Lost my business...

The Missus and I drove over to Viroqua, Wisconsin this past Saturday to purchase a headstone memorial marker for the grave of her parents.  My mother in law has been gone for a number of years and my father in law passed last October.  Both were cremated.  The Missus and I have kept their ashes here while the estate was settled and the Missus and her siblings decided if and when to bury those ashes.  The decision was finally made to mix them together and bury them in my mother in law's home town of Readstown, Wisconsin.  My father in law was born and raised just down the road in Soldier's Grove, Wisconsin.  It all works out...  :)

There is a company in Viroqua (the nearest "larger" town) that sells headstones memorial markers, so we made the 3 hour trip over from Iowa to look, decide, and place an order.  Their web site said that they are open from 10 until 2 on Saturdays.  We left here at 9:30 a.m. figuring we'd be there about 12:30.  Plenty of time.  Well, when we arrived they were closed.  There was a small note taped to the door stating that their new summer hours for Saturday were 8 to 12:30 (It isn't on their website.  That still says 10-2).  We arrived at 12:39.  I was pissed.  The note said that if anyone needed assistance outside of regular working hours they could call Anna on her cell phone and all would be good.  We called, and we waited...  And waited.  Meanwhile we looked at the headstones memorial markers that were on display on their property.  Some of them had prices on them that were pretty good compared to what we had been quoted by the headstone memorial marker business here at home.  (My sister in law wanted to buy it here at home because she "knows" the owner.  Didn't matter that his price was just slightly more than twice as much as the dealer in Viroqua for the same product.  My sister in law is a psycho crazy bitch, but that's another story for another time.) 

I suppose that 45 minutes had passed and we had no return call from Anna.  About this time we walked back up to the front of the closed business to take another look at a headstone memorial marker that was on display.  I was in the process of asking the Missus to give Anna another call when I noticed a sign in the upper left corner of the glass front door to the business.

 

I was surprised that I hadn't noticed it before.  It isn't in a great spot to be noticed, actually.  Near the door handle would make more sense to me...  (According to Wisconsin law the sign has to be placed in a prominent location with a reasonable expectation of being seen.  This one fails in that regard.  It must also be located at the entrance to a property if the entire premises bans firearms.  Another fail for this sign and property.  There was no sign placed at the entrance to the property in a location where it could be reasonably expected to be seen.  There were no other signs at all.)

I asked the Missus to call Anna back and let her know that she could disregard the first voice message.  I asked her to let Anna know that I wasn't interested in spending money with a company that publicly states that my Second Amendment rights mean nothing to them.  Yes, I realize that it is their right to ban me from entering with my gun.  It's my right not to spend my money there.  I chose to exercise that right.  $2500 to $3000 loss for this business... 

  Yes, these signs carry the force of law in Wisconsin.

I told the Missus that I had noticed a farm that appeared to be running a business selling headstones memorial markers on our way through Liberty Pole and that I'd be more than happy to take her there.  She agreed and that is where we went.  Met with a nice retired farmer and his wife who were selling headstones memorial markers as a side business to supplement their retirement income.  We were happy to spend our money with these fine people.  A lot less money than we would have spent in Viroqua and a whole lot less than we would have spent here at home in Iowa.  Same product from the same quarry in St. Cloud, Minnesota.  SCORE!!!

All is well that ends well.

On the way home we stopped at Cabela's in Prairie.  They weren't busy at all.  It was the same way in April when we were in South Dakota.  No one was busy.  I realized that there hadn't been much traffic out on the highway either.  With gas at nearly $4 per gallon and the cost of groceries and everything else going sky high, I'm guessing that people are staying home.  Kinda puts a dent in the meme being put forth by the obamanites that the economy is improving and all is going to be fine. 

One thing that I did notice at Cabela's was that they had very few new handguns but a SHIT TON of pre-owned handguns.  More used guns than I had ever seen in that store.  And a couple of women looking to buy handguns.  There are usually a bunch of people standing at the display cases looking, handling, and buying...  Like I said, it was dead in there.

Anyway...

Stay safe.