Shout Them Out Here: Singles (Un)Friendly Businesses

In my last post, I called out Yahoo for publishing a headline that just presumes that dining solo is humiliating, then hands out advice based on that premise. That generated a lively set of comments, including one from Monica Pignotti that motivated me to do something I've had in mind for years. Monica described her experiences at two Union Square diners, one of which was egregiously unfriendly toward singles, and the other, Lori's Diner, which was wonderfully singles-friendly. She then suggested this:

"We need to start voting with our feet and walking out of places that treat us so shabbily. I was thinking that it might even be a good idea to start a list of restaurants that are unfriendly to solo diners and post it, along with the experiences people had and another list of restaurants that are solo diner friendly."

Right you are, Monica! Let's do it. But don't limit yourself to restaurants. All businesses, groups, clubs, service industries, and all the other categories you can think of are fair game. Think hotels and travel agencies, grocery stores and supermarkets (do they make you buy huge quantities of perishable foods in order to get a discount?), auto and health insurers, health clubs and fitness centers, neighborhoods or cities. There are no limits.

Please help in these ways or any others you can think of:

1. If you have a particularly good or bad singles-relevant experience, let us know. Name the place and make your case in the comments section. After we've accumulated a fair number of nominations, I'll organize them by category and copy them from the comments section into the text of this post.

2. Do you have a blog, website, email list, or any other way of reaching people who may be interested in adding their cheers or jeers to this list? If so, please forward this post to them.

On a somewhat related topic, one of my plans for celebrating Valentine's Day is to give a shout-out to the growing number of singles-positive blogs and websites. I've done that in the Living Single space in the past, as well as at my website, but it is time to update those lists and thank each person for being such an affirming voice for singles on a day that is one of the most matrimaniacal on the calendar. So post your nominations in the comments section, or email them to me. Self-nominations are welcomed with wild enthusiasm! Even if your suggestion is already on my website or has appeared previously here at the Living Single blog, go ahead and re-nominate it.