Bill Lyons Campus Shoe Store

     The first thing you saw when you walked into the Bill Lyons Campus Shoe Store on East Ridgewood Avenue was the fish tank. It was strategically placed, I believe, to grab child's attention while their mother had a chance to check the styles and prices of shoes available. This was another of those old time Ridgewood stores where they recognized you when you came in and they would gladly send you a bill at the end of the month for your day's purchases. No credit cards in this establishment that I can recall. There existed a trust between the proprietor and his customers that extended in my case through my high school years when I could walk in without my mother and still be able to charge a pair of shoes no questions asked. This type of service is long gone in most towns like Ridgewood, sacrificed in order to keep costs under control to compete with the big retailers in the mails. Customer service is expensive to maintain and takes a long time to establish. When you are competing with companies which employ people with little training and at low wages the store proprietor whose motto is "Where Fit Is Important" is at an extreme disadvantage. It is one of Life's ironies: we all like low prices and we all like prompt and courteous customer service, but the two do not always go hand in hand. It takes a skilled retailer who can unabashed tell a customer how the price reflects the value being added by their interaction with store employees. If you add in the ability to shop on the Internet you have an even harder time convincing someone that face-to-face customer service isn't a relic from the previous century.