Tote ‘Em Up
Human-interest stories pull at the hearts of readers worldwide. Stories of great leaders inspire the masses. And you can have them all. Give me numbers.
Human-interest stories pull at the hearts of readers worldwide. Stories of great leaders inspire the masses. And you can have them all. Give me numbers.
When economic times look bad – and, right now, it’s sliding into ugliness – travel isn’t the first thing on the list with your business … unless you’re planning to skip town with a bag full of loot and a one-way ticket to Obscurityville.
“So this guy walks into a fabrication shop, see, and says, ‘I want a countertop!’ So we ask him where it goes and what kind of stone and what edge and what kind of sink and … well, he couldn’t take it! He ends up going to (your favorite whipping boy here) and the next thing I hear, he’s swearing up and down that it’s crap! Ha! Serves him right!”
By Emerson Schwartzkopf
In late 2003 – somewhere in those times where you hid the phone under a wastebasket to avoid new customers – I noticed that a fabricator in one of our articles talked about planning for the slowdown in the market. Should that stay in, I thought, and make the guy look dopey?
Leave it to our federal government this month to finally say we’re in a recession – and that we’ve been in one for a year. Maybe some officials finally did some research beyond numbers and reports, such as driving around a random selection of strip malls anywhere in the country.
Even if I shut off the TV, quit reading the Business section of the newspaper, and shy away from anything smacking of finance on the ‘Net, I can’t get away from today’s outta-control economy. It’s in full evidence right across the street.
In the past few months, it’s not hard to think … no, worry … no, reach for the bottle, whether it’s aspirin or a tastier painkiller, when it comes to the state of the stone trade today. There’s the economy, the deadly last lunges of collapsing cut-rate competitors, foreign exchange rates that spin as fast as the price register at the gas pump and, well, The New York Times.
When selling a great product, it’s hard to believe that people don’t like it as much as you do. Unfortunately for the stone trade, those of lesser faith are heading for your front door.
By Emerson Schwartzkopf
If there’s one word that gets overused today – besides green – it’s revolutionary.
“Say good-bye to granite countertops.”