Do Sneakers Really Need to Be High Tech Or Made By Designers?

Whoever said that running was a cheap exercise has not seen the receipts for my running shoes.

Unknown

I know they’re not called sneakers anymore; now they’re walkers, trainers or runners and there’s a shoe specific to any and every sport. And that’s not all. There are shoes actually constructed for different gaits. How many of you know if you overpronate or supinate (which is actually underpronation)? Or do you need a neutral runner (which means that you don’t over or under pronate)? You now need extensive medical training to understand what type of sneakers to buy and a big wallet because high tech sneakers don't come cheap.

When I was a kid we all had a pair of sneakers, usually white which we made dirty as quickly as possible. I can’t remember why but we never wanted our sneakers to look new. They certainly weren’t expensive and we wore them during gym class or out playing so we wouldn’t ruin our good (and expensive) shoes that we wore to school.

Sneakers are now a fashion item and all of the designers are in the game. They don’t care if you overpronate or supinate. They only care that you’ll spend hundreds of dollars to make what they consider to be a fashion statement in designer sneakers; and the prices will make your head spin!

• Maison Margiela: $1,256.00
• Valentino: $1,060.00
• Guiseppe Zanotti: $983.00
• Givenchy: $895.00
• Fendi: $700.00
• Prada: $595.00
• Alexander McQueen: $575.00
• Stella McCartney: $565.00

I have to confess to how unfashionable I really am. I was recently away on my annual golf holiday with my friend Sue and we went outlet shopping at the Birch Run Outlet Mall in Michigan. At the Easy Spirit store in the clearance section I found great sneakers for $14.95, and they’re cute too! I was so excited that I bought 2 pairs. Last Saturday I was out walking in my new $14.95 sneakers for 2.5 hours and I can honestly tell you that I’ve never worn anything more comfortable in my life. Every year on my annual pilgrimage to Michigan I'll be visiting the Easy Spirit store to stock up on sneakers. I can say with a great deal of certainty that designer sneakers will never be in my future.

Dudes can’t afford to take their girl on $200 dates cuz they buy $200 sneakers every weekend to impress other men.

oliviabosschick

Make someone smile today.

Geri

Has Texting Made Us Forget How to Write Proper English?

What do people do with all the extra time they save by writing “k” instead of “OK”?

Unknown

I don’t know about you but text message shorthand drives me nuts! There are books about it and websites dedicated to it. It’s bad enough that I have to look at these coded messages in a text, but text message shorthand has now crept into emails as well. If I get another email with “CU soon” instead of “see you soon”, I’m going to vomit.

I suppose that my aversion to the bastardization of the English language is due to the fact that I’m an old fart and a writer. I love language – the language of William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Bob Dylan. At the age of 62, I come from the “letter writing age” which sadly has gone the way of cassettes, VHS and floppy discs. Personally I don’t give a hoot about cassettes, VHS and floppy discs. In fact, I embrace the cloud and on-demand viewing! But language is hallowed ground. I’d love to know what Oscar Wilde would have to say about text shorthand.

Another pet peeve from our new “age of abbreviation” is people that send you an email and only sign their first initial. I don’t know anyone whose name is so long that writing it would represent a hardship.

I suppose that this new fangled form of writing is considered progress. Although I embrace technology, I’m devoted to my Smartphone and I cut the cable cord and stream television, I can’t get on board with text message shorthand. I suppose that’s my line in the sand. I will continue to love language and to express myself with whole words, spelled out – even in a text message. So please if you’re texting me or emailing me, write out the words and write your name at the end of an email.

Was that semi-colon some kind of flirty wink or just bad punctuation?

Azadeh Aalai

Make someone smile today.

Geri

Do Your Loyalty Programs Deserve Your Loyalty?

Do Your Loyalty Programs Deserve Your Loyalty?

The way to a customer’s heart is much more than a loyalty program. Making customer evangelists is about creating experiences worth talking about.

Valeria Maltoni

How many loyalty programs do you belong to? The average person belongs to 13.3 loyalty programs but only participates in 6.7 (Bond Brand Loyalty). If you’re like me you belong to loyalty programs that you never think about and rarely or never use.

Lately I’ve been reading a lot about digital wallets that store your loyalty cards and I decided to download a free app called Key Ring. I took all of the loyalty cards out of my wallet and discovered that I was a member of several programs that I never use, so I tossed those. I still belong to 10 loyalty programs and to be quite honest I only see a benefit to belonging to 5 of the programs. 

1. PC Plus: groceries
2. HBC Rewards: Hudson’s Bay store
3. Shoppers Optimum: Shoppers Drug Mart
4. Scene: Cineplex movies
5. Boyne Rewards: Boyne resorts

For the most part with the others, I’d have to live to be well over 100 before deriving any reward (which is the only benefit). But as consumers, we get sucked into signing up. After all, it’s free, so what do we have to lose? In reality what we end up with is a wallet full of useless plastic and more spam than we know what to do with. We’ve given these companies permission to email us with specials and promotions and the reality is that they’ve most likely sold their lists to other companies who will be sending us specials and promotions, clogging up our inboxes or spam folders.

Do your loyalty programs deserve your loyalty? Most of mine don’t and I bet yours don’t either.

Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.

Jeffrey Gitomer

Make someone smile today.

Geri

Are Recruiters a Necessary Evil or Necessary at All?

We’re looking for someone with the wisdom of a 50-year old, the experience of a 40-year old, the drive of a 30-year old and the pay scale of a 20-year old.

Randy Glasbergen

The quote above is funny but true. We live in a society where we want everything for nothing and this applies to talent as well. I can’t tell you how many job descriptions I’ve seen with a laundry list of required skills that would make the mind reel. But, the catch is that they only ask for 2 – 3 years experience. Of course this just isn’t possible but it’s fair warning that they’re only going to pay the wage of an entry level position and they’re hoping that you’re desperate enough to accept it.

Recruiters used to be professionals in every sense of the word. Now most of them are no more than order takers (my apologies to the few really good recruiters out there). If they think they can make a quick buck from placing you they’ll hunt you down like a dog but otherwise good luck trying to get a call back or God forbid some professional courtesy. Many have little to no understanding about the jobs they’re recruiting for and when they review resumes they have a list of requirements and they just tick off the boxes. If you’ve used exactly the words they’re looking for on your resume and there are enough ticks, they’ll call you for a phone interview which more often than not is a complete and utter waste of time. Based on the number of ticks on your resume and if they liked you (or not) during the phone interview they will or won’t pass your resume onto the hiring manager. Given the quality of recruiters I’ve seen over the years I’d say that the industry is in desperate need of a major overhaul. The amount of good people that are passed over due to ignorance is staggering. How often have you heard someone comment on the fact that they applied for a job that was a perfect fit and never got a call? And when they reached out to the recruiter they never had a response.

Considering the piss-poor job most recruiters are doing, what do we need them for? A computer can check the resumes against the keywords. And believe me, those phone interviews accomplish nothing. So let’s get rid of recruiters, save a lot of money and let’s start paying the talent what they’re really worth.  

We’re looking for managers that demonstrate high levels of emotional intelligence. Please try on this mood ring.

a.bacall

Make someone smile today.

Geri

Canada Has a Lot to Learn About Outlet Shopping from the U.S.

Two things that women love to hear:

1.   I love you

2.   That’s on sale

Unknown

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m a dyed-in-the-wool bargain shopper. If something’s not at least 50% off I won’t even waste my time looking at it. Even at 50% off I’m not likely to buy it; more often than not that’s my starting point. My late father Joe was the ultimate bargain shopper and no one loved a deal more than he did. His level of bargain shopping skill is hard to live up to and whenever I’m out shopping I guarantee you Joe’s circling overhead to see how I’m doing. After I’ve paid I can usually hear him say, “I could have got a better deal” and he’d no doubt be right. But, there are times he’d smile.

My friend Sue and I were recently in Michigan on our annual girls’ golf week at www.boyne.com in Northern Michigan. We drive to Boyne and on route there is the mother of all outlet malls - Birch Run, the likes of which you just can’t find in Canada. Sadly in Canada outlet malls are typically no more than a collection of big box stores. The deals aren’t any better than you’d find anywhere else. Their only advantage I suppose is that there are a bunch of them in one place. The reality is that I can do better at the Bay, so why bother? But, at Birch Run, Michigan the deals are amazing, regardless of the exchange on the Canadian dollar! If the exchange rate was 50% the deals that Sue and I got would still be worth it.

So why can’t Canadian (so called) outlet malls be more like their American cousins? I’d prefer to spend my dollars in Canada if all things were equal. But, they’re not. The reality is that the deals are in the U.S. and next year on our way to Boyne Sue and I will again stop at Birch Run and spend the better part of half a day scooping up the bargains that we can’t possibly find at home. And these are bargains that Joe would be proud of!

You had me at clearance.

Unknown

Make someone smile today.

Geri