There was an interesting moment last Friday during Tony Kornheiser’s radio program, which runs mornings from 10 am - 12 noon on WTEM-AM radio in Washington, DC.

Kornheiser was kvetching about the coming blizzard, when he started talking about the Broad Branch Market near his house in DC, and how it had let people in the neighborhood know that if the storm created conditions that prevented them from getting out of their houses to buy food, “we’ll go to your house...we’ve got some trucks, we’ll go to your house.”

Kornheiser said that he mentioned this to his daughter, Elizabeth, who responded: “That’s the kind of bakery or restaurant or market that I want to open. I want to open something in a neighborhood where you have those relationships.”

While conceding that such services can cost money, which means that products and services can cost more, Kornheiser added:

“The difference is that in the last 30 years in America...is that all the things that you need and all the things that you want are now given to you by faceless, nameless people or you get it out of catalogs or you order over the internet. And the local merchant, who your parents grew up with, caring about, that guy is gone.”

This observation led to an extended discussion of whether the tide is turning back, and whether we’ll ever be a country again where people will pay more for great service.

Which is an interesting discussion. But what made it most intriguing was what precipitated it - one store demonstrating both business sense and compassion in the same offering, and it being recognized as having value by a young woman in her twenties.

Hope springs eternal.