[Delphinus]

I'll throw my $.02 in, that probably wasn't directed at me, but since I know I've whined about missing Big Als, I'll chime in anyhow. I never really "condemned" Big Als myself, I bought there regularly, knew the guys and got along well with them. They weren't perfect but no LFS is (I've seen the "good" LFS's on bad days and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty, if I based my opinions on what I saw on those days alone, I would never shop at the ones that everyone is so gaga over how good they are. The bottom line is, LFS's are run by people, people are not infallible and everyone has good days and everyone has bad days).

There were a few things that I was unhappy about, but I always communicated my issues with them. Sometimes we had to agree to disagree, most of the time though, I was a happy regular.

I, for one, have been whining about the lack of representation down south for a long time. So regardless of who's behind the endeavour, I'm happy there's a store opening that I can consider closer by.

The way I look at it, as a hobby addict, a store has to "try" to get me to stop buying there. Whether it's travel time, livestock conditions, pricing, customer service, etc. etc. (or some combination thereof), the "default" position is that I'll go check it out, and let's face it, a happy customer is a repeat customer so if all goes well I'll be a regular.