It was during the Christmas Holidays prior to our mother’s death that Russell first told me he called himself the Grill Nazi.

I had visited him at his place of business, Buchan Gas Company, aka Grill Parts Distributors in St. Petersburg, Florida, and he gleefully related a story how that day he got rid of a customer in the showroom who was taking too much of his time making a purchase decision. It seems the customer wanted to purchase a gas barbeque grill but suggested a better price be offered. Russell countered by telling the customer he wasn’t going to sell him a grill at any price and walked into his office. The customer was dumbfounded and meekly stuck his head into Russ’s office, said he was sorry about asking for a lower price and could he buy the grill. Russell replied, “Out. Out, Get Out, I won’t sell you anything.”

Russell told me during our visit, “It’s not a good day at the Gas office unless I throw a customer or salesman out of the building.” He called himself the “Grill Nazi”, referring to the character, “Soup Nazi” on a classic Seinfeld TV episode where a soup vendor picked and chose his customers based on his own self-evaluation of character traits. If he didn’t like the way you ordered your soup, he would ban you from his establishment.

Russell sells gas grill parts. He has become somewhat a renowned authority on the product, however lacks patience with the consumer. There is a marketing axiom known as the 80/20 rule. Twenty percent of marketing effort satisfies eighty percent of your customers, whereas eighty percent effort is needed to satisfy the other twenty percent. Russell’s interpretation is that 80% of all customers are idiots and he does not want to waste his time dealing with them.

This was demonstrated by the transition that occurred on the company web site, www.gasgrillparts.com. The original site contained the company’s 800-phone number for information. Providing 800-toll free phone number contact is standard practice among Internet vendors. After a period of time, Russell eliminated the 800 phone numbers stating too many people were calling asking stupid questions. “If they want to call and ask dumb questions, they should pay for the call.”

After another period of time elapsed, Russell said customers were calling at all times of the day, interfering with office work. He instituted an Internet policy where the phones would be answered between 9:00 till 12:00 AM. Of course this meant that if you lived on the West Coast and wanted grill parts you had to call before 9:00 AM.

I guess too many people were still calling, because after a few months Russell eliminated all phone calls, even putting the notice on the web site, WE DO NOT ACCEPT PHONE ORDERS. The alternative was to order by email or send your request by fax, (assuming everyone who wanted grill parts has access to a fax machine). Answers to your email or fax would be given in three working days.

(Better postpone that cookout to another weekend.)

Russell enjoys business; he just does not like customers. He attracts his customers trading on the reputation established by the family during their many years of operating this business. When my mother and father opened the business in 1954, they operated with the adage,” service above self”, and made themselves available to the customer 365 days a year. When my older brother, Doug and I operated the gas company after our parents retirement we continued to put the customer first. Workdays starting at 7:00 AM and ending at 11:00 PM were not uncommon.

Russell began operating the gas company on his own in 1996. Now if a customer arrives at the Gas Company at 5:02 PM because he missed a couple of traffic lights on the way, Russell will hide in the backroom so he won’t have to watch the customer knocking on the door and leave in disappointment.

Russell’s treatment of customers should have taught me a valuable lesson. Like his family, customers exist only for his personal gain.