American Businesses are shooting themselves in the foot

 

     I knew this fact was true for many years. Today, I realized that I should put these thoughts on paper so that people might see the error of their ways. Laughing out loud. In the day’s mail, I received an advertisement for gardening supplies. You know, seeds, bulbs, plants, gardening tools, gardening books, composting kits, magazines on the subject, Arbor Day information, and of-course the cookbooks.

 

     But out of this cornucopia of horticultural literature was this black spot of life, a card that says, The Good News of the End of the World. This one for the burn pile, I said to myself. I will be writing a stiff letter to this advertizing company telling them about the great optimism that people who work with the earth have. They have what made this country great. It was not a belief in God or kowtowing to the cancers of Conservatisms; it was the seven inches of top soil and the thirty inches of annual rainfall.

 

     Was this the only company that didn’t understand business? In my town, no. Years ago, I was looking for a cobbler or as least someone who repairs shoes. Being large of foot, I had always had this problem. I entered his shop with a bag full of my late brother’s shoes, looking to stretch size 14 into 15’s. While waiting to be served, I noticed countless black & white posters, the kind a cheap printer would make. All the posters spoke of a hatred for anything of evolution and those people who understand science. He couldn’t help me, I never returned. The business gradually merged into the next door bar.

 

     My bank of many years had a television set running in the lobby. It was usually tuned to business stations, but recently images from the FOX network. The program Glen ‘the sky is falling’ Beck was spouting off comparing our newest President to Benito Mussolini. Last week, Beck was comparing Obama to Hitler. The bank finally figured it out when Beck was selling gold instead of bank CD’s. The weather channel is now playing in the bank lobby.

 

     Good restaurants are hard to find in our neck of the woods. Brats and hamburgers are the filet and mignons to many Wisconsin folks. A new restaurant opened from a high class place that closed months before. My wife and I tried out the new eatery. Like many restaurants in Wisconsin, bars are a part of the establishment. Customers need to walk through the bar first to get to a table. At one o-clock in the afternoon, two drones took their places at the bar. The waitress led us to our table. While we were reading the nicely printed menu, I commented to my wife that all the women employees were pregnant. Something in the water I guess. We looked at the water glasses. The waitress took our orders and made a big deal about their garlic mashed potatoes. We ordered them.

 

     While waiting for our food, we noticed a large flat screen TV on a stage. It was on mute, but the program was advertizing through sub-titles of all things Colon Cleaners. It couldn’t be a view of forests and waterfalls or some such beauty, but these two guys talking about the virtues of their products. Ten to fifteen minutes later our orders arrived. Instead of the great garlic potatoes, French fries were served. We said nothing. The meal was Ok . We paid our bill and left. We complained to ourselves why there wasn’t a restaurant critic in the paper. A couple months later, the restaurant closed.

 

     And another problem with restaurants. About sixteen years ago, I moved to this town. I noticed that many  eateries do not include their address or phone number within their advertisement.  This so-call error was made every week in the dinning section of the paper.  Most of these restaurants were nothing to write home about. I recently got in the mail an upscale magazine. Within the mag was this half page full color ad. Must have cost the diner a pretty penny.  In the middle of the ad was this statement, “Make your reservations early!” How, I thought, “Smoke signals!”

 

    Yes, there is evolution. Businesses that fail to change die. Businesses that change get to live on, for a bit.