Best Buys treated my daughter so badly over a return item (that she had the receipt for) that I don't even bother reading their ads in the Sunday paper. I will never shop there. 
On the other hand, because of great customer service I always buy my music at World Records even though their price isn't the lowest.
Bottom line ? It is all about how you are treated.

John T's emplyee wasn't eyeing you with the motive you think, pretty boy.  How big was that cigar?  Did Bill Clinton endorse it?

While bad/rude treatment does hurt the store, it never seems to hurt it as much as it should.
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Most infamous would be the former George's Photo Shop in Thousand Oaks (Ventura County).  The owner would actually start arguments with customers for no reason, growling at them, "whaddya want to buy that for???"

This went on for 12 years.  How he stayed in business, I have no idea.  It's not like he was the only photography store in town.

I've been to five bike shops in last six or seven weeks, three here and one in Carpenteria one in Ventura and I have never seen such lousy attitudes and lack of enthusiasm.  I brought a friend with a pocket full of money to the stores on the coast and told the employees that he was going to buy a bike that weekend so all they had to do was smile and sell.  I had the feeling we were older than the average customer [maybe paranoid] and kind of blown off by both places. No sell.  Here the only bright spot I've found is Sam at Action Sports.  Hire employees that happy to see the  customers and know their products and you can put most shops out of business.

Whenever I receive poor service at a restaraunt, I really don't say much, the smal of zero tip will say it all.  However, there have been a few times when the service is so outstanding that I ask to speak to the manager.  This usually shakes up the waiter or waitress until they find that I wanted to tell the manager what great service I had received.  Sadly this hasn't happened all that much.  I find that most people tend to only be vocal in complaining and seldom will seek out an opportunity to praise someone.  They don't know what they are missing

dg:  Now that is cool.  I was at the Elephant Bar with my wife.  We were given one of those vibrating pagers.  When a couple that came in several minutes after us had their pager go off first, I asked the people at the counter why we were passed up.  The response was, "I guess your pager didn't work."  When I pointed out that there were only three groups waiting and maybe somebody could have asked why nobody stood up when our pager should have activated, I got a blank stare.  We did get an appetizer as a managers comp though.  The food and service after we did get seated were both great, and we will return again.

In regards to praying before a meal.  Have you ever been interrupted by a waiter or waitress?  For the most part I have found that, once they realize you have your head bowed and your eyes closed they wait, but there have been times when water was poured during our prayer.

Most of what I have seen here is complaints about service.  Yours is a praise about service.  You should post the name of the restaurant..

I had a similar experience as yours at Chili's.  We called ahead and were told there was no need to be put on the waiting list because there was no one waiting.  When we arrived seven minutes later the wait was 45 minutes.  When I told the person at the door, we were told that sometimes the person in the back who takes the calls fails to check the front and is going on old information.  They seated us immediately.

I searched the manager down at Chili's and at Macaroni Grill.  Both times were to issue praise for the great service the waitresses had given us.  When I did this at the Macaroni Grill they had only been open 3 days.  It's fun to watch the waitress squirm when you ask to speak to a manager, then watch the look on their faces when the manager tells them why you asked for the manager.  Once I asked for the waitress to go get the manager and return with him please.  I told the manager, with the waitress standing right there, that she was one of the best waitresses I had ever encountered.  She was speachless, but she couldn't stop grinning.  I believe actions like these will increase the efforts of people who serve.

Schuster, yes to both.  I'm always poised to pounce on anyone who mentions shopping at Albertson's.  (Or giving to Goodwill.  I send them on to the Salvation Army.  Unenthusiastic ingratitude is bad enough in retail.  It's really an insult when you're donating something.)

Robb:  Impressing you is not my goal.  Humbling myself in grattitude is why I pray in a restaraunt.  Not boasting about it is why I post annon.

It certainly did.

You too.  And thanks for reminding us all how a little pleasantry can go a long way.

You're welcome Hardliner:  Speaking of pleasantry going a long way.... I was pulled over by a police officer one evening as I was going west on the street where The Rice Bowl is ( I think it might be 19th ).  Anyway, I had been one street over when I realized that I was on the wrong street, so I made a left turn, came south one block and made a right turn a few blocks from the Rice Bowl.  Just as I was pulling into the parking lot, that ominous red light appeared behind me.  The officer followed me into the parking lot.  When he approached, he asked if I knew why he had pulled me over.  He seemed angry.  When I told him I had no clue, he told me it was because I had made a right turn with signaling and then changed lanes without signaling, again in a rather sarcastic and angry tone.  Then he asked if my signals work, again rather angrily.  Let me illuminate the fact that this was in the evening.  The only cars that I had seen on the three streets since turning off of Union were mine and the patrol car.  After he asked if my signal worked, I said, as politely as I could, "yes, I guess I just forgot to use them".  At that point he started writing me a ticket,  he even seemed to be writing furiously.  About 1/2 way through the ticket he stopped and grumbled something.  Then he started tapping his pen on the paper trying to get it to work (it had run out of ink).  I calmly said, "I have one"  I pulled an ink pen from my center console and handed it to him.  Talk about taking the wind out of someone's sails.  He stood there dumbfounded, took my ink pen and wrote warning across the ticket.  After all of this had finished, he started to walk away.  I had to say, "Excuse me officer, may I have my pen back?"  Just being nice to someone who was obviously upset about something, made the difference.  Looking back, I probably should have let him keep the Bic pen.