She was visibly upset.
Evidently, an innocuous 11-letter word had become a four-letter word.
"Don't ever use that word again," she said.
"Why?" asked the ever-curious ink-stained wretch. "What's wrong with sponsorship?"
The Prince Rupert retailer sighed a bit and began to tell a story all-to-familiar with many owners or operators of businesses in this city.
She recounted a day when a woman entered her store and was asking for her business to sponsor a deserving charity event. The sponsorship seeker went in great detail about how the businesswoman's chief competitor had snubbed the charity.
The sponsorship seeker was extremely miffed about how the competitor could be so callous, cold and unfeeling not to donate to the project.
After all, this charity project was deserving and that business should be ashamed of themselves for not supporting a worthwhile community event.
The businesswoman agreed, regardless of what her competitor had decided, and donated a substantial amount to the project.
Business sponsorship of worthwhile community projects, activities and groups is simply remarkable in Prince Rupert. One would be hard-pressed to find a city or town elsewhere in this country, that despite difficult economic times, has a business community so supportive.
The request for sponsorship didn't irk the Prince Rupert businesswoman. What did, happened later that day.
As she was driving home after work, she spotted the sponsorship seeker, who had so vociferously condemned the businesswoman's competitor mere hours before, walking out of a store with bags of merchandise — bags from that same competitor's store.
No wonder sponsorship became a four-letter word for the retailer.
Unfortunately, this account is well-known to the Prince Rupert business community. Well-meaning people coming in to ask community-minded businesspeople to donate their hard-earned cash or merchandise for deserving projects, only for those local business people to find out later those sponsorship-seekers are spending their money out-of-town or at non-supportive stores.
Generally, sponsorship is not completely altruistic, there may be a marketing or branding component, but mainly, the reason Prince Rupert business people give is simply because they live in this city too.
One hand washes the other.
Shop local, support those who support you. Otherwise, the next time you go sponsorship-seeking, the answer might be a two-letter word. No.