What a Year

It’s been a year since I started this blog- and what a year it’s been! The blog was born as I stood in my living room, staring at my bookshelves. There’s probably at least one big difference between my bookshelves and yours: I don’t own many English-language books. Instead, my shelves are full of French novels, Spanish plays, poetry in Medieval French… you get the point. And as I stood staring at my books last year, I had flashbacks to the many late nights I had spent in college analyzing those very books. And then I realized just how much I missed writing essays.

By the end of college I was writing at least 2 papers per week: one in French, one in Spanish. Add in the thesis, the research fellowship and the occasional student newspaper article and you’ll see that I was writing a LOT. But post-college, formal opportunities to write dwindled.  And I found that I really missed analyzing culture, looking at language, sorting out my thoughts and writing them down. I realize it isn’t 100% normal to say you miss writing essays. But hey, I’ve never claimed to be 100% normal. So I decided to start a blog where I could write about whatever I wanted, whether it was an exploratory topic like cultural differences (see “Donde Esta el Status Report”) or something fun like cupcakes (see “What Do You Want, Cupcake?“).

Since I started writing this, oh so much has changed. The past year has seen me move across the country, switch jobs, and pretty much change my point of view. I’ve made new friends, learned new things, seen new places. I’ve told you all about return policies, rambled on about word choice and waxed poetic about nostalgia brands.  It’s been a lot of fun, and I certainly don’t plan to stop writing. So stay tuned, dear readers- more culture cookies coming soon!

Be A Smart Cookie

Yum.

On a recent trip to New York I was standing in an Italian pastry shop debating between two kinds of cookies. Not a very important decision, but a decision nonetheless. It was down to the lemon gingerbread or the chocolate sprinkles. Since I really couldn’t choose, I decided to ask the guy behind the counter for his opinion. I told him which two I was considering, and then added: “Is the lemon gingerbread popular?”

He gave me a blank stare, then replied: “The lemon gingerbread is good,  I wouldn’t say it’s popular. But why does that matter?”

Hmm. SUCH a good point! I had committed one of the common sins of preferences. Asking if something is popular is not always a good indication of whether it’s good. Something could be really popular… but everyone who orders it has different taste than you. Or maybe it’s popular because it’s the first thing on the menu. Or perhaps everyone else who goes to that restaurant read the same review and only tries whatever happened to be reviewed. That actually happened to me in a gelato shop in Italy. The server told me that the majority of people who came to his store ordered the cinnamon and the pistachio- even though they weren’t the best flavors. He said he couldn’t figure it out. I solved his mystery in a jiffy:  Rick Steves had recommended the store in one of his books, and had specifically mentioned those two flavors. Rick’s word is like gospel to many, so tourists simply ordered what they had been told to get!

But, even though I too respect the word of Rick Steves, I understand that guidebooks are not gospel. And I realize that following what’s popular doesn’t necessarily mean I personally will be satisfied.  I once saw a poster that said “what is popular isn’t always right, and what is right isn’t always popular.” I’m pretty sure that sign applied to moral situations and not cookies… but hey, always a good lesson. My lemon gingerbread snafu reminded me that relying on others’ preferences to order makes no sense unless you screen for someone with similar tastes. And, applied more broadly, doing something because others do it that way makes very little sense unless you screen for people with either your same beliefs or your aspirational beliefs. Not an incredibly meaningful impact when you’re picking a cookie- but sort of a big deal to remember when you’re making life choices, don’t you think?

Oh and in case you’re wondering- I did get the lemon gingerbread. Good decision.

Resist the Urge

As someone who has spent a lot of time working in consumer goods and retail, I like to pretend I’m immune to those industries’ tricks. What actually happens is that I consciously analyze their tricks, then fall for some of them anyway. As I made an impulse counter purchase the other day I got to wondering just how resilient I really am. I decided to track my habits across a few common retail habits. The results:

Impulse purchases: There’s an oft-cited truth that people buy a lot more when they don’t make a shopping list (and stick to it). If you’re trying to save money, wandering the grocery store without a list is a major no-no. I’m pretty good at resisting extra groceries, but noticed I tend to throw in impulse purchases at places like Walgreens.  Somehow I always walk in there needing 1 thing and walk out with 5 more things I had “forgotten I needed.” Don’t even get me started on the rare trip to Target. I chalk this behavior up to the ridiculous assortment of SKUs at these stores since it really has to do with the merchandise they offer and not the way they offer that merchandise.

Counter impulse purchases: You know all those candy bars up by the register? They aren’t there because people tend to forget about the candy bars they needed and stores want to make sure they have easy access. The candy is up there because it’s usually at a relatively affordable price point and shoppers are likely to toss some in their baskets at the last minute. And it’s much more than candy these days: I’ve seen everything from gift cards to tweezers to jewelry. I love surveying the random stuff by registers but don’t often buy it.  In the last couple weeks, however, I bought chapstick and avocados right as I was about to check out. I’d argue those weren’t excessive purchases but still, hadn’t planned on getting them that particular day!

Promotional pricing: Buy one get one free. Buy 4 for the price of 5. 5% off the usual price. I know how these tactics work. In fact, I’ve literally modeled out how they financially impact a manufacturer. I still fall for a lot of them, because sometimes it IS a good deal. One of the trickiest parts of promotional pricing is when you buy more than you need- suddenly you have two 40 oz jars of jelly because the price was lower than usual. So I try to limit myself to only buying things on promo if I can absolutely justify it. Two jars of peanut butter instead of one, for example, because I know I’ll definitely eat it. But not 5 boxes of cereal at once, and definitely not multiple units of something I barely use. There’s a term called “pantry loading”- essentially, buying so much at once that you don’t have to replenish that item for a while. It gives manufacturers a quick boost since it pushes up units sold within a specific reporting period. The risk though is that customers will then have no true need to buy for a while. Manufacturers (and retailers!) don’t technically want us to stock up too much, since they need us to come back. So the hope is that you’ll buy your 2 for 1 jars of peanut butter, but eat those jars at the same rate you usually consume a single jar. Sort of a “you have more, you consume more” mentality.

I could go on about this a lot longer, but I’ll stop here (for today). But I encourage you to keep track of your own shopping habits for a bit and see what you find. I’d love to hear about it!

Sock It To Me

Do you ever find yourself out of socks and dreading the effort it will take to buy new ones? No? Me neither. But apparently some people can’t stomach the thought of having to buy their own socks on a semi-regular basis, because a company called Blacksocks has figured out how to sell socks by mail (a Sockscription, if you will). Just sign up, pick your favorite style, and you’ll get regular shipments every 3 months. The company started out with black socks, but also sells things like undershirts.

If the company’s website is to believed, the service has 60,000 subscribers. So I guess there are enough people out there who can’t handle sock shopping to sustain this business model. There’s also enough people out there to sustain things like fruit of the month clubs and subscription antique coin services, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

In other news, did you know raspberry socks are in this season? Neither did I. So glad to know! You absolutely need to check out this website… if nothing else so you can see the awesome picture of socks on a silver serving tray.

What Are You Trying To Say?

I came across the sign pictured here while at a gas station off of a major highway. My first reaction was to giggle. My second reaction was to whip out my camera and take this photo. I know most people don’t love grammar jokes as much as I do but really, I couldn’t resist. Why do you think the store owner chose to use a sign that’s worded this particular way? Read the sign, think about what it means, then read on below.

 

“Clean restrooms for customers only.” A bit different than the usual bathroom sign, right? So what point do you think the gas station owner was trying to convey? Was it:

A. The CLEAN restrooms are only for customer use, but the DIRTY restrooms can be used  by whomever happens to stop by.

B. The restrooms are so clean that you should feel compelled to buy something just so you have the privilege of using the facilities.

C. The cleaning crew should only clean the restroom if customers are around. If no customers are around or only non-customers are around, they shouldn’t even bother cleaning.

Or maybe, just maybe, the owner was simply trying to tell us that restrooms were for customers only. As in, if you aren’t buying anything, get outta here. But the addition of the word “clean” to the sentence makes it feel so different. It makes it feel like there is more to the story. Adding in an adjective changes how the sentence reads because you figure there has to be a reason the sign’s author chose to include an extra word. I’m willing to accept that the writer didn’t even think about it and just threw that “clean” in there. But my grammar-loving brain would much rather believe the word choice was deliberate!

Who Do You Want To See?

Back in February I wrote about  Target’s ability to use customer transaction data to predict future behavior. The revelation that Target could predict which of their customers was about to have a baby set off a bit of an uproar as consumers worried that retailers are gaining too much insight into their personal lives. The debate highlighted the very fine line between retailer knowledge and retailer creepiness. Then this week, I heard about yet another use of data that moderately blew my mind. The concept behind Bar & Club Stats  is pretty straightforward: the company’s iPod scanners collect demographic data about patrons who enter bars by mining information from the patrons’ IDs. Bars can use that data to better understand who visits their establishments, when they arrive, etc. Doesn’t sound too different from companies using information from loyalty program and contest sign-up sheets for marketing purposes, right?

But then it gets more interesting. The company also plans to eventually release an app that helps bar-goers pick a bar based on who is already there. The app would collect some of the same info from patrons’ IDs (age, zip code, gender) as well as the patrons’ arrival times. Then, potential bar-goers could log into the app and search by any of those factors to see what sort of crowd had formed at different bars. So theoretically, a group of 20-something girls could easily pick out which bars had the best bets for finding a bunch of 20-something guys.

Maybe I need to start a category here called “cool or creepy?” because I think this would fit right in. It actually sounds pretty cool to me- as long as it is nameless data that just has your gender, age and zip code, why not? Yelp has added a feature to its search pages that lets you filter by the age group of a venue’s fans (e.g. looking for a restaurant that 30-somethings like), so they have to be using some similar data methods. If the app also collected my name and other personal information I’d be less excited about it. If it started collecting pictures to analyze attractiveness and let potential bar-goers know which bar had the prettiest patrons, I’d be weirded out. And if it started selling that information to marketers I’d just be annoyed, since I’m not a huge fan of direct mail. But fundamentally I see the company’s inspiration. The scanners are already being used in some NYC establishments, but the app hasn’t yet been released. I’d love to hear from my NY readers if they ever run into this!

Almost, But Not Quite

Is there a brand that you absolutely love but can’t really justify buying? Let’s pretend that you want some Toms, but you can’t spare the money right now for a new pair of shoes. If you walked into a store and saw shoes that looked a whole lot like Toms but cost 75% less, you’d probably be tempted. Now imagine the label on the shoes said “Tims” instead of “Toms”- would you still buy them?And if you did, do you think it’d satisfy your need for Toms by being close enough, or would you still dream of the real deal?

A colleague recently sent out an article about fake brands  in China. You have to take a look- it’s kind of wild. I’ve seen counterfeit Burberry bags and knock off Oakley sunglasses, but this article includes brands across the gamut of retail, from “King Burger” to “Owega.” These companies mimic the logo, merchandise and even store layout of the brands that inspired them, to the point that you would almost be fooled- until you notice that one word, a letter, or perhaps the word order is slightly off. But even though the difference is noticeable these brands thrive, because they’re close enough to appeal to consumers’ needs for popular brands. It’s really interesting to me that people are fine with counterfeit goods when they’re buying certain brands for status- because if anyone noticed your shoes said Tims and not Toms, wouldn’t they figure out you didn’t really have the status you were trying to portray? It seems more obvious to me to use a product that blatantly declares the wrong name than to use a product that sorta kinda copies the pattern or style of a more expensive version but doesn’t have a label.

These stores probably wouldn’t last long in the U.S., a.k.a. the land of everyone suing each other for copyright infringement. But if they did, would you buy “close enough” brands to save money? I bet you this sort of thing would actually become ironically cool if it exploded in the U.S.- almost like a status symbol to wear the impostor rather than the true brand. And as one of my favorite brand-related quotes says: “dollars spent ironically are still dollars!”