The Shopping Trolley Stare Down!

I am a huge fan of Target - like the rest of the world - and rarely have a bad word to say about them. However, on Saturday with only 12 days to go before Christmas, I witnessed something quite surprising. On going into the store with my family we found a crowd of people all standing around waiting for a shopping trolley - there weren't any left inside the store. At the same time there were a few of the Target employees standing around watching us! I could almost read their minds - 'why don't those lazy people go outside and get a trolley?' 'It isn't my job to bring in the shopping trolleys so there isn't anything I can do about this'. It probably wasn't their job to do it but how happy would all of those potentially loyal customers have been if a couple of employees had rushed outside to help bring in some trolleys. We would have been impressed that they were willing to step outside the parameters of their normal jobs to help us out on a day where most of us were already stressed out and tired in the Pre-Christmas rush.

What this experience convinced me of is that the type of service that demonstrates a store's or an individual's willingness to go above and beyond is often the service that makes the deepest and longest impression on the customer.

Perhaps retailers and other service oriented companies should start challenging their employees to do one thing that is outside their normal job description on a daily basis!

Our Kid's Future is Paying for The Bail Out

I was out with a friend yesterday who is a teacher. I guess we all knew that we were paying for the bail out of the banks and the auto companies but personally I hadn't yet got my head around how. So this friend of mine informed me yesterday that they are trying to get some of the money anyway out of the education system by demanding as much as $1 million or more out of each and every school district. This is a total and utter disgrace and I am hopping mad. Our education system is already suffering in comparison to some of our international counterparts and now we want to make it even worse?

Perhaps this is why the bail outs are so wrong. We are trying to prop up institutions in the short term and paying for it with the future of our children and our country.

When will it end?

Apologies to anyone who noted (quite rightly) that this particular annoyance has very little to do with shopping. I just had to write about it because it seems so wrong.

Totally Asanine!

I normally only write on my blog once a week, but I just read something that compelled me to get scribbling.

We all know by now that the three big US. auto companies are in serious trouble and are looking for solutions to make themselves more profitable. However, it seems to me that one of their biggest problems is that their brands aren't in the least bit fun or glamorous compared to their international competitors - with a few notable exceptions. From my perspective, three of their most interesting brands are Saab, Volvo and Hummer. They all have unique and interesting brand profiles and may not be bought as often as a Chevy Malibu but do a lot to prevent the brand seeming completely out of touch.

Now I read that one of GM's survival strategies is going to be to kill off these three brands. Are they mad? Clearly. No, if I know anything they are going purely by the numbers and the fact that none of these brands are really big sellers. However, they are completely ignoring the fact that all three of them do a great deal to prop up the image of the GM brand that overall reeks of being staid and boring.

Well done GM - another step in the wrong direction.

A Great Cause!

I love it when a company supports a cause that I believe in, but unfortunately it doesn't happen very often. Cynicism sets in when a company claims it only uses environmentally friendly packaging and then you hear that behind the scenes its production practices are actually negatively impacting the environment. As a woman, I am also a big supporter of the Susan Komen Foundation but looking around it sometimes feels like that is the only female cause out there.

So I was thrilled when I read about Tide's Loads of Hope program aimed at helping disaster victims from hurricanes. Tide isn't claiming to change the world with its program, just to give people who have lost their homes the sense of hope that comes with being able to wear clean clothes and with that maintain their dignity and optimism.

Tide sets up Clean Start stations in disaster areas, where people can come and wash their family's clothes for free. It is a truly great idea. Not only is it the sort of thing that a lot of people overlook when thinking of how to help disaster victims, but it is totally connected to what the brand does best - clean clothes.

I would love to hear about other cause related marketing efforts that other people feel are really well designed.

Free - 10% of Nothing!

Okay, I admit that I have already written about some of my frustrations with loyalty programs that center around getting a store credit card for 10% off one's purchase for one day. It has always seemed to me, that in order to offset the huge hassle of having another credit card to manage every month, that you need to be buying at least $900 of merchandise to get a $90 discount.
However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, over the week-end, I got offered 10% off nothing! I had bought something in the store for about $50 and in the process of taking it back, found something else I liked for exactly the same price. Consequently, I decided just to do a direct swap - return the item I didn't want and buy the one I did. In the process of doing the transaction, the sales associate asked me if I wanted to save 10% by taking out a store credit card. I asked her whether it was possible to save 10% on nothing since I didn't owe anything. She looked at me like I was barking mad and asked me what I was talking about. The more I tried to explain, the more convoluted our conversation became until I finally just had to stop trying to clarify the issue and tell her that I would regretfully pass on the credit card offer.
Oh well - at least it provided me with a chuckle........

Diet Sodas Are Making Me Fat!

Okay I can't say that I blame the companies that make diet soda for doing so. It is an amazingly appealing product concept - a drink that actually tastes good, is refreshing and doesn't have any calories. Undoubtedly, this extremely attractive combination of benefits is why diet sodas have thrived for so long in a marketplace where many other diet and low calorie products go by the board because they just don't taste very good.

I myself have been a diet soda addict for a long time. Often when I am trying to cut back on calories (which is almost all the time), I will treat myself to a diet soda or two at meals because they are so much more satisfying as a beverage than plain old water or unsweetened tea! I am a bit of a hedonist at heart and have never been able to totally get my head around the water and lettuce leaf way of life.

However, I had rather a nasty realization recently and that was that diet soda was actually making me fat. I don't know whether the manufacturers of this wonderful stuff realize it, but diet soda actually increased your appetite. When I am being good and just drinking water with a little lime or lemon juice in it (boring) I am far less hungry than when I drink diet soda. Now I know that there are many super models out there, one of which I am not, that live on diet soda, coffee and cigarettes and find them to be an essential part of weight control. For me, it doesn't work. The moment I have a diet soda before lunch, my appetite immediately doubles and I tuck into a double portion of ranch dressing on my salad with the french bread on the side and still find myself considering some sort of sweet for afters.

So what is the solution? Perhaps those wonderful people who make the stuff could find a way to do it so that we actually felt full after drinking one instead of wanting to eat the carpet. Has anyone else had this experience or am I one of the unlucky few that don't get to enjoy the real benefit of drinking something that is both calorie free and delicious?

The Fat Trap

Okay I admit it, I love to buy something that says 'low fat' or 'less fat' because it suddenly transforms it from something that was bad for me into something that is good for me. That ice cream that a moment ago I was determined to resist because it wasn't on my healthy eating plan, instantly becomes acceptable once it has had a few grams of fat taken out of it. So you can imagine my horror the other day when I was in the supermarket and I realized that the Country Crock Light Butter Spread had the same amount of fat and calories as the regular Country Crock Butter Spread. How can that be? Well on closer inspection I realized that even the regular spread claimed to have half the fat and calories as regular butter, so I guess they decided that no one would notice if they introduced another version with exactly the same nutritional profile but that this time actually announced that it was lighter! This was definitely an instance where I felt that the marketing of the product was seriously setting out to mislead me, while at the same time wondered whether they thought that most of us are complete morons and unlikely to ever compare the two products. I can't say that it has actually stopped me buying the product, but perhaps made me feel a little less warm and fuzzy about the people who make it!