It's all about who you know

Hello again from Toronto,

I noticed another interesting side effect of the ubiquitous small vendors here in Toronto today...

So we ordered some lunch for the office today, but had run out of plates, which gave me the opportunity to experience another minor cultural difference in Toronto versus most of America due to the small vendors that exists everywhere here.  At the bottom of our office building is a small shop that serves coffee, pastries, and some lunch specials.  I have already noticed, a lot of resteraunts and cafes sell many convenince store type items, but today I tried to buy some paper plates from the vendor.  In America, I can imagine going to a lunch spot and asking for some raw materials and having the employee tell me they simply can't sell them to me.  Here though, I was talking to the owner of the store and was able to work out a reasonable price for some plates to get us through lunch.  But it made me realize, having so many small vendors run by their owners, there is an interesting dynamic which has been lost in America.  Here, like in Taiwan and many of the Asian countries, you get to make deals and get to know the owners of the shops.  I've already been given some free things here and there from getting to know the vendors around me, and like today have been able to make some odd requests that I would never even think about making in the United States.

In a time when things are becoming more impersonal with things such as automated toll roads, automated parking, vending machines, and internet purchases, I find this level of interaction with owners extremely refreshing.  There's also almost a whole other sense of currency you can use when you have personal relationships with the vendors.  The owners are continually trying to get to know you and to make sure you're happy to keep you as a regular (reminds me of the Cheers intro....where everyone knows your name).

Anyways, I will be testing this with other merchants here in Toronto and report what I find.  But so far, thumbs up to the local merchants.