I work at a company that is invested in supporting downtown local businesses.

One of our perks is that we buy espresso from a local roaster (to remain unnamed) and have been doing so for about two years. The relationship with the local roaster made sense.. and until about 3 months ago, we were perfectly happy with the coffee we bought.

It came to office consensus that we were tired of the roast we had been buying.. and the Baristas at the shop were more than happy to help us try out mixing a new blend. Overall the money we spent locally and the experience with the baristas had always been a pleasant one.

For the last two months however, I think the baristas had a small curse placed on them. It has been impossible for orders filled timely, we were getting charged improperly almost every time.

We make the trip to buy multiple pounds of coffee at least once a week, depending on how much gets consumed, so at least four times monthly .. the purchasing experience has become the last thing I want to do.

The baristas are always extremely friendly, polite and apologetic, yet may not realize that the task of getting coffee from them has become a 20 minute inconvenience.

So next month our company begins spending with another local roaster, the Darwinian effect of poor customer service. And again to point out.. the employees of the previous coffee supplier weren't bad people or rude at all, but have shown to be incapable of completing an order in the same hour, and all still without knowing their own register systems.

This is the type of "Voting with our wallet" situation that happens downtown all the time. It's good for those local businesses who can compete with other local businesses, but when the situation occurs that there is no competitor, our wallet votes to delivery and out of the downtown area.