It's no secret that Amazon and e-commerce in general has been eating retial stores' lunch. You've probably thought to yourself one time this week already - "Do I really have to go to a store to buy that? Couldn't I just order it online?"

Well, yes, of course, you can order just about everything online, but it's just not the same as going into a store. Is it?

So, if we agree on that, what exactly is the difference? All things being equal, like price and availability, why do we prefer to go shopping in the real world?

The secret, as best I can tell, has nothing to do with merchandise. It has to do with another human being actually caring about your happiness.

Chase Bass runs George Bass, a family-owned men’s clothing store with locations in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Covington. His father George started it, and Chase grew up in it. Some of Chase’s earliest memories are of time spent in the shop. He worked there through high school, went to college, tried investment banking after graduation, and fairly quickly realized that wasn’t the life he wanted.

In 2010, Chase’s father saw an opening and offered Chase a job launching the Capital Region location, and Chase has been running the shop in Baton Rouge ever since.

George Bass is known for premium menswear and custom clothing, but Chase will tell you pretty quickly that clothes are almost beside the point. The store keeps detailed profiles on every customer — measurements, past purchases, even photos — and the sales staff doesn’t work on commission. Chase says the goal is a customer for life, not a sale this afternoon. They don’t advertise; everything runs on word of mouth.

Catherine Pletsch has been needlepointing since she was four years old. Her grandmother taught her. As a teenager she became a regular at The Elegant Needle, then owned by a woman named Marion Gremillion. At 18, Catherine was working Thursday evenings while Marion went to the symphony. By her senior year of college she was working Fridays too.

Catherine spent years after college doing other things — wedding planning, church administration, LSU admissions, a law office, a bed-and-breakfast. When she moved back to Baton Rouge from Texas, buying The Elegant Needle became a real possibility. Twelve years ago she did.

The Elegant Needle has been around for more than 30 years and has had a genuine resurgence lately. The pandemic brought people back to slow, handmade things. And then in 2023 a TikTok video featuring needlepoint Christmas décor went viral and introduced the craft to a whole new generation.

About a third of Catherine’s customers today are first-time stitchers. The first stitch Catherine’s grandmother ever taught her was a French knot, which she still works into special family projects whenever she can.

Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ethan Castille at itsbatonrouge.com.

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