I want to just say “Thanks for the Memories”. When I say that Bob Hope immediately pops into my head because I am THAT old. It was his theme song and over my 84 years, from as long as I remember, I can remember him singing it. But that is not why I am writing this page. I am just happy to have a place to write it.
When I started this online marketing it was all about the products that we market – notice I did not say sell. More about that later. But with many of the products has come memories for me, so I changed the name of my site to include the word “memories”. I find when I start to write about the products, I am constantly remembering things from the past to include.
Thanks for the Memories of Free TV
Case in point was the recent page I wrote about Free TV. It got me thinking that way back in the beginning of TV it was FREE. You bought a set that had rabbit ears and, if you were lucky, could pull in three major stations. They were on during daytime hours and signed off at night with the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. That was around 10-11 PM.
In remembering the first TVs, I also remembered listening, in the dark, to the scary radio programs at night. Programs like Inner Sanctum, which began with a creaking door. Of course, during the day, late afternoons as I recall, there were the cowboy programs like Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, etc. Kids couldn’t miss those, because we had to get special decoding rings to keep up with everything.
Thanks for the Memories of World War II Rationing
But again I digress from what brought me to this page. What started all my memories anew this time was the current shortages in the grocery store. Shortages because of the COVID virus. The shortages starting with the toilet paper craze. I still haven’t figured out what that was all about. Toilet paper for flu that attacks the lungs?? But with my latest grocery shopping, I was not able to get eggs, bread, margarine, or canned fruit. Also, the choices of soup varieties were limited too. It reminded me of the “Rationing” during World War II. The only difference, so far, with this, is that we don’t have any rationing coupons, but maybe we need some.
During World War II we had shortages because things were allocated to the military. Transportation of products during that time was also limited and difficult because of the scarcity and rationing of gasoline. We are not faced with these problems with this virus. It is the people power where we have the shortage. With social distancing, stocking merchandise is a problem. And with people hording products — buying more than their reasonable current needs it is upsetting the supply and demand algorithm that stores have been operating with. When people change their buying habits – buying more than they would normally buy in a given week or month, it upsets everything.
Thanks for the Memories of Good Neighbors
The normal distribution of merchandise has been disrupted. Stores trying to keep up with the demand (what people are wanting) are having to expedite shipments. This results in added cost – price rises passed onto the consumers. But I did not set out here to discuss economics. It was not my favorite subject.
What my memories are telling me is that people have changed since World War II. Back then, we accepted the shortages and made do with what we were able to get. (I just had a memory flashback to Spam – LOL) It was called being a good citizen. Today all I am seeing is GREED. People buying more than they need at the detriment of others who must do without.
We should all be working together to keep everyone healthy and free of this horrible flu. We should all be working as good citizens, not with this ME, ME, ME attitude that I am seeing. Can someone please tell me why people had to horde toilet paper and other paper products? What do they need all that paper for?
Marketing vs. Selling
I mentioned above that what I do here, what we do is marketing not selling. Selling involves taking orders and money and shipping from products from inventory. Our job as marketers is to make you aware of great products at great prices. We show you where all the good stuff is and take you there. As Rory, our guru/mentor likes to say, “no matter how great your product is, people are not going to find them themselves.”
Our favorite product is the marvelous fine wine from Napa and Sonoma, California. Yes I’m sure people may find a winery here or there with tasting tours. But our wine goes beyond that. Our tasters are finding supreme quality wine from small vineyards and are able to buy it, bottle it, and bring it to you for modest prices. You won’t find most of our labels in any store. So if you would be interested in tasting some of that special wine, go here and purchase four bottles, which we ship directly to your front door. Then when you enjoy the outstanding quality of it and share it with a friend or two, you can even begin getting your own wine for free.
