Personally supporting the motorcycle industry

You know your spending is getting seriously out of control when business owners start personally contacting you after purchases.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned that Andy Goldfine (owner of Aerostich) called me a few months ago after reading a product endorsement in my Women on Wheels column. Now, I hate talking on the phone, so I rarely get phone calls. To say that I wasn’t expecting a cold-call from Andy Goldfine is a massive understatement. I’m 100% convinced that I sounded like a complete moron. He told me that he’d read my column, and that my name sounded familiar. He looked me up in their database, and saw that I was “a good customer”.

People, when business owners recognize your name from purchase databases, you spend too damn much money.

In preparation for our Alaska trip, I’d put monetary contributions towards some hard luggage onto my Christmas list. My family chipped in quite a bit, so last night, I decided that I had enough in my savings account to cover the difference. I went to the Riderhaus website and ordered a quick-lock siderack and two Givi hard bags.

Not 5 minutes later, I had a personal email from Bob Sims, one of Riderhaus’s proprietors. “Hi Carolyn! Great to hear from you again!”. My own mother doesn’t respond so quickly or as enthusiastically.

I think this is an indication that I need to watch the shopping. My current credit card expires soon, and I don’t want shopowners fighting over who frames it for display in the store.