My delivery guys that I use locally are THE BEST. Jim and Tom (and occasionally Tom's son - Shep) have been doing deliveries for me now for I guess six or seven years. They actually enjoy it, because they both have regular and stressful Mon-Fri jobs and Saturdays give them "guy time" in the truck to talk sports, how their work week went, etc. Deliveries are 90% driving, 10% work and I never put hurry-up pressure on them, so they make a little extra cash and enjoy meeting customers of the store.

One of our customers wrote this to me this week, they have been in the store at least a dozen times and are getting their big Hancock and Moore set today. She wrote me mid-week and I had to smile when I read this:

"When Jim and Shep were so kind to assist with the moving of furniture from one house to the other, I had offered to take them to dinner at a really great local restaurant for what I believe will be one of the best crab cakes they would ever have. Jim said he did not have time that night and he wanted to wait for when Tommy could be there (sorry for Shep). So I was going to ask if it was possible for us to be the last stop of the day so that I could follow through on my offer to them (even if it is lunch time). Please understand that I don't want to do anything that would create a problem for you or hold up your day; I just wanted to express my appreciation to your team. If it doesn't work out we can always invite them down another time (and you too if you have the time)."

So I asked them "You guys want to go get Crabcakes on Saturday after you get that furniture in the house?" HECK YES THEY DID! And as I type this, they are doing that right now on Saturday Afternoon. And they will talk about this for weeks on end, because this is the best kind of tip you can get. And I'm a little envious, I can't get away from the store to get some of those Maryland crabcakes!

For all of you customers that take care of my guys, from a simple bottle of water to however much you feel like doing. THANK YOU. It's appreciated more than you will ever know.