The Soup Nazi owner of this store, Paul McClutchy, will remind you of the character from the old Seinfeld Show. I stopped into his shop in Millburn, NJ on a Friday afternoon to ask a few questions about his product to see if his custom shirts were right for me. I was dressed nicely and am a pretty pleasant guy, I believe.
I have never been so rudely treated in a store in my entire life. And I am nearly 50 years old.
Mr. McClutchy is a big man with silver hair and a thick New England accent. He did not even rise from his chair to greet me when I entered the shop. He just asked me if I had been there before--I had not-and said "I will now tell you how things are done here". OK, I thought. He went over the prices of the different materials and pointed me to the wall of material selections. I started to ask questions: Why is one material finished on both sides at $160? Why is this one not finished at $200? I told him I was considering custom shirts because I had found even the fancier department store shirts uncomfortable. I was being pleasant--it was a nice sunny day and the store was empty.
Now Mr. McClutchy finally got up out of his high backed club chair. He said I had asked too much, that he was seeing "red flags" and he told me that he would not make me shirts. I told him that I would most certainly pay in advance and take the financial risk of making the shirts. He repeated: "No, I cannot make you shirts".
So, I said he had a lovely shop and then I left. What a Soup Nazi!
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