― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

Thank you for reading the weblog, and thanks for your comments. I appreciate every time someone reacts to something in this space. It is very motivating, just so you know.

Before we get too far: has anyone had cranberry sauce since Thanksgiving? See, I told you.

Last week’s Weblog, Some Things Are Hard to Forget, definitely got some reactions, so I wanted to follow up a bit.  Several readers indicated that it was their favorite weblog and more than one mentioned the word 'tears' in their responses.

I was there and it definitely was an emotional experience. Between the anxiety of traveling in this time period, heading to a strange city, and not being sure of what exactly was going to happen, a mixture of fear, excitement, anticipation and more was hovering over the entire trip.

But the faith in the type of people that success depended on, artists Martin & Kelly and Deana Carter, made the trip almost seem like a guarantee. In my mind, I knew if I could safely get to the Sumter Opera House on time, the rest would take care of itself. I guess that's another way of saying, when you rely on good people, good things happen.

In the event that Deana or Jilly or Ryan is reading this, thanks again. I know being important in the life of a child is not your main business, but it is mine, and I am grateful for your contribution to my son's happiness.

As many of you know, I would be lost without clichés. Some that I use on a regular basis are well known to all, but others I have made up along the way. Sometimes I brag that I am a cliché machine.

I can find a cliché for almost every situation I face. Clichés and analogies are my friends because they enable me, and you, to get a message across by creating a common image or agreement about a subject or a topic. The last time I checked, agreement was in short supply in our country, so I am doing my part to help everyone come together by using clichés. I’ll address analogies another time. 

Clichés make a point best if they are simple, short and accurate. Here are two that I’ve been using a lot lately but I take no pride of authorship, only pride in how much they've helped me over the years.

Cliché #1: “It’s hard to hide a good restaurant.” With a few decades in the restaurant industry, cliché #1 was born there, but has a much broader application. It is an expression I use on a regular basis in a variety of circumstances because it sets the stage for a lot of analogies.

Note that it is also hard to hide a good car dealer, a good grocery store, a good contractor, a good coffee shop, a good shoe store, a good hair stylist, a good gym, a good non-profit, a good golf club, a good consultant, a good fraternity or sorority, a good…well you get the picture. If an organization does a good job, customers will find it, whether it is on main street or in the back of an industrial park.

In fact, this week I walked into a packed new business, Seven Saws Brewery, in the back of an industrial park in my town. The brewery founders did an outstanding job of hiding it: no signs, a half-mile off, and not visible from, main street, and not really advertised or promoted.

The 250-300 customers who were there the night we found it, found it too. The place had no kitchen, only a food truck outside, a beer-only liquor license, no real décor except for big windows looking at the tanks, but that wasn’t enough to keep it from the public.

Two days before, again in my town, we visited a brand-new restaurant which shall remain nameless for legal reasons. It was a converted Friendly’s that seemed to take years to remodel. Right on Main Street, across from the US Post Office, on perhaps the most visible corner in the entire town. 

If the brewery had a traffic count by its front door in the dozens, this place had a traffic count on Main Street in the tens of thousands.

After one visit, we won’t go back and I won’t share the details, but we were very disappointed in almost everything about the place.

Two new businesses, about a mile apart. One, totally hidden, another with the greatest visibility and the anticipation that goes with months and months of visible construction. 

It’s not about the location, it's about what’s inside. Hmm. That reminds me of another cliché for another time.

The point of the cliché that ‘it is hard to hide a good restaurant’ is that customers are smart about how they spend their money.

They are not always right, but they are always fair, and if you offer good products and provide good service, they’ll find you, no matter how hard you make it and no matter what your business.

On the other hand, if you don’t offer both good products and good service and an appropriate atmosphere and attitude, they will only find you once, because they aren’t searching for mediocre places to spend their money. They’ll ignore you.

That leads to Cliché #2: Organizations ‘get the employees they deserve.’ 

The pandemic has hit many businesses very hard, and thousands of restaurants and other organizations are out of business.

Obviously, the reasons are many and complicated, and I don’t mean to simplify or demean anyone who has experienced such a fate, but one of the most common reasons for business failure is related to the quality of people working and managing the business.  

Think about it for a minute: would the Milwaukee Bucks, Tampa Bay Lightning or Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Braves or New England Patriots or any other team with championship parades recently succeed without good players and good coaches and good ownership?

Name a team that won a championship without good players and good coaching or good management or good ownership.

It is unlikely that poor players and poor coaching and poor ownership produce success in any enterprise. It is also unlikely, although it happens, that good players or good people, go to work and stay for poorly managed teams or organizations.

That’s why teams like the Detroit Lions of the NFL (currently winless) or the Baltimore Orioles (perennially in last place) are never in the playoffs.

You get the employees you deserve is a great metaphor and particularly appropriate during the ‘Great Resignation’ when foodservice operators are struggling to find enough help. 

It is hard to hide a good restaurant from consumers, but it is also hard to hide a good restaurant from potential staff members. Good people apply for jobs at almost every business and almost every business hires good people. But not all businesses keep good people. 

Good people can be (and should be) fussy about how they are treated and the environment in a business. I learned a long time ago that the number one question I’ve always had for my employer and I assumed my employees had about me was simply “do you care about me?” Period. End of Story. (To sneakily insert still another cliché).

Although the word ‘toxic’ is overused today, it is still an appropriate label for some businesses and good employees don’t tolerate toxic because they don’t have to. And ‘caring about me’ has more to do with actions than words, but both are important.

There are three Dunkin Donuts within a few miles of my house. (Remember, I live in Massachusetts).

Guess what the first two claim is the problem? Yep, they can’t get enough help.

Guess which one I frequent the most? Correct, the one that is actually in another town. They tried to hide it, but I found it. (Note: there are 1,107 Dunkn's in the state).

It's hard to hide a good restaurant and organizations get the employees they deserve are solid clichés and really illustrate two sides of the management coin: operating excellence and people skills.

In my experience, if you have both of those, you'll be easy to find, for both customers and employees. And you'll deserve a medal. Sorry for ending with a cliché, I couldn't help it.

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