With Groupon’s S-1 filing for its IPO, and the previous $6B bid by Google, the business of creating new marketing vehicles for promoting local businesses is sizzling hot. I’m watching the trend from the other side too. How does a local business actually grab these tools and technologies for itself? My favorite recent experience happened [...]
Archive for the ‘American culture’ Category
The ridiculous and the sublime in a New York john
Posted in American culture, Design, tagged Eataly on April 24, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Look at the upper right of this photo. Why doesn’t every toilet seat have this little “lift here” handle? It could save many a marriage. And in a public restroom like this one it’s like a small smart “gift”. A splash of thoughtfulness. (Pun intended, look closely at the picture.) I have to admit that, [...]
What does the price of tomatoes have to do with anything?
Posted in American culture, Citizen Commerce, tagged Imoakalee Workers, Stop & Shop on February 28, 2011 | 5 Comments »
My eyes perked up when I saw this headline “Farm workers to pressure Stop & Shop.” (Stop & Shop is the most prominent Massachusetts grocery chain.) The thrust of the article is a campaign by the Florida based Coalition of Immokalee Workers to increase the price of tomatoes by $0.01 per pound. The article explains [...]
L.L. Bean understands that even the store door handles matter
Posted in American culture, Cultural anthropology, Design, tagged L.L. Bean on February 1, 2011 | 6 Comments »
I dropped $250 on new X-country ski bindings and boots this weekend. That’s a ton of dough to me. And since I haven’t bought ski equipment in 20+ years, the purchase destination was pretty much a jump ball. I might be more overtly reflective on this kind of decision than the average bear, but most [...]
Real Deal Road Trip No. 12: Yankee and Make Magazine HQ’s
Posted in American culture, Design, tagged Dale Dougherty, Make Magazine, The Old Farmer's Almanac, Yankee Magazine on October 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I’m always surprised at how down to earth small to medium size publisher offices tend to be. Case in point. Here’s where Make Magazine tests the projects they publish. That’s founder Dale Dougherty in the photo. Make Magazine (and parent O’Reilly Media) are in beautiful Sebastopol, California. The field trip there was a real treat [...]
Flying pumpkins
Posted in American culture, Citizen Commerce, tagged American Chunker, Bingham Lumber, Brian Labrie, Punkin Chunker on October 13, 2010 | 10 Comments »
After my amusing encounter with faux pumpkin patches in California, I took a spin to pick up pumpkins closer to home, and do a little early leaf peeping (the colors are late this year, seems to me). The Sunday drive turned out to be a pumpkin field day. First off, check out the stems on [...]
(Not) Real Deal Road Trip #1
Posted in American culture on October 7, 2010 | 6 Comments »
I’m in the Bay Area for the week. After an afternoon on sterile Sand Hill I treated myself to a drive through gorgeous Half Moon Bay. I had no idea this is Pumpkin Central. What made me do a double take is that I kept driving by places with big signs advertising “Pumpkin Farm” and [...]
Grommet in the wild (can I call a person a Grommet?)
Posted in American culture, tagged Highest Duty, Jeffrey Zaslow, Last Lecture, Randy Pausch, Sully Sullenberger, The Girls from Ames on October 4, 2010 | 3 Comments »
I had the pleasure of hearing author and WSJ columnist Jeffrey Zaslow speaking last night, at a Carnegie Mellon alumni event. We featured his wonderful book about friendship on Grommet last year. You probably know his most prominent book which is an international phenomenon, having sold 5 million copies in the US alone, and translated [...]
Rise of the little guy
Posted in American culture, tagged chobani, oikos, Stonyfield Farm on October 2, 2010 | 6 Comments »
I’m in the emergency room with my son. Skateboard spill gone bad. As long as he does not move his arm he is comfortable. So much for his movie with friends (The Social Network). So much for the adult dinner and play. So I’m eating a banana, and a strawberry Oikos yogurt. My son knows [...]
Why you are not a sap for buying high-priced milk
Posted in American culture, tagged 3/50 Project, Anne Marie Jonah, David Whitford, Supportland on September 25, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Wherever I go, I always try to check out the local retail scene. Lately, from Austin to Ann Arbor, I see extensive “Buy Local” marketing campaigns. It’s great to see there are two broader efforts to amp up this worthy cause. First, there’s the national 3/50 project. (Thanks for pointing me at this Anne Marie [...]
Pages
My Work
Subscribe
Category Cloud
Archives
My Licensing Terms
My latest Tweets
- Terrific letter by Mass. Rep. DeLeo An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg - Menlo Park, CA Patch menlopark.patch.com/articles/an-op… 11 hours ago
- Thanks for the RT @bussgang: The best endorsement for AirBnB you'll ever read ("Sleeping w/a Stranger") bostinno.com/channels/sleep… via @BostInno 16 hours ago
- pinterest.com/pin/7881306219… Saw these Bonobos pants on a guy this weekend and really liked the way the pocket lining peeks out. 1 day ago
