Sometimes it's hard to support Black-Owned Businesses.

[ViShawn]

Look if a place is good I will support it. Especially food places.

There are a few black owned businesses here where I live in a majorly Hispanic city. I go to this black owned BBQ place a lot. A minor gripe of mine is that they will forget something in my order more than often. Even today I explicitly asked for my order to be to-go and they gave it to me for dine in. No big deal I just ate there.

There was this Cajun restaurant I used to go to closer to my work. I really liked most of the people there, but it didn't seem they knew how to run it. I was a regular for over a year, knew me by name and I knew these folks hometown, and there would be many times that I would get shytty service.

I'd sit down, a waiter would take a while to get my order before others. Limited staffing. It was as though they forgot I was there.

The biggest deterrent for me to start going there less was the price. I get that you were in a high rent side of town but gawd damn there's no reason to charge $12 for red beans and rice and $6 for a cup of gumbo. I know they are NO transplants that came here and TexMex is the norm, but don't rape me with prices for your food.

I've noticed this high price trend of places when I used to live in Atlanta. You go to certain 'mixed' establishments, $5 cover or no cover. Black establishments you'd pay $10-$20 cover. Why would I pay that much for a run down club when I can go elsewhere?

No offense and I'm all for supporting black entrepreneurs but there are certain instances where I have had major gripes and want to take my hard earned money elsewhere.

 

[I_Got_Da_Burna]

I was just complaining about the BlackTrade app that identifies black businesses in your area. It's one of the jankiest apps I've ever used. There's a whole bunch of categories, subcategories, and super-subcategories, and maybe like 100 businesses altogether use the app. I'm getting returns for stuff in Connecticut and I live in DC.

And on top of it, they pasted some black female on the background of the page. She cute and all, but the font color and icons transparently laid over her face makes it hard to read the icon words. It's annoying as hell.

 

[Unknown Poster]

I'm sorry but as a black businessperson myself I'm highly offemded by this thread and any black person witb a shred of intelligence and dignity should too.

This is not a representation of all black businesses. I n fact due to this stereotype that we don't know how to be professional it makes me go out of my way to be 1000% professional whent handling business. And that includes everything.

Doing a shop made me realize that not just black people have this view but other races too which makes them hesitant to support us.

They either think we're scammers for charging a high price or normal price or low price where as others are not the subject of that high scrutiny.
Or we have terrible customer service skills.
Or we just don't know what we're doing...

It offends me cause are you essentially saying that we jist don't have the mental fortitude or capability to run a successfyl business as a people? That's one thing.

But if you are implying that we are lacking a knowledge or educational background in operating a business...I can somewhat agree with you there.

Simply because...lets face it. As black people there qre probably more of us as employees and few of us as employers/owners. Therefore there really aren't that many among us who can really teach us personally the skills, necessities, and information that's needed to successfully run businesses with autonomy. Someonw has to be in their position to pass down information and so on and so on. You can only gain so much from watching others do the same thing. Intrapersonal communicational skills, customer relations, payroll, tax record keeping and using the proper databases and programs to do these have to be taught.

 

[ViShawn]

Not to offend 1984 and again I do support black businesses with my paycheck when I see fit. There is another food place locally that is black owned. I go there almost every other week for fish and they know me personally (I spend a lot of money on food as you can see ) but some of this scrutiny is warranted if you want to compete with chain businesses or be a contender amongst other businesses, many of which you will be one of the few blacks there, let alone the statistics of failure of businesses in general.

You have a point about the education gap there and there's a lot to learn and not much access for us to help. Maybe state grants for businesses we can access or something like that but I think the education is critical to compete in the market.

I wasn't trying to offend and that has been some experience YET I still do my best to support, but should I support something simply because it is black owned when I'm not getting stellar service? There was an older soul food place here that was on Kitchen Nightmare's, black owned, that was shut down due to health violations. I wish there was more knowledge and mentorship to help in that department.

 

[Responsible Allen Iverson]

I was just complaining about the BlackTrade app that identifies black businesses in your area. It's one of the jankiest apps I've ever used. There's a whole bunch of categories, subcategories, and super-subcategories, and maybe like 100 businesses altogether use the app. I'm getting returns for stuff in Connecticut and I live in DC.

And on top of it, they pasted some black female on the background of the page. She cute and all, but the font color and icons transparently laid over her face makes it hard to read the icon words. It's annoying as hell.

Every Black business locator app or website I have found has usually not been very good. That is a business opportunity for someone to create a GOOD Black business finder.

 

[Moshe.]

Depends on the business people really. When I am in the city, I venture towards Black restaurants with my special orders, and they deliver on those orders even though it isn't what they normally do. Sorry to hear you are having trouble, but if the wait staff is terrible bring that up with a manager about the wait staff needing to have more courtesy as their lack of tact drives business away rather than fosters good relationships.

I will complain to the manager of a Black restaurant if the staff are rude and tactless. There is no need for Black people to treat Black patrons like second class citizens, so I make a note of it. But I've only had 1 bad experience with a Black waiter.

All in all, I don't find it hard to support Black businesses. I find it hard to support white companies due to the fact that this society we live in is racist.

 

[Queen]

We all have our preferences. I find it hard to support white owned businesses that are not backed by major corporate entity. I have had too many bad experiences with rudeness, arrogance, and lack of customer service so I only visit white owned businesses where I can be assured that there is a corporate board I can complain to if any issues arise.

Don't think franchises are immune. One of them had to learn that I will still have corporate on your ass

 

[wheywhey]

You have a point about the education gap there and there's a lot to learn and not much access for us to help. Maybe state grants for businesses we can access or something like that but I think the education is critical to compete in the market.

If you are patronizing a business simply because they are black-owned that is automatically holding them to a lower standard. It doesn't take an MBA to know to attend to customers in the order they arrive and in a timely fashion.

If a business charges more than you want to pay, that is a clue to go elsewhere. They may be charging a high rate to control the clientele and keep undesirables out, not you in particular, just saying.

 

[ViShawn]

If you are patronizing a business simply because they are black-owned that is automatically holding them to a lower standard. It doesn't take an MBA to know to attend to customers in the order they arrive and in a timely fashion.

If a business charges more than you want to pay, that is a clue to go elsewhere. They may be charging a high rate to control the clientele and keep undesirables out, not you in particular, just saying.

Hope you think I was being patronizing in what I said.

 

[wheywhey]

Hope you think I was being patronizing in what I said.

The definition for patronizing that I am using is: "to visit a business establishment as a customer".

 

[Drones]

A lot of black businesses I go to are indeed well managed and run professionally. But yes a lot of them in the hood particularly (NOT ALL) are disorganized and give poor service especially when other blacks come in.

Multiple times I've been to smoke shops, weed spots, convenience stores, beauty supplies, and restaurants owned by black folks who will stare you down when you walk in, not look up from their phones to greet/acknowledge you, and sell an inferior product at a premium price. Everything is a mess, the racks are dirty and disorganized, and the merchandise is all over the place. I've also been in them and watched whites get the red carpet rolled out for them while blacks get stank attitudes and slow service. At Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles which is an otherwise well-run black owned establishment, the dude walked up to the table and said "what chall nikkas want?" Like seriously?

Now...to be perfectly fair I've had similar experience at Arab, Korean, Latino and other non-black stores and would rather patronize the black ones than the racist Arab ones. But I feel what OP is saying and think that those particular black businesses that half ass things should step it up. And we have to get out of the habit of giving up crappy service to blacks, to me that's just self-hate bubbling up to the surface where you think people who look like you don't deserve exemplary service.

A model black business for a professional operation that is well-run and handles their business is Eso Won Books in Los Angeles.

 

[newworldafro]

Im taken a management and an entrepreneur class.....just because if I make this step...I need little bit of theory to understand what starting and managing a business is all about.......I think if small businessowners took a class or two like that it would give them better grounding...

 

[ViShawn]

Drones gets what I'm saying. I'm not going to these establishments because I hold black establishments to a lower standard, I'm just trying to put my money into things I support. Hell there are places that are non-black I go to often because I get great service. I for one love Thai food and know a few Thai people in the area...two of the restaurants know me and I get stellar service frequently.

The BBQ establishment is black ran and there is always great food and overall great service. The minor gripe about them forgetting something is just that, minor, they get busy.

I just have high hopes for a place if I'm going to a black establishment. Not the red carpet but at minimum quality service. I really liked the Cajun place and liked the family. I realize that the woman who ran it was the primary cook and didn't really manage the staffing and service. There was great food but the fact that the service was almost nonexistent at times and the prices, why would I go there? I started to get my food togo every now and them because part of me liked the food but I didn't want to deal with shytty inattentive service

I think they are doing catering now because the rent was so high in the area, but if you go on Yelp you will see people complained about their aloof service. I really don't put that on the cook but rather waiters should know how to fukking provide service.

I have see some black places sell subpar products at premium prices too, but there are blacks that will come into a store and haggle the store owners and there are some people will not support black businesses given the neighborhood they are in or they don't trust other blacks!

 

[↓R↑LYB]

I notice none of y'all ever make these threads when white people give y'all shytty service

I'm guessing you're just a lot more forgiving when it comes to cave devils

 

[ViShawn]

I notice none of y'all ever make these threads when white people give y'all shytty service

I'm guessing you're just a lot more forgiving when it comes to cave devils

I've had bad service when going to white establishments yes but I am speaking about blacks for us to handle our own issues and improve our communities.

We vote with our dollar. Why would I go to any establishment black or write when I can get better service elsewhere ?