientele who balk at the changes (as evidenced here whether the loss of blinds, free refills, chessboard, butter or any other mundane artifacts that have nevertheless been charged with a sense of history of how things were.) but it's do or die." And so the decision is made and, when inquired about, a seemingly simple statement about "want[ing] a new group of customers" is taken to mean wanting to get rid of the old when, in fact, all it likely means is that she was aware ( though not insensitve for having anticipated the reaction) that such changes would likely drive off the older established customers. (As indeed these changes have). What to do but bite your lip, take your licks, and hope that nobody gets hurt or left behind.
I would like to comment further but I have to have breakfast --- this is NOT what I wished to wake up to ( rather a good cup of 100% organic fair trade coffee, and a GOOD bagel). This seems like an important issue as it has generated such a buzz, furthermore potentially derailing a long established LOCAL business venue.
myron
Many of us who have responded to the happenings at Breadworks were there and to some of us these things were said directly. We also could hear and did what was being said behind the counter. We could have given names and direct quotes but chose to keep our comments more general to protect each other and keep things on a a more level plane. No one mentioned the overheard comment that if anyone stayed more than one and a half hours that they would call the police.??? Or when someone asked about the back door being locked being told that she did not want the customers who came through the back door. No one mentioned the reception that someone got when he called Hannah in an attempt to understand.
ReplyDeleteAt first the locked back door wasn't a big thing but
then we began to think about how many handicapped people whom we had seen come through that back door.
One who was a regular was a woman in a wheel chair who
works there on the loop, I think. Through the years
many people we know have had operations and various broken bones and still came in to buy coffee and bread
and chat.
Many of us remember Myron when he was manager of BW.
What was his message in that rambling diatribe? Was
he spreading gossip with his reference to a former
co-worker asking him to do something. It's not hard to figure out who that friend co-worker was.