Posts tagged with ‘reviews’
A different kind of mouth guard
I was searching for a better alternative to the options I was familiar with for mouth guards (if you missed it, I’ve recently gotten into roller derby). Something that let me talk and drink— I was considering going to a dentist and getting something professional made. But I’m cheap, and I don’t really like dentists… Eventually I ran across something that I think is pretty cool.
I must have some sort of disease.
Really, I must. Me and my consumer brethren. At least, that’s how I feel when my products are scanned by register jockeys wearing surgical gloves.
I just don’t understand this phenomenon. If they are sick, and the gloves (often filthy from touching money all day) are an attempt to keep me from getting ill, well I would just prefer they stay home lest they sneeze.
If they’re worried about getting sick from their consumers… Well I have a problem with that. When you enter any industry that has extensive contact with people, have kids, or leave your house, you accept the risk of getting sick on occasion. It’s just life. I have never had the secretary at a hospital or clinic greet me while wearing surgical gloves. What makes these people, who have less contact with sick people, feel they need to “protect themselves” from the rest of the human race?
However, my point isn’t that these people are illogical (tangent!). It’s that the companies who, through allowing this phenomenon, are seeming perfectly ok with letting their employees treat their customers like leapers. Your customers should be your friends, your fans… your advocates. And they should be treated as accordingly, not like disease-addled outcasts.
RIP WaMu, I’ll miss you
I was never a WaMu customer. Which doesn’t mean I didn’t consider becoming one, if my existing bank had given me a hard time on something I would have made the switch. Banking being the way it is, that means it was only a matter of time… WaMu’s ads were fun, they had a sense of humor, I didn’t feel like I was walking into an armored car when I visited one. You could argue that creating a “safe” feeling should be the primary objective of banks, since they do handle your money after all. But with money being so thoroughly abstracted, so digitized now, feeling “safe” with my imaginary money isn’t really a concern. Modern currency use is more akin to poker chips at a casino than anything else. And look at how ridiculously those things are laid out.
You’re not buying an iPhone.
I’ve heard a lot of whining lately from the technophile community, and hell – even the general media – about the way Apple has been running its App Store. And I must say, I’m embarrassed. Spoiled children the lot of you. There is a new metaphor for consumer participation at play, and you’re completely missing it.
