Today I just would like to share an nice article about the Photo Plus Expo with you. The article is written by my dear friend Darrell Young. He is writing about the Photo Plus Show in New York as well as about his time in Town. I enjoy reading Darrell´s Blog. So I hope you do.
The worst experience I ever had.
Late October 2011 me and my wife made a visit of New York. I had a couple of business meetings in town and an exhibition regarding my job on schedule. But for Sunday we did plan to enjoy our self. We are Christians which recently did marry. So of course our Sunday should start with a worship.
I did find several churches around the town which could have been visited. We decided to visit a worship down in Harlem. From several websites we knew that there are several chapels that are mainly visited by tourists just for amusement. This wasn´t the purpose for us. I wanted to enjoy the spirit of having a real worship.
To make this happen, we tried to find a church that is as less touristic as possible. Based on the information we got online, we decided to visit “Mount Nebho Baptist Church”. This church invited us online by saying: “
“Welcome! We are overjoyed at the fact that you have visited our online ministry. We would like to personally invite you to join us in one of our worship services here at the Mount Neboh Baptist Church. Anytime you are in the New York Metropolitan area, please visit with us on the hottest corner in Harlem. Don’t forget to bring a friend or a family member and we look forward to seeing you real soon.”
Since I couldn´t find any offers for tourists I hoped that we will get access after talking to the minister and explaining that we are here to worship and not to disturb the celebration in the way tourists are doing it elsewhere.
Once we reached the church early Sunday morning, everything seems to be fine. As expected only a very small group of tourists have been in the line. This was very different to the lines we have seen in front of other churches we did pass.
Unfortunately everything changed very soon. When I asked for talking to the minister, politely I was prompted to go into the line. Since the line was short I still expected to visit a regular worship without all this touristic stuff. But it became even worse.
The line, we have been around 10 feet away from its beginning, kept on growing and growing. This still didn´t seem to become an issue. I still expected that soon the church members to be seated first. This of course would have been fine.
Starting at 10:40 one bus after another arrived.
People from all over the world jumped out of the busses. Crying, laughing, wearing al kind of clothing. I bet that more than 90% haven´t seen a church from inside for a very long time.
I became angry when all of the group got into the church before us. Please consider that we have been waiting for 45 minutes outside at this time. Temperature around 32 degree Fahrenheit.
In the meantime a young lady did show up. She asked us to be patient. We need to wait until all busses are inside. Than she did start counting. A few rows behind us I could hear her saying that being seated might be unlikely for the people afterwards.
I became even more angry. What the …. Was going on? What I could see did have nothing to do with a regular worship. It became, what I call “Selling of God”.
Church did start at 11:00am with us still standing outside. Finally the last bus did arrive. I guess nobody of this tourists did care that they have been late. They entered the church disrespecting any of the rules. They even didn´t stayed quite. I couldn´t believe what I have experienced in the past 75 minutes.
This was to much. So I stepped outside the line to ask the lady as well as the over weighted bouncer what this is all about.
He yelled at me that I shouldn´t disrespect him and that I should “move my ass back in the line”! I asked back, why they are giving access to people that don´t care about the spirit, first without considering that there might be people that really want to worship. Again he yelled that I´m not allowed to disrespect him, the dekan (dean) of this church, by asking this questions. He does not care about my wish to worship. If I want to have access, I should buy a ticket for a bus tour as everybody else. If I have a problem, I should talk to his manager. He than pointed out to a thin white man standing right behind him. I was fed up. I couldn´t believe this.
I remembered the sentences I did read on their website: “ We would like to personally invite you to join us in one of our worship services here at the Mount Neboh Baptist Church”. At this Sunday morning, this sentence turned out to be nothing else than pure crap.
In fact all they did in fact was selling God to those who pay. I don´t know how the service in this church has been held. So I can´t say if it was more a show for the crowed or a real worship for some believer and hundreds of gaper.
We left Harlem as fast as possible.
As a lesson to learn out of it I came to the following conclusion. If you are a believer willing to worship on Sundays in New York please choose any church outside Harlem. In case somebody has a good example for a church inside Harlem, please feel free to let me know. I would love to guide believers there.
If you are a tourist that wants to visit a worship show like a Broadway show please sign up for a bus tour. Prices start at $40 and can bee booked in almost every hotel.
Hope this helps all believers and tourists in the same way.
(Btw. Picture and some films I will post soon)
In October 2010 I had the opportunity to visit the PhotoPlus Expo in New York. But of course this also was a great opportunity for me to visit one of the biggest camera and video store of the town. B&H Photo I knew from several advertisements on the Nikonians website. On a cold monday morning I did meet up with the guys from B&H. They had offered me an exclusive VIP Tour to show me their shop. When I arrived at the New York Superstore at 9th avenue I found what I expected. From outside it was the big store I have seen in several pictures and on several advertisements. As a guy from Europe knowing our local Media Markt and Saturn Superstores what shall I expect, except from the opportunity to see another store full of electronically products?
But it came surprisingly different…..
When we entered the door I realized in seconds that this looks not as a normal store. All over all I saw an assembly conveyer over my head. My first impression was that this is part of their packing for the online store. But this turned out not to be true.
We started in an area full of Photo and camera bags. This of course is normal for an store. But there only was one piece of each bag available. So I could see all bags I know about. But I could each bag only see once. „Well, they will run in trouble as soon as a few people want to purchase the same bag „, was my first thought. I guess my hosts did realize the big question mark above my head. During all this bags I got the explanation of what I now call „perfect customer service“.
The complete store is divided in several sections like bag, camera, tripods, video and so on. In each section you can find consumer and professional equipment. To use the space most efficient they do not have a storage in the floor. Where we Europeans would expect the boxes of the products for take away they simply do have more products to show. And they have quite a big range. Everywhere you can find products for low budget and the most expensive high end version. This gives you the opportunity to find your product for your need and your budget. In an area where they sell microphones I realized that this service would result in another issue. You simply have to much choices.
But this isn´t really an issue. Wherever you looked I saw a B&H representative ready to help me finding whatever I need. But there is another difference. In Europe you only find people who know a little bit of everything. So they should give you advice for dvd player as well as for Apple computers. At B&H that is not the case. In each section the employees is a specialist for his section. So they have photographers working at the Nikon booth and a Keyboard musician at the Keyboard. But that´s still not all. Compared to European stores this guys are not commission paid. They really can take care of your needs.
Once you know which product you want to purchase you just get a receipt. You don´t need to carry around all your products. Just walk over to the next section and check out another great products. If you want to purchase this as well just let the sales person know. They will add it to your existing receipt. In normal stores you get in transport trouble after the 3rd or 4th box. Here you don´t have to care about. This now explains why they have this trolley system running above me. The salesman takes your order, this order than will be packed into a box and shipped to the exit.
At the end of my tour I went to the cashier desk for checkout. All they needed was my receipt and my credit card. A few seconds later a friendly employee gave me all my products. Normally I now would have to cary all this boxes through downtown New York, showing everybody that I carry a few hundred bucks around. But also this is considered. You don´t need to carry all the boxes. Before leaving the Superstore there is nice room where you can unpack all your products and put them into your photo bag or your laptop bag. The boxes you can leave there. And in case something is not correct or parts are missing in the box there are representatives to take care of this.
At B&H they really take care of your sales from the beginning until the very end right at the exit door. Thank you B&H for showing me that there is a store in the world where getting happy customers is practiced every day. I wish I would find this in Europe too.
