Main Street USA has a pothole: Consumer trust

Two findings in a new Better Business Bureau survey are no surprise to one local furniture store owner.

One: Americans trust business less today than they did a year ago.

Two: Furniture stores rank at the bottom of the barrel in consumer trust, followed by cell-phone and wireless-service providers, then real estate brokers and then car dealers.

Why is consumer trust fading? David Polino, president of the Better Business Bureau of Upstate New York, rattled off several reasons: recent toy recalls, the sub-prime mortgage and foreclosure crisis, well-publicized ethics lapses and criminal violations, and a continuing decline in customer service.