Book Sale

[shostakovich]

My wife got an ad for reduced book store prices. The justification struck her as "political". Thought I'd toss it in here for chuckles.

"Do you believe in the universal dignity of humanity? That we are all imbued with the spark of the divine? That the universe is a process of upward development? There's a word for people like us:
LOSERS.

Face it, we lost, they won --- the pencil necks, the pea pushers, the ignoroids. That squishing sound you heard was the wheel of history crushing us under its weight."


Frankly, I would have put this in Culture Connections, but the mail was to my wife, and she thought it political.
Shos

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

I'd have filed it under "Cheesy and Wrong". How many people read for pleasure now? (I was in the Barnes & Noble last weekend, it was pretty busy.) How many people, proportionately, were reading for pleasure 500 years ago? 1000? 2000?

I suspect that the shriveled pencil neck who wrote the ad was the ignoroid.

[DavidS]

Originally posted by Selma in Sandy Eggo:
I'd have filed it under "Cheesy and Wrong". How many people read for pleasure now? (I was in the Barnes & Noble last weekend, it was pretty busy.) How many people, proportionately, were reading for pleasure 500 years ago? 1000? 2000?

I suspect that the shriveled pencil neck who wrote the ad was the ignoroid.

Selma - what proportion of the population could read at all 500 years ago?
And those that could - my guess is that it was mainly in the "clerical" or "professional" realm, and not as recreation. (Now analyse the connection between "recreation" and "Creation"...)

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Originally posted by DavidS:
Selma - what proportion of the population could read [b]at all 500 years ago? [/b]

I'd intended that point as part of my argument. The cheesy ad suggested that the barbarians had gained ground and overcome the civilized few: I meant to suggest that, on the whole, more people had achieved a more civilized life now than in the past.

Originally posted by DavidS:
(Now analyse the connection between "recreation" and "Creation"...)

Sadly, this analysis requires more philosophy than I can generate this time of the evening. Or perhaps any time of the day. I never claimed that I was the epitome of the civilized woman; I'm a practical, crafty, literate cavewoman. But my cave has electricity and furniture and two resident cats.

[DavidS]

Originally posted by Selma in Sandy Eggo:
I'm a practical, crafty, literate cavewoman. But my cave has electricity and furniture and two resident cats.

My condition too, in many ways: I am fairly computer-literate (MS Office and the like), but when it comes to using a camera, for example, I'm a Luddite.
Yes, technically I get the hang of it (RTBM! - I don't even drive a new car without doing that first), but I just do not get the aesthetics, picture composition & other stuff right.

[Shapley]

shos,

I guess I'm a bit confused. Are they claiming that no one is reading, or that no one is coming into their store? Is he lamenting that the pencil necks and the pea pushers are ordering their books online and not driving through traffic, trying to find a parking place near their store, and then suffering through their rude service (I am assuming they are rude based on the tone of their ad), to buy a book for the same or a higher price than they can get it online? Of course, the ignoroids aren't buying books at all, nothing that can be done about that.

Whatever the case, I don't think insulting your potential clients is likely to improve business. Perhaps they need a consultant to explain to them the reasons for their falling business.

V/R
Shapley

<small>[ 03-16-2006, 01:03 PM: Message edited by: Shapley ]</small>

[OperaTenor]

Must be a "going out of business" sale.

They certainly deserve to.

[DavidS]

Originally posted by Shapley:
shos,

I guess I'm a bit confused. Are they claiming that no one is reading, or that no one is coming into their store. Is he lamenting that the pencil necks and the pea pushers are ordering their books online and not driving through traffic, trying to find a parking place near their store, and then suffering through their rude service (I am assuming they are rude based on the tone of their ad), to buy a book for the same or a higher price than they can get it online? Of course, the ignoroids aren't buying books at all, nothing that can be done about that.

Whatever the case, I don't think insulting your potential clients is likely to improve business. Perhaps they need a consultant to explain to them the reasons for their falling business.

V/R
Shapley

You'd have thought that by now, in this day and age, people running book (and any other) shops (usually chains nowadays) would know how to respect their customers, as well as locate in malls without parking problems or places with decent public transportation access.
Of course they have to compete with Internet marketing, but many have learned that "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!"

[Shapley]

I probably buy as many books at the bookstore as I do online. If I know the name of the book I'm looking for, I'll usually just go online and order it. It'll be here in a few days, won't cost any more than at the store, and I'm spared the difficulty of looking for it (and being disappointed if they don't have it) or waiting in line to ask a clerk to find it for me.

On the other hand, I'm in the bookstore at least once a week (having a Starbucks inside is a great marketing ploy!), browsing the books in the Sailing section and in the sale bins. I look through the new arrivals and I look in the 'young adults' section to find books of interest to my son. If the store isn't friendly, clean, and well-stocked, I won't waste my time or money there. Fortunately, ours is all three (in fact, it is expanding now, and adding a music department ).

I don't like browsing online. If I'm looking for a book on a particular subject, such as boat plans, rigging, or hull construction, I'll browse the online sources, but if I'm just looking for reading material, I prefer a bookstore. I was looking for a copy of Paul Bunyan a short time ago, one that included the poem The Great Round River Drive, and could not find one. I looked in all the bookstores here, since the only way I know to find out what's inside is to look inside, but could not find it. I wound up going online searching there. While both Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com offer the "look inside" feature on many books, it was not available for Paul Bunyan. I wound up ordering a copy online, but it turned out not to have the poem inside .

I wound up going to a website that had the poem and printing it out. pity.

V/R
Shapley

[piqaboo]

My fav location for bookstores is in the same place as a grocery store. Unfortunately, I rarely get to experience this.
Parking is easy, Im there anyway, etc.

[BigJon@Work]

Originally posted by Shapley:
Whatever the case, I don't think insulting your potential clients is likely to improve business.

Why not? The beer companies do it all time. I'd be routinely insulted if I was a beer drinker. Is there any other business where it is considered SOP to insult their customers with their ads?

[Shapley]

BigJon,

I guess I haven't watched a beer ad in a long time, so I'm not sure what they're up to.

However, the book sale ad seems to indicate that the world is made up of four kinds of peoples: pencil necks, pea pushers (what, exactly, is a pea-pusher, anyway?), ignoroids, and losers, and that, since the recipient was a loser, (s)he may as well come and buy a book.

I'm no advertising executive, but something about that approach just seems wrong.

V/R
Shapley

<small>[ 03-16-2006, 03:49 PM: Message edited by: Shapley ]</small>

[barfle]

I'm sooooooo confused! :confused:

When I first saw this thread, I thought it might have been about, well, book sales. But it turns out, it's a gripe about a tactic from a bookstore (although I didn't quite get that from the first message).

To me, the tactic seemed to be one of those "we lost some kind of political battle (maybe they specialize in Pandas and People?) and we need the money." I get plenty of mailers like that, as you might well imagine.

I buy books from many sources, including full-list price bookstores, on-line, used book stores, but my favorite is the sales put on by the local public library. Where else can you get a gently used book for 50¢?

And the only place I've seen my favorite brand of beer actually advertised was on the side of Michael Schumacher's F1 Ferrari. I know why Budweiser uses horses in its ads.

[Haggis@wk]

That's what I like about this board, we can make even the most boring s**t sound interesting!

Now, someone needs to find a really, good offensive ad for hemorrhoid cream (hint: they’re all offensive) and then we can talk about it.

And while we’re at it, I presume from the dearth of hemorrhoid ads on T.V. these days (and I’m not complaining, mind) that the affliction must be cured? If we can only get rid of those damn “feminine product” ads, I’ll be happy.

I want some ads that I can relate to, scotch, bourbon, scotch, gin, scotch…..you know what I mean RELEVANT ads!!!

[shostakovich]

shos,

I guess I'm a bit confused. Are they claiming that no one is reading, or that no one is coming into their store? Is he lamenting that the pencil necks and the pea pushers are ordering their books online and not driving through traffic, trying to find a parking place near their store, and then suffering through their rude service (I am assuming they are rude based on the tone of their ad), to buy a book for the same or a higher price than they can get it online? Of course, the ignoroids aren't buying books at all, nothing that can be done about that.

Whatever the case, I don't think insulting your potential clients is likely to improve business. Perhaps they need a consultant to explain to them the reasons for their falling business.

V/R
Shapley
-------------------------------------------------------
Hi Shap. Let me answer some of your questions. I think it's frustration that used-book stores (such as the one who sent the card) are suffering from internet purchase, internet information, and the general trend (if there is one) away from the types of books this shop prizes. They are located not far from UMass, MT Holyoke, Smith, Hampshire, and Amherst Colleges. This might explain the snotty tone, although it might have been toungue-in-cheek (I sense anger more than humor). I have no idea what "pencil necks" and "pea pushers" might mean.

Sorry Barfle for not putting quotes around "Book Sale". Apologies to all who were irritate by the thread. I would be happy to deep six it.

R. I. P.

Shos

[Shapley]

Shos,

I think that, if the intent was to be humorous, they fell short of the mark.

V/R
Shapley

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Can we expand the "offensive" list to include male potency pharmaceuticals?

I wouldn't mind at all if we got rid of all the pharmaceutical ads.

[barfle]

Shos, no need to deep six anything. Your last message filled in a few blanks that, not being from your neck of the woods, I didn't grasp.

Used book store. Liberal bent. Self-described (though mistaken) "conservative" administration.

Pencil-neck, as I've heard it, is an adjective usually applied to "geek." Freddie Blassie made it up.

[barfle]

[quote]Originally posted by Selma in Sandy Eggo:
[b]I wouldn't mind at all if we got rid of all the pharmaceutical ads.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Originally posted by barfle:

Originally posted by Selma in Sandy Eggo:
[b]I wouldn't mind at all if we got rid of all the pharmaceutical ads.

:D

Damitol, a used book from a rude ignoroid bookstore, some of Haggis' leftover scotch, and a 12-gauge. Good to go!