Our oldest daughter, Luca, has been asking for the Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 video game for the Nintendo DS. While I was cutting an apple for her this afternoon we had this conversation:

Luca: I want Mario vs. Donkey Kong now

Me: You’ll have to ask Santa Claus

Luca: Which comes faster, Thanksgiving or Christmas?

Me: Thanksgiving

Luca: Then I’m gonna ask Santa for it for Thanksgiving

I really like this story of Vinnie’s Sub Shop that closes for the day when that day’s fresh bread is all gone. This translate to nearly all businesses. Do you know your product or service well enough to do what Vinnie’s does and close shop when you can no longer offer the best? This could mean turning down work that’s outside of your core competency or referring such work to a competitor. That takes guts. But in the long run, it’s a smart move because it gains the trust of your most loyal customers.

Maybe it’s because I only play it during a 6 to 8 week period during the year that I don’t get sick of it. Maybe it’s because the songs are timeless. Whatever the reason, about this time each year I pull out the “A Charlie Brown Christmas” CD from the Vince Guaraldi Trio.

The kids enjoy watching the Christmas specials on TV. Besides Charlie Brown, we watch The Snowman and How the Grinch Stole Christmas together each year as a family tradition.

Much has been made of the constant barrage of warning and confirmation screens Vista tosses at you by default. If you’re accustomed to running as an administrator on your machine and you want to get rid of the constant warnings it’s quite easy, but not exactly intuitive. Go to Control Panel->Security Center. Then click the small down arrow to the right of Other Security Settings. You should now see User Account Control. Turn it off to put a muzzle on Vista.

Maximum PC is my favorite computer related magazine and I’ve subscribed to it for years. I received a notice in the mail from Max PC saying my subscription was “about to crash” which I found interesting. I guess that means it was about to run out. Inside was an invoice that said I could subscribe for another year for $12. That was it. I could renew for one year. Not two. Not three.

I don’t enjoy writing checks so I figured maybe I could just renew my subscription from their website. I logged into my account from the website and was taken to a subscribers area where I could renew my subscription for one, two or three years but for twice the amount quoted on the invoice I received.

A few questions I’d like to ask Maximum PC:

1. Why not make it easy for me to renew from your website right from the start?
2. How about giving me the lowest price from the website? Saves you the cost of a pre-paid envelope.
3. How come I can only renew for one year from the invoice you sent me?
4. You have my email on file. Why not send me an email reminder with a direct link to your site where I can subscribe for three years for $36?

I decided to send in a $12 check for one year. But Maximum PC missed an opportunity here. I would have subscribed for another three years for $36. Now they will have to hound me each year to renew and each year I’ll have to write out another check that I don’t want to write.

You’ve seen it before. Seems like it started at McDonalds when, no matter what you ordered, the cashier would ask if you wanted an apple or cherry turnover. But lately I’ve noticed the upsell is being pushed on cashiers and their customers with an iron fist. At Albertsons grocery, for example, near every checkout is a basket filled with “Today’s Hot Offer”. If the cashier fails to inform you of the offer, you receive that “hot” item for free. The “hot” item is normally something that nearly anyone would like such as a dozen cookies or donut holes. If the cashier is ringing up groceries for someone who weighs 450 lbs. he/she must try to upsell the cookies or risk having to give them away for free and answer to the manager when the till is reconciled. In a sense, it’s become a mandatory upsell.

One of the strangest upsell items I was offered lately was at the Eddie Bauer outlet. I walked to the counter ready to purchase two t-shirts and was first asked if I wanted to sign-up as a preferred customer at no cost. No thanks. Even though I had my Amex card out ready to pay, the man asked if I wanted to apply for an Eddie Bauer credit card. No thanks. But he wasn’t finished. He walked around the counter and picked up a laptop carrying case on wheels and tried to hawk it for thirty bucks. By this point I was annoyed and told him I just wanted to pay for my shirts and get home. Now I dread going into Eddie Bauer because, although I like their clothing, I feel like a punching bag for their special offers.

Why do marketers at Albertsons and Eddie Bauer continue to pull this crap on their customers? I don’t know but it’s getting to the point where I’m going to try on clothing at the store and then make the purchase online. If I buy a pair of dress shoes at Nordstrom, I have no problem with the sales person asking if I need some dress socks. But asking if I’m interested in luggage when I’m purchasing t-shirts makes no sense. Retailers, respect your customers!

If the goal of your talk is to put your audience to sleep then just hand out sodas laced with Benadryl. If your goal is to engage your audience then please get rid of the PowerPoint deck. Don’t you love it when a speaker stands up in front of the room, PowerPoint projected on the wall behind him while he walks through, word for word, every single dang bullet point. Hey, I can read!

If you are talking to your slides while turning your back your audience, you can be sure they checked out long ago. If you are going to walk through every bullet point then please, just send me the deck in advance and I’ll look it over on my own time.

Prepare your talk or presentation well enough that you don’t need PowerPoint. If you still feel you need to project slides to your audience, then do so sparingly. But only go this route if you’ve prepared well. PowerPoint shouldn’t be your speaker notes.

OK, rant over. 🙂

With a little help from SorryGottaGo.com, you might not be able to stop them from pestering you, but at least you can have a little fun with them. I’ve not had a chance to use any of them just yet but I plan to. But I have cranked “Welcome to the Jungle” into the phone receiver a few times when they have called and caught me at the computer. A user of the site saw good results using the Cows, Police, Car Crash combo. What are some other good combos?

I’ve been using Black Friday to locate the best after Thanksgiving sales items for a couple of years now. They continue to improve their website making it easier to drill down to the best deals, especially for those people like myself who don’t subscribe to a newspaper. I’m not a big fan of waiting in line at 4 am to save $15 on a stack of blank DVDs, although this year I do plan to wait in line to pick-up a Nintendo Will and Zelda: Twilight Princess.