Loss Leaders – and the first thing in the cart.
My friend Wikipedia recently explained to me that a “loss leader” is a pricing strategy where a product is sold at a price below its market cost to draw customers into a store where they are likely to buy other goods. The vendor expects that the typical customer will purchase other items at the same […]
“The horses are fine.”
I have (another) confession: The Fourth of July has never been my favorite holiday because I don’t love fireworks. But there is one thing I genuinely love about this time of year (especially this year!): the Revolutionary War period. I love reading about it, studying it, and watching movies and shows set during that time. […]
The Wrong Place to Start.
I am going to start this post by saying that I genuinely have not been to Target in months. This week I found myself with a little time to kill in a specific part of town, and there happened to be a Target nearby. Before I walked in, I gave myself the usual pep talk […]
Lucky Number Seven.
For thousands of years, people have repeatedly organized important things into groups of seven. Seven days in a week. Seven wonders of the ancient world. Seven seas. Seven colors in a rainbow. Seven notes in a musical scale. Seven deadly sins. The number seven shows up in religion, music, science, mythology, geography, and storytelling. And […]
Olivelle – and Mental Taste Testing.
There is a magical store in Bozeman, Montana called Olivelle. Olivelle was started 20 years ago by a mom and daughter who started with a love of high quality olive oil and vinegar and kept expanding from there. They now offer over 150 of their own products and every time I go there, I leave […]
A different way of looking.
“Early on the morning of 30 January 1990, George Cohon, president of McDonald’sCanada, left his hotel room and drove to Pushkin Square in Moscow. Nervous about the international press that would be covering the opening of the first McDonald’s in this nation and anxious to make the opening perfect, he arrived to see the streets […]
A matter of timing.
When I worked as a high school teacher and then a counselor, I sometimes helped student athletes fill out their NCAA eligibility profiles. One section always stood out to me: Have you ever been paid in any way to play your sport? Typical NCAA amateurism questions included things like: They were not kidding around. The […]
Perfect Popcorn – and Challenging Conversations.
Those of you that know me well know that popcorn is one of my favorite food groups. It’s the entire reason that movies in theaters still exist. At least for me. Popcorn is kind of fascinating. It’s bred for two very specific traits: a hard, moisture-sealed outer hull and a precise moisture balance inside the […]
Ernest Shackleton – and unfavorable conditions.
On March 9, 2022, the New York Times published this incredible news: “The wreck of Endurance has been found in the Antarctic, 106 years after the historic ship was crushed in pack ice and sank during an expedition by the explorer Ernest Shackleton. A team of adventurers, marine archaeologists and technicians located the wreck at […]
Backing up Blind.
Several years ago, my brother and his wife were moving back to our home state after some schooling. I was standing with our Dad on his long driveway while my brother tried to back a huge moving trailer into it – straight and clean. He was struggling a bit to get it into position. I […]
