Had a bit of a run-in w/ a cobbler the other day. I'm still quite annoyed about it. I can't quite understand why small-time businessmen would think that providing sub-par service isn't going to pose a problem for their businesses. Seriously, imagine you run a business inside a shop the size of three public bathroom stalls. Unless you are producing something illicit, I can guarantee that you need all the revenues you can get. So why in the world would you do something that is going to reduce the number of customers you get? And if all you do is fix shoes, why not just do it properly? Do you think someone isn't going to notice when you failed to shine part of the shoe? It's all right there, screaming for anyone to see. The thing that is really annoying about this is that then we are supposed to subsidize small businesses. With the money I make from working all the time I am supposed to subisidize lazy people with attitudes who provide sub-standard services. Although it is true that the shop pretty much epitomizes pre-Capitalist Russia. Anyways, the shop is Cobbler's Bench and it is in Union Station in DC. I recommend you avoid it like the plague, particularly when the younger man is there - he is extremely slow, a total jerk and despite an apparent fluency in English is incapable of understanding the spoken word.