Keeping your market small

I brewed another batch of beer on Sunday. This time I decided to do a stout for the winter. I love the process of brewing beer, but the experience of buying the supplies was yet again very, very annoying.

First off, I do not care for the homebrew stores that are closest to me. I do not care for them at all. They are dirty, have terrible customer service, and are difficult to navigate. So, my expectations going into the experience were low. Very low, actually, because I called ahead to find out that they did not have everything I needed. The only store that had everything was over an hour drive away. I decided not to make the drive and set out for the store closest to me prepared for disappointment.

I my expectations were actually exceeded. Here's what I don't get:

• I don't get why they can't just simply sweep the floor. Buying grains means there are grains on the floor. Simply sweeping a few times a day would do wonders. Perhaps this is too much to ask, but I don't think so, since the guy behind the counter was watching videos online at the counter until I interrupted him with a question.
• I don't get why staff can't be (even mildly) helpful. I have been brewing for about 10 years, but I'm still learning. I asked what I thought was a simple question about brewing with fruit (which I've only done once with no success) and got a response so convoluted and filled with brewer's jargon that I was in worse shape than before I asked. When I asked for further clarification, I got a big sigh and referred to a book.
  
• I don't get why product can't get replaced in a timely fashion. The grains sit in big tubs in this particular shop. When the grains are gone, in theory, these get replaced from the sacks of grains in stacks on the floor behind the tubs. Of the 5 types of grains I needed, I found 2 were out. When I asked for these grains, I was told that they'd restock them "soon". Their "soon" must have a different reference point than my "soon" since there was no activity in that particular direction. I found the bag for one, opened it and took what I needed, but couldn't find the other.
  

On top of all that, I went home without everything I needed, because I already knew they were out of one of the hop varieties I needed, and as mentioned I couldn't find all the grain I needed.

And that was all just from one visit.

Ok, so I recognize that this particular shop is probably particularly bad. But having been to 5 different shops around the Detroit area, I can tell you that this is the norm, not the exception. Most people will say something like "Oh, its because homebrewers are such a small market" or "its just not viable as a standalone business in this market."

Sure that may be, but with "service" like this, is there really any question why?