Entries from December 2007

Pee’ing Green

December 30, 2007 · 2 Comments

Last month I had the opportunity to attend the “Green Build” construction trade show in Chicago. Featuring all of the latest materials for environmentally responsible roofing, lumber, insulation, etc, “Green Build” displayed what will hopefully become the future of construction.

One interesting product was the flushless urinal. These devices, intended for commercial mens rooms look and operate just like a standard urinal except they require NO water.

Instead, there is a replaceable cartridge containing a liquid that is lighter than urine. The result is that the urine passes through the barrier liquid and goes down the drain while the barrier fluid remains.

The upside is that the urinal uses ZERO water per user rather than one gallon for the most efficient conventional urinals.

I had previously seen these at a zoo and also at a LEED certified building. However, I had never seen one in a typical retail setting.

Until today…
CONGRATULATIONS TO “WAHOO” RESTAURANT IN ENCINITAS, CALIFORNIA!

Wahoo estimates that their urinal is used 16 times each hour during the 11 hours they are open each day. That’s 16 gallons of fresh water saved per hour. 1232 gallons per week. More than 64,000 gallons each year.

Best yet, at only $299, the flushless urinal is competitive with a standard urinal and even with the cost of periodically changing the cartridge, it’s green benefits don’t carry much of a price.

Wahoo made a conscious choice to take a leadership position by adopting a new product that helps the world a little bit.

My challenge to you is to look around and see what you can do. Change the urinal. Swap out some incandescent lightbulbs for compact fluorescent. Install a water filter and get rid of bottled water.

There are so many things we can do to help our earth - many don’t even require a cost or adjustment on our part. Just a simple choice to do right.
Marc Bluestone

Categories: Retail
Tagged: ,

Does Anyone Come To Your Party?

December 26, 2007 · No Comments

I don’t know what it is lately, but it seems like wherever I look some business is forgetting to include basic information in their advertising.  It’s like sending a party invitation without disclosing your identity.

 

My wife asked me to look up the phone # for a large (nationally known) producer of real estate signs the other day.  I Googled them and instantly had their web address.

 

I went to their website expecting to see their phone # of the home page.  No.

 

Maybe it’s on the about us page?  No.

 

It was nowhere.  To get their #, I had to go back to Google where dozens of listings OTHER THAN THEIR OWN had their phone #.

 

In another instance this week, I received an email advertisement from a local retailer trying to drum up some last minute sales.

 

Unfortunately, the only place their name was listed was on the email address.  No logo.  No phone #. No address.

 

In yet another example, I received an advertising postcard from a private school.  No Logo. No phone #.  Their name was mentioned only within the ad copy (that most people don’t read).

 

It happens all the time and it causes money and effort to bring far less return than desired.

The solution?  You need a checklist and some standards.

 

What standard information should every communication carry?

 

Name?

Address?

Phone #?

Web address?

Email address?

Store hours?

Logo?

Slogan?

 

You decide… then create a checklist that must be signed off on before any marketing gets finalized.

 

Otherwise, you might throw a party and no one will come.

Categories: Retail

Change Requires Vision & Courage

December 20, 2007 · No Comments

I attended a funeral today for a person that meant a lot to my wife when she was growing up.

The funeral was in a church in a rural community an hour west of St. Louis.

The church was filled with grey haired men and women - many into their 90’s. There were also, of course, numerous younger people representing their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I was surprised when the pastor began the service - he was maybe 35 years old. From the makeup of the community, I expected him to be much older.

During the service, my mind wandered and I could almost see the board meeting of church leaders debating whether to hire such a young pastor.

I imagined that the church must have had a problem of losing young families as they failed to connect to the previous leader (later confirmed).The board was made up of elders and they knew it was their responsibility to keep the church strong for the next generation.

At the end of my mental movie, I imagined that it must have taken a lot of vision and courage to create such fundemental change.

Vision to see that they had a problem (attrition of families) and to see a way to fix it (young vibrant leadership).

Courage to actually do what they knew was right (make a change and possibly alienate or infuriate some parishioners).

In another part of my life, I was involved in similar type of decision. It involved creating a change with the hope of making something work better (for confidentiality reasons I am purposely being vague).

The vision was in seeing that we had an opportunity to make something better and to better use someone’s talents.

The courage was the knowledge that the person might not see it that way - or that others may not agree at first.

I think that our lives (both personally and professionally) contain numerous opportunities to create positive change and to solve problems if we can just have the vision to see it.

Then, the change actually happens when we have the courage to take a controlled risk to make it happen.

What problems or opportunities can you see if you open your mind?

Do you have the courage to make it happen - even if it’s hard?

Marc Bluestone

Categories: Blogroll · Customer Service · Retail
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Buy Memory Now!

December 19, 2007 · No Comments

It is a nearly inarguable fact that computers with more RAM (random access memory) work better than computers with less.

It used to be that choosing how to outfit your computer with memory was a complex decision based on balancing performance with price.

No longer!

Memory has become cheap and there has never been a better time to bulk up your computer.

For the most part, if your computer (laptop or desktop) has less than 2 GB of RAM, then you could benefit from increasing to that level.

While the cost of adding just 512k of RAM might have been a hundred or more dollars just a few years ago, today you can do it for about $15.  1 GB chips can be bought for about $30 and 2 GB for about $75 (prices are for memory to fit a Dell Latitude computer at www.crucial.com).

It is probably the fastest and least expensive way to make your computer more reliable.

CAUTION: If you are buying a new computer, many brands have not reduced their prices to reflect the lower cost of after market memory.

In this case, you would want to buy the computer with the lowest possible amount of memory and then buy aftermarket memory to bring it up to speed.  Just be sure to buy from a reputable vendor (like Crucial or Kingston) and it will work like new.

 

Marc

Categories: Retail
Tagged: ,

We’re Closed

December 5, 2007 · No Comments

Sorry for my absence.  I have heard about it from too many readers.  I have been on the road but am back now.  Here’s a thought from my return flight…

 

I had a 6:00am flight and I was hunting around the airport for some food to take on the airplane.

 

I love the fruit/yogurt parfaits they sell in the airport so that was my main mission.

 

Starbucks didn’t have any nor did the other food shops.

 

Then I noticed a Chili’s “To-Go”.

 

The lights were off but the door was open. I walked in and there were the refrigerated display cases filled with exactly what I wanted – fruit cups too.

 

There were at least 8 employees milling around getting ready for the day.  There were at least were at least two manager looking people.

 

I stood at the counter and was looked at and subsequently ignored by each of them.

 

I starting saying “hello” and “good morning” rather loudly until a manager came to speak with me.

 

I said “can I buy something.”

 

He said we’re closed.  Come back at 6:00. 

I explained that I would be on my plane by then.  I said I’d be happy to pay any way that worked best for him including overpaying by cash to be sure the tax was covered.

 

He said “we’re closed. Come back later.”  (Side note: During all the time I was trying to get someone’s attention, I could easily have just walked off with the food).

 

Unbelievable. He could have started his day with an extra 10 bucks. Also, he lost good will – I walked away mad.

 

The message for all of us has to be that every customer who walks through our door is an opportunity not to be missed.  Open or closed we must figure out a way to do everything we can to serve them.

 

Marc

Categories: Retail