Yuppies can be so funny, sometimes. They’re not so funny when you have to deal with them directly, though. They’re not only self-centered beyond description, but they are also completely helpless and have no logical thinking skills at all. But observing them from a distance is a real hoot.
Retailers learned quite a while back that you can easily fleece the Yuppies’ pocketbooks by doing simple things like adding the word “convenient” on the label and then raising the price. They’ll fall for it everytime.
About ten years ago, one of our local grocery chains implemented this trick perfectly. While passing through the meat department one day, I saw a stack of those little foam trays that they package smaller meat cuts that instead contained about 5 or 6 onion rings in them. Not battered or fried or anything, just raw onion, about one slice worth. On the plastic wrap was one of those “Serving Suggestion” stickers that said something to the order of “Lightly fry in oil until transparent and serve with steaks or chops.” And they were priced at $1.99 a pound.
Surely this is a joke, I thought. The butchers are back there watching through that one-way glass and getting a big chuckle out of Yuppy Mom grabbing a packaged onion slice. “Hey, Jack …. come’ere …. we’ve just hooked another one!” But that joke turned out to be quite profitable. They sold those inflated onion rings for about five years or so.
What brought all this to mind was my trip to a local grocery yesterday. Walking through the produce section, I noticed a bin of potatoes that were all individually wrapped in plastic. And I’m wondering why in the world potatoes would be individually wrapped. So I picked one up and inspected it, thinking it might be some special prepared side dish or something.
Nope, it was just an ordinary potato. Not a large one, either. Just fist-sized. Then I read the label on the wrapper. It informs us that the potato is “microwave ready” and instructs the owner to leave the wrapper on and put it in the microwave for 7-8 minutes and it will come out tasting just like it was baked. And the price for this specially-wrapped potato? They were selling them to those busy-Moms-on-the-go for only… get this ….. $1.49 each.
Yuppies can be so funny, sometimes.
After you finish chuckling over that one, let’s get this equipment checked out now. I need to make some more coffee. See you later in the day room.
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