I love my job. I work for a local player in a corporate-dominated industry, and we regularly beat The Big Guys at their own game. Our customers love us for the attention and gratitude we show them in exchange for their trade, and it’s awesome knowing I help keep money in the Portland economy by doing better business than Big Business. Most local businesspeople I call on love the chance to keep their expenditures circulating in our economy — many didn’t even know there was an option - but you? There you stand in the anteroom of a celebrated local startup, wearing a de rigeur “Keep Portland Weird” uniform of piercings, ink, gauged ears, and bottle-black hair, to tell me, “No, we are sticking with (absurdly gigantic corporate entity) as a supplier, and we are not interested at all in changing. Please leave.” Wait — WHAT? Didn’t I read, in that fawning writeup in that other free paper, how proud you are of your local/underdog status in your industry? Now, I’m not fazed when I get that sort of flat rejection from a starched shirt in a corporate environment, but you? HERE? Damn, woman, if you won’t even take five minutes to hear what I’ve got to say, then why the hell should I buy (product redacted) from you instead of Walmart? If you’re gonna be that way, then at least have some integrity and take that fuckin’ Black Flag shirt off.