If you’ve been a regular visitor
to EasternShoreFishAndGame.com, you will know that I am a man who doesn’t mince
words or hide the truth.
I have written about the demise
of Montgomery Ward, Sears, Toys R Us, and Kmart, and will be commenting on the
critical condition of Lowe’s and JC Penney.
Throughout my years, I have
patronized all of those establishments and bought everything from clothes and
tools to guns and tires. And throughout
several of those transactions I wound up with varying degrees of success.
When I felt slighted as a
consumer I made the management aware of my feelings. More often than not, they would simply offer
lip service to the tune of the situation being out of their control; too bad.
Leaving an establishment with an
incomplete sense of accomplishment tends to make me look for another place at
which to conduct future business. And I
don’t believe I’m alone.
Chasing customers away is pretty
counterproductive to a good business plan.
Stores advertise via print, radio and television media, as well as the
internet through pop-up ads.
All this advertising costs money
and is designed to attract, and keep, buyers coming into your establishment to
spend more and more money.
That last paragraph is not some
well-kept secret among merchants and monstrous vending conglomerates. That is, after all, how these joints stay in
business.
Macy’s and other well-established
stores offer annual parades to attract parents and kids to buy stuff for
Christmas. Walmart publishes a regular
paper flyer in the daily newspaper, besides forwarding an e-version to my phone
– just to be sure I get it.
As you can tell, just going into
a store is not really enough. After the
initial visit, it is desirable to lure those same customers back in for repeat
sales. This is where coupons, loyal
customer cards, individual store credit plans, and layaways, excel.
So I began thinking about where
all those former unpleasant, smarmy, and unappreciative employees of Montgomery
Ward, Sears, Toys R Us, and Kmart, are now working.
It was an epiphany when I
recently saw a television advertisement for a product my Dad used, and
introduced me to some fifty-years ago.
Gillette razors, razor blades,
and bandages – no, Gillette doesn’t make bandages, but should – had become a
tradition in our household. It’s been
tidying up men’s faces for generations, with little or no complaints from the
female part of the families.
Great interest, is much too kind
to describe my feelings when I watched this feminization of the American man in
a Gillette television ad.
Some social do-gooder, who likely
makes too much money, created this slap-in-the-face of most men and many
Gillette product users.
In essence, it squarely placed
men into the Harvey Weinstein prison cell by somehow drawing a crooked line
from the segment of the human population with guy parts, to all those guys
being sexual perverts and misogynists.
Of course, Gillette is
wrong. Very few men mistreat women, and
need little for which to apologize.
Perhaps Gillette took this opportunity to rub the noses of American men
into some sort of imaginary pile of woosification as a publicity stunt, or
maybe they actually believe that tripe.
The very idea of them to offer
contrition on my behalf is not only arrogant, but offensive.
This is the part of the story
where I proudly announce I will no longer patronize Gillette because I am not a
part of their sick, contrived notion as to who consumes Gillette products. I’d rather continue standing to pee.
In any case, it would appear to
me that Gillette, a division of Kraft, is desperately trying to achieve the
same status as Montgomery Ward, Sears, Toys R Us, and Kmart – all
has-beens. Good job, Chairman and CEO
and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft!
