your_good_sons
Member
I am not Puerto Rican. I was wondering about a long time repeat customer who I have not heard from in over a year. I am browsing the Facebook pages of some competitor not far away. He is Puerto Rican. There's my customer giving him glowing reviews. There's pictures of her house. He lays flooring too. That's where they connected, last November he replaced the vinyl in her kitchen. He cleaned some upholstery I cleaned 3+ years ago, back in February. There was a statement in the before cleaning photo that it was "just cleaned by another local cleaner" and the after nice and clean. There are photos of him working on her carpet. All the comments were posted by people with Spanish last names. About half the comments were in Spanish. I live in a city of about 25,000. About 12,500 are Hispanic. Probably 5,000 Mexican and Central American, many illegals. About 5,000 Puerto Ricans who moved up from NYC in the last 10-15 years. About 2,500 are Dominicans, Cubans, etc. I'm pretty sure white is the smallest group in my city, but still about 50% in my zip code. I actually do less and less in my city and the immediate surroundings. I attribute that to the high poverty rate. Now I see I'm losing a big chunk to "one of their own". This really bothers me. People will not do business with people who are not one of their own sometimes.
I have a nephew who is half boricua. My brother-in-law was his mother's 2nd husband. She died when he was 9 of cancer. He has no contact with his biological father. I don't think he ever did past age 1-2, but he still identifies himself as boricua, even though he doesn't speak much Spanish, at least sometimes. He has a job that went from full time to part time not too long ago. I'd hate to use him as a token employee because of his background. I just hate losing customers because of who I am.
I have a nephew who is half boricua. My brother-in-law was his mother's 2nd husband. She died when he was 9 of cancer. He has no contact with his biological father. I don't think he ever did past age 1-2, but he still identifies himself as boricua, even though he doesn't speak much Spanish, at least sometimes. He has a job that went from full time to part time not too long ago. I'd hate to use him as a token employee because of his background. I just hate losing customers because of who I am.