Do You Update Your Product, or Your Outlook?

May 14, 2019

What can we learn from microwave popcorn and address labels?

A friend mentioned that she doesn’t enjoy microwave popcorn as much these days, because it always tastes overcooked/burned. I told her that modern microwaves are more powerful than the ones that were popular when microwave popcorn came on the market, and advised her to pop the corn on Power Level 8. She was very pleased with the results.

It seems that nobody in this situation has kept up with the times: Not the microwave popcorn makers, who still tell consumers to pop the corn on high; or the consumers, who know that their popcorn is overcooked, but who haven’t figured out how to make the adjustment.

I get address labels from the charities I donate to. They are marginally useful as stickers on casseroles for a potluck, or for putting on moving boxes so the movers know which ones are ours (the address is wrong, but the name is still good); but since so few people mail letters anymore, they’re more of a gesture of goodwill than a useful Thank-you gift, and I imagine that most of them go into the trash. Again, the charities aren’t taking into account the electronic communication and online bill-paying culture in this regard.

Is your company keeping up with the times? There’s nothing wrong with making the same widgets you’ve always made, if the widgets still work. But are you looking for new ways that they can be used, and letting consumers know about them? ("Let us tell you about great ways to use these address labels.")

If sales are slumping, someone may tell you that you may need to tinker with the secret formula or make other drastic (and expensive) changes. Before you do that, take a good look at your product. It may not need updating, or to be New and Improved. It may just need to account for changes in the world, with new directions. (“Set your microwave to Power Level 8.”)

(Look at the awards shows on TV. They spend a LOT of time and money trying to make the shows more glamorous and draw more viewers; when all they need to do is to stop trying to be humorous, and limit acceptance speeches to 30 seconds; because people have more entertainment options these days than they did when the shows first started airing, and they don’t want to spend time listening to other people blathering on.)

On the other hand, maybe your product is outdated. Maybe address labels, however inexpensive they may be, are not an appropriate Thank-you gift for charities to send. (Does the world need more trash?)

So, what need updating, your product, or your outlook? Don’t rush into expensive changes if you can use common-sense ones and still get the job done. Do make sure that your product is still useful.

Another Household Tip

May 9, 2019

Yep, this makes two household tips in this blog. I’m getting to be a regular Susie Homemaker!

If you buy large cartons of Greek yogurt, they may go bad before you’ve finished them.

My sister told me to rinse the spoon you scoop the yogurt with BEFORE you put it in the yogurt—even if you’ve taken the clean spoon straight from the silverware drawer. Apparently, things get on the spoons even if you haven’t used them for anything else, and those microbes mess up the yogurt.

I tried it, and it worked. So I’m sharing the tip.

Traffic Trivia Contest

May 8, 2019

With all the call-in contests I hear on the radio driving home, here’s something for radio stations to consider: Traffic Trivia.

Considering how many people will listen and phone in for a chance to receive a hat and a six-pack of soda, they should have no trouble promoting this, especially around the time of the traffic report (although I would not be averse to having it repeated throughout the day).

Sample question: If you’re in a line of traffic that’s stopped at a light, and you want to change lanes, which of the following is the proper way to do it? 

1.         Leave a large space between your car and the car ahead of you, hoping that other drivers will know you want to change lanes, even though you don’t have your signal on. (So many people in St. Louis do this that I suspect it's taught in Driver Training courses.)

2.         Put your signal on to let other drivers know that you do, in fact, want to change lanes.

Sample question 2: When you enter a highway from an entrance ramp that is also the lane for the next exit, how do you let drivers know that you want to get onto the highway, and aren’t just staying in the ramp lane to get off at the next exit?

1.         Use your signal

2.         Wait until there is a gap or a partial gap on the highway, then zoom over and hope that you aren’t hit by oncoming traffic.

The station could also award prizes to people who call in with other sample questions.

I hope at least one radio station will consider doing this. Just think of all the helpful information they could spread!

Get the Mammogram

May 7, 2019

“I have to get a mammogram,” moaned a woman.

I find it fascinating that people who voluntarily do aerobics, or kickboxing, or Zumba—and who keep going back even though their muscles are stiff for days afterwards—gripe about the temporary discomfort of a mammogram.

So if you’ve put off getting one because you’ve heard those terrible stories, put it in perspective:

I’ve had more, and longer-term, discomfort from sitting in a movie seat or taking a car ride than I have had from getting a mammogram.

So don’t let the stories scare you away. Just go.

Maybe They Should Update Their Incentives

April 28, 2019

I just got a Thank-you gift from a charity that I donate to. It was address labels.

I have a lot of address labels, thanks to various charities. I use very few of them.

It may be time for charities to think about updating their incentives.

Do They Serve Doughnuts?

April 28, 2019

“Avengers: End Game” is so popular that movie theaters are having 8:30 a.m. showings.

I wonder how many people show up?

I also wonder if the early movie time impacts their concessions sales.

Or maybe they’re serving doughnuts at the early shows.

(Later: I checked, and they are doing pretty brisk concessions sales of popcorn, snacks and soda, even at the early showings. And no, they don’t serve doughnuts.)

All That is Necessary for Evil to Triumph...

April 23, 2019

In various forms, the statement has been made that, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Here’s my take: Evil would have less chance of triumphing if ordinary people would do their research.

I heard a woman going on and on a few weeks ago about how a Christian legislator was taken to task for praying and saying, “Jesus” at the Pennsylvania statehouse; and how a Muslim woman objected; and, “Because that one woman was offended, now we’re not even allowed to say the name of our Lord and Savior in public because it might offend somebody?”

The woman she was talking to was suitably appalled. The first woman went on so long that eventually I said, “She didn’t get in trouble because she mentioned Jesus. She got censured because she kept going on and on, and even Christians became uncomfortable. It became an issue because she did it at the Muslim representative’s swearing-in ceremony.”

“Oh.”

One doctor submitted a paper several years ago that said that vaccines caused autism. He has since recanted, but the damage is incalculable, because people won’t do the research. They hear something, and they believe it, and they make sure that other people hear it, too. (David E. Kelley, are you ever sorry about that episode of “Boston Legal”?)

It’s normal to have a knee-jerk reaction to something. I’ve actually been guilty of it myself. I’ve been the victim of it, too. That’s why gossip, family disputes, and Mean Girls flourish—nobody bothers to check on the truth.

But once you’ve had your knee-jerk reaction, look up the matter in question. Don’t just spread “information”; check on it.

Or you risk being the pawn of somebody who knows full well what’s going on, but is trying to further his or her own agenda; and you can bet that your well-being isn’t part of the plan.