Group Discounts, Hooligan Style.....

Got my latest newsletter from the folks over at Springwise (great site, you need to check it out if you are at all interested in new business ideas). And the following trend caught my eye....

Shoppers team up for better deals

Chinese shopping craze: consumers meet up in shops at a coordinated time, literally mobbing the seller and negotiating a group discount on the spot.

You ask why? - well since the beginning of time, People (that collective of folks out there living in the world) have always had power, but rarely do People realize it, let alone use it. Now that power can be used for good or bad - in this case, the power is used to get a better price.

Think about this, we all live in and around people, we go to worship (there are people there), our kids go so school (ah, more people) and we go to work (usually people there) -- are you seeing a pattern here?

We collectively have lots of power, I as an individual have limited power (as compared to People). Now, I'm not advocating a "borg" mentality - that everything is for the collective and nothing is for the individual. I'm just saying (don't you love that phrase?) that we belong to lots of communities of interest, and the whole is greater than the parts.

Besides, I like getting a deal just like the next guy.

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Stupid Questions - and why I hate them....

There is one thing you can't avoid in life and that's getting asked stupid questions (I mean the ones people think are legitimate questions, and you are supposed to answer). I was asked on the other day about "how many 'thingies' can a 'thingie' administrator administer?" Now, because I work for Meglacorp, I don't want to say exactly what the 'thingie' was, but believe me, in this instance, it doesn't matter, because they could have asked the following....

How much wood can a woodchuck chuck, when a woodchuck woodchucks wood?
or....
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, if Peter Piper picked a peck
pickled peppers, then how many peppers did Peter Piper pick?

In reality, it's the same question. I hate these questions, because there is NO ANSWER!!! Or a better explanation would be -- you have not given enough information to answer the question, therefore, there is no answer.

It's a dumb answer, so my answer was 23 (which was just as enlightened as the question and just as dumb).

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Power of Choice, Power to Choose

The internet has opened up a whole world of ideas, thoughts, channels for creativity, opportunities for change, allowed people to connect, meet, make friends (find enemies), communicate, and so on.

In my opinion, blogs (in all its variations - written, spoken, video) and blogging has changed the world's landscape and how we communicate. Blogs come in all forms, from the serious, to the surreal - from the funny to the absolutely stupid, but that's the great things about all this content -- it's choice media. I get to choose what I read/listen to/view, when I want to read/listen to/view.

Just thirty years ago, there were three major TV stations (plus PBS, and some UHF stations), about 5 types of radio stations (rock, easy listening, country, religious, talk), movies were release in theaters (no video yet) and one or two major newspapers in any single city -- and of course, no internet (or personal computers for that matter).

But 1985 (or let's say 1989), we did have personal computers, cable TV, movies on video tape and the beginnings of the internet (if only through services such as Compuserver, Delphi and Prodigy). And it wasn't until 1995 that the "modern" internet was starting to take off and we were warned about people lurking in chat rooms and stalkers on discussion forums.

2006 - there are more media outlets than ever (but does that me more choices, but less choice?) - Remember the song by Bruce Springsteen "400 Channels and Nothing On"? I say we have more choice and a lot more voices. Maybe Disney owns most of the cable stations and Gannett owns TV and Clear Channel owns Radio - how about the internet? Who owns it?

We are better off, we can choose what to watch/listen to/or view - Hell, we can create our own channels, our own newspapers, our own radio stations - all with the click of a button and the power of the internet.

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