Thank you notes are an important piece of the puzzle. I can recall fewer than a handful of times when I forgot, or neglected, to include them with a transaction. I’m speaking business here. Socially, it’s a given. De rigueur. A no brainer. For all the bicycles I send out, the soft-goods, the small cast parts that other frame makers buy from me, and of course the full range of RS tchotchkes on my site, I always include a little piece of me. Sometimes it’s a handmade card using an old photograph spray adhesived onto a piece of foam core. It can be a note written on some wacky colored stationery I find at an old school art supply store. Often I embellish what I send by adding confetti and certainly some Twizzlers. Nearly everyone gets a RS button. I once read that Naomi Campbell lived on Altoids and San Pellegrino so I thought, why not? After eating all the mints, I used the empty tins as a vehicle for my messages. Most of them left here looking like this image attached. I have no idea what the recipients thought when opening these.
Over time, my thank you’s have ranged from paper, to cards, to little collectibles. I just wanted all who pay me for anything I do within these four walls to know that their patronage is appreciated beyond words. For the 5-6 who I missed since the early 1970s, please accept my thanks belatedly.
