Loyalty program

In my market, there are six women who all sell the same kind of leafy green. There are at least a dozen who sell tomatoes. The number who sell onions? Even more.

So, what makes me buy tomatoes or greens or onions or garlic from one woman and not another?

Customer loyalty.

I lecture my postmate about it all the time during our trips to the market. He prefers to buy the gumbos that look the best. I prefer to buy gumbo from the same lady that I’ve always bought gumbo from, sometimes to the detriment of their quality.

But I’ve found that the some weeks I buy bad-looking gumbo has translated into other weeks getting more good-looking gumbo than I would somewhere else for the same amount of money.

How I initially picked who would be my onion lady and my garlic lady and my tomato lady was somewhat random: their offerings looked good that first week, she was the first person to make eye contact with me, she sits next to someone else that knew my name. But now they know me. They know that I can speak the local language if I want to, but sometimes don’t. They know my postmate is not my husband, but sometimes I ask him to negotiate the price for me anyway. And above all, they know never to call me “foreigner.”

That’s just good business sense.