Although some business owners have a genuine heart, and feel like they can help or want to help, most do not. They only see money. We are all just walking dollar signs. It's never really been much of an issue. But now that most everything is Corporate or Government owned, it's become a big issue. Particularly with customer service. Where the customer use to be the important factor, no longer flies because the customer base is so huge, 1 or 2 customers no longer make a difference. Companies are not afraid to take your money then argue and refuse if you want a refund due to either the item being wrong in some way or broken, or if it was even shipped on time. Be very wary especially of free trials. You give a credit card for a free trial, they can and will charge you the full price once the trial ends. The reason? The product you are trying won't be shipped right away, and will finally make it's way to your mailbox on the last day of your trial. Which it's already too late to cancel if they require the product back, and when you email them it somehow ends up lost in the bulk, or when you try to call they are mysteriously never available. Ask Momentum Direct out of Magnolia, TX about this business practice.



The competition for business seems to be played on 2 levels. Where larger companies compete on the pricing, but sacrifice the end users satisfaction. While smaller business cannot compete on the pricing level, so they stick to the customer service and satisfaction end of the spectrum. Sure they make smaller profit as a whole, but they have a happier customer base.

Take a place called rapturemall.com for instance. A small family owned online store with a large product base, and not afraid to pass the savings in the form of coupons. When I talked to the owners of the site, they were happy to divulge me, saying "sure we do need to make some kind of profit, we need to eat, but the customers are what makes the store tick and we put their needs above all. If we wanted we could charge more for a better profit, but we want to try to save them money too, so even though the prices are at full retail there's a coupon code on the main page they can use to save up to 20% on every purchase."

They are just 1 of many small businesses trying to make it through the gauntlet of the American economy. And with a slogan like "Save money, save gas, shop online" they're bound to open a few eyes to the many reasons any shopper should weigh the differences between giving their money to large business or shopping with a smaller friendly company.