I'm not really sure whether it falls into my journalistic professionalism to give public accolades in my editorial but to heck with the rules, I'm going to anyways.
Dave Doepker is the manager of the Sobeys here in Humboldt and a couple of weeks ago, he really impressed me.
We've been regular Sobeys shoppers for a long time, keeping loyalty to our East coast roots (the Sobeys grocery chain originates from Nova Scotia). It's not that I don't love Extra Foods or the Co-op, because there's definitely things I can find there that I can't anywhere else and we shop there too, but when our cupboards are looking bare and all that's left in our fridge is a bottle of ketchup and cheese slices, we always seem to end up at Sobeys.
Old habits die hard, I suppose.
Anyways, moving on.
I was scuttling around the Sobeys store like a crazed lunatic looking for dried cranberries without added sugar. I have absolutely no clue if these even exist but I figured they'd go well with a wrap I was making to help me shed my oops-I-ate-too-many-appetizers-at-Christmas-time-weight.
Dave must have taken pity on my aimless wandering, because he spotted me and came walking over with a big grin on his face.
After exchanging some pleasantries, he asked me if he could help me find something, and I could tell he meant it.
Sometimes you get those people who offer to help you out with something but then are surprised and clearly disappointed when you actually agree to it.
Dave wasn't like that.
"I'm looking for dried cranberries without added sugar," I told him sheepishly, embarrassed at how froo-froo crunchy granola I sounded.
"Uh, it's for a healthy wrap I'm making...to shed holiday weight."
That's better, I thought.
"Ok, let's look over here," Dave said nicely and he brought me over to the bulk bins where, sadly, we discovered the cranberries did indeed have added oil, which normally I couldn't care less about but in this case, I wasn't pulling any shortcuts in my bid to lose my mozza sticks love handles.
So after perusing around once more, Dave concluded that, unless I wanted to try Craisins, he didn't think his store had what I was looking for.
But here's the mind-blowing part (to me at least):
He actually recommended another store in Humboldt to me.
Have you ever seen the movie Miracle on 34th Street where the department store Santa (who's actually the real Santa Claus) recommends to the parents that they check out rival store, Gimbles, for toys they can't seem to find at Macy's?
In the movie, the Macy's head-honchos are furious at first over their St. Nick pushing customers to their competitor store, feeling it'll make Macy's look like they can't please their clientele.
But in fact, the plan works. The parents end up appreciating Macy's' honesty, perceiving that they care more about fulfilling their customers' wish list, at whatever price, then forcing them to settle for a toy sold at Macy's that their kid didn't want.
In the end, Macy's looks great and their customer base grows.
That's kind of what I feel about Dave at Sobeys, although I don't think this was a calculated marketing strategy on his end. He really was just being his usual nice self and trying to help a customer out.
And this is one thing I've noticed about Humboldt. Sure, there's some things about the city that get on my nerves, just like any other city would, but one thing that is consistent is that the stores and businesses have that personal connection, where you feel like you really know the owner (well, probably because you do) but that they're not looking at you with dollar signs the second you enter their store. Really, they just want to play catch-up and see how you're doing; it's nice to have grocery stores in town reminiscent of 1950s ma and pop shops.
And in an ironic twist of fate, I did end up finding what I wanted at the Extra Foods store and even the Co-op had it too: Craisins with half the sugar. And that wrap I made tasted damn good with them.
CM
