Another Thank You To My Readers; I’m So Blessed!

I want to thank all of you who regularly come by my website and all the new people who shopped my Black Friday sales.  You truly are a blessing to this small family especially at a time when our strapped-for-money-church decided to get rid of such a large percentage of its employees, yours truly included.

God has once again turned a negative into a positive.  I now have time to be home and take care of my family.  I have the time to blog for all of you readers from all over the world, and that is really exciting to see all the different countries who read me and people who comment and e-mail me too.   And very importantly I still get to directly work for God in a small way because my Infinity Goods store mostly specializes in products for God-loving families or as our slogan says, A Marketplace for God’s People.

You, my dear readers have rewarded me with a fast-growing blog, repeatedly one of the fastest growing on WordPress and with an Amazon Affiliate website which can help make a difference  for a family who is used to directly serving God and serving the families in our parish.  As I liked to say when people would ask me why I would be willing to work for a church, it’s because I am addicted to working directly for God.  There aren’t too many opportunities to work DIRECTLY for God, especially for a wife and mother.

So I am finding myself thanking you once again.  It is thanks to your support in reading my blog and purchasing from my website, that I am able to continue this addiction I have to spreading the word about God, spreading His love, and helping His people.

PRAISE BE TO GOD FOR BLESSING ME WITH ALL OF YOU!

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Starbucks Throws Children and Parents Into the Street

Starbucks strikes again. I keep hearing in the community, in the news, and on the Internet that Starbucks does not like children, and at least based on the experience we had a few days ago, I can say it’s absolutely true.

Our son’s teacher had prearranged with the local Starbucks manager in Oak Park, Calif., to have a small group of 6-10 homeschoolers accompanied by parents to journal for one hour. The thought was to have comfortable seating, pleasant music and, since the weather is getting chilly, perhaps even a cup of hot cocoa all while the children and parents wrote in their journals.

It seemed it would be a better experience than sitting in a school district classroom, which seems particularly uninviting to all of us who are so used to the pleasures and comfort of homeschooling.

We would have gained a clean, well-lighted place to write, and in exchange Starbucks would have gained some free community outreach in an affluent area which is extremely family oriented, all the while gaining some extra business at a time of day the manager had claimed was always slow.

Well, that was not to be.

Despite the prearrangement and the fact that several parents were already purchasing drinks and snacks, the manager asked the teacher to leave even before several of us had the chance to arrive, claiming there were too many patrons there that morning despite the seats still available both inside and on the patio.

Now, I ask you, since almost every single one of us had made a purchase, were we not patrons?

Mind you, we were not a group of screaming preschoolers or scary teen gang members. The three children who had already arrived were polite and quiet elementary school children who were accompanied by both a school district teacher, and one parent each.

Starbucks did not refuse to serve us. No, they gladly took our money. Starbucks refused to allow paying customers to sit down and sent children out into the cold!

When the teacher went to Starbucks to prearrange this, the manager had the choice to simply say no, or that she didn’t feel comfortable doing that, or that it was sometimes a busy time of day so it might not be comfortable for us, or any polite customer service excuse she wanted to give. But instead, she chose to tell the teacher yes, that it was a slow time of day and that it was “fine,” only to rudely go back on her word.

That’s not how to win repeat business or create community goodwill, Starbucks. That’s not only the perfect recipe for losing business today, but also for losing business tomorrow when those children become adults.

As you can see by this blog post, it’s also the perfect way to earn bad press for all the World Wide Web to read.

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• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.