Open Letter to Costco

Dear Costco:

I know we have a love/hate relationship. I love your prices and large quantity products like the mondo box of Slim Jims. You make it exciting by moving stuff around so that my shopping experience feels like a game of “hide and go seek”. I can get over the lack of assistance on the floor and “no signs” approach. It helps me get my daily exercise when I have to walk up and down every single isle looking for that 3 lb. bag of raw almonds. Oh there you are, next to the tires! These traits are endearing and the very reasons I continue coming back for more.

But here’s what I can’t deal with any longer: Smiley faces. You know what I’m talking about. Those adorable smiley faces your door enforcers draw on my receipt when I happen to bring one of my kids along.

Going forward I’d like to suggest this rule: No smiley faces whatsoever if there is more than one person in line. I’m tired of being the 8th person in line to get out the door while one of your enforcers decides to go all Picasso on us.

Regards,

Brett

1995

The year was 1995. All of us were sitting on the edge of a queen bed. Our voices were nearly gone by now. Our hands were red from the high-fives we’d given each other for the last 10 innings.

This is the night that Seattle Mariners baseball transcended the sport for me. Rewind back just one month when the Mariner’s were trailing the California Angels by 13 games with just over a month left in the season. A combination of the Angels choking and the M’s catching fire down the stretch had the Seattle fans in a near frenzy.

I lived on Capitol Hill at the time and worked in the middle of the city at Wolfe Internet. The water cooler chatter was dominated by Mariner fans holding out hope that somehow they could catch the Angels. The games behind started to shrink…9…7…5 until Seattle caught the Angels at the end of the season to force a one-game playoff to see who would meet the Yankees in the American League Divisional Series.

The Mariner’s won the tie-breaker game 9-1 on an improbable bases clearing in the park home-run by Luis Sojo who was not known for his speed. This win setup the greatest game in Mariner history.

The Yankees took the first two games of the series, but the Mariner’s battled back to take the next two and tie the series at 2 games each. Game 5 was a back and forth affair that went into extra innings. The Mariner’s were down 5-4 going into the 11th inning.

At this time I was in the hotel room of my friend’s parents who were visiting from Utah. We’d piled up on their two queen beds to take in the game on a crappy 20-inch TV. But none of that mattered now. The M’s were down a run with 3 outs to go. The M’s leadoff hitter laid down a bunt and we cussed until he outran the throw putting the tying run on 1st base. Then Ken Griffey Jr. stepped to the plate. He was in his prime and even today, remains the most beloved Seattle sports figure. He’s to Seattle what Jordan is to Chicago. Griffey steps to the plate and drills a line drive into center field that nearly takes the pitcher’s head off. We all went crazy at this point. We were jumping on the beds, tossing pillows and screaming our lungs out. Could this really be happening? There’s no way the Yankee’s can blow the lead with their ace reliever, Jack McDowell, on the mound.

With runners on 1st and 2nd, Edgar Martinez steps to the plate. He’s arguably Seattle’s most consistent hitter. He takes a couple of pitches. Even fouls off a pitch behind the plate. And then magic struck. Edgar lined a sinker into left-center that rolled to the wall. Cora came around to score from second. The Yankee center fielder picks up the ball and tosses it the shortstop. Griffey is now rounding third having run from 1st base. The third base coach waves him home while the shortstop runs the ball towards the catcher who can’t get the tag down in time. I’ve seen the replay dozens, if not hundreds of times. It still gives me goose bumps. The hit, the turn around third and the dog pile with Griffey at the bottom flashing his trademark smile.

The city of Seattle goes absolutely crazy. My voice is gone. It was surreal. I couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

So it was hard to see Ken Griffey Jr. return to Seattle this past week in a Cincinnati Reds uniform. He was greeted like a King by the Seattle fans. It’s been 7 years since he left the Mariner’s. If Yankee Stadium is the “House that Ruth Built” then Safeco Field is the stadium that Griffey Jr. built. Without the excitement generated during the 1995 season most people agree that a new stadium would not have been built, and there’s a strong likelihood that Seattle wouldn’t have a baseball team.

In the final game of the series this weekend, Griffey gave us another painful reminder of what we are missing by jacking two homers into the seats at Safeco, one of which careened off the 2nd deck billboard.

I will never forget that night spent with friends. That’s the night magic struck a team and a city.

It’s the night I become a diehard Mariner’s fan.

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Piano Recital

I’ve never been more proud of anyone than I was of Luca tonight. She had her first piano recital in front of at least 50 people at the church.

The recital included about 20 other kids and Luca was first on the program. And it’s a good thing because she was nervous and had a hard time introducing her number. Kim walked up on stage with her and helped settle her down.

But once Luca sat at the piano she was so calm and collected it came through in her music. She played “There stands a little man” from Hansel and Gretel. She played at the right pace and hit all the right notes. She was absolutely fantastic! She has a real gift and talent for music that we hope to cultivate over the years. She must have Kim’s music gene.

I wish we had captured her playing on tape for you to see. I never thought that watching my 6 year old daughter play the piano would have such an impact on me. But watching her play tonight went right to my heart.

How’s is my driving?

Back when I used to watch David Letterman in the early 90’s, one of my favorite episodes showed him following a mattress delivery van around Manhattan. On the back of the van was one of those “How’s my Driving?” stickers with a phone number to call. Well, in typical Dave style, he called the number and gave a play by play description of the van’s movements to the operator. I recall him saying, “The van is pulling up to a red light. So far so good. What else do you want to know?”

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These days one doesn’t have to look far to find similar “How’s my driving?” stickers or feedback cards. Many restaurants now include a feedback card with the check. Last time I bought a car I received a “How did the dealer treat you” postcard I was supposed to fill out. I never filled it out so they called me to ask how I was treated. I recently purchased a furnace and a few days later I received a survey in the mail asking how pleased I was with the installer. At the last company I worked for, we received an update on the monthly average of survey scores. When the average was over 9 we acted like we were the next 37 Signals. When we dipped under 8 we were the next Pets.com. Everybody wants to know how they are doing these days.

But one of the more interesting feedback signs I’ve come across is the one found on the soda cooler at my work. Right there on the glass door is the name and picture of the individual who refills the cooler each evening. I assume he fills it during the evening because I never see him during the day. Right there next to his picture are the words, “How am I doing?” and then an email address.

I wonder if many people are so happy or unhappy with the free sodas that they take the time to send email to an alias? If so, who are these people? I’m curious to know if anyone reads the feedback so I’m going to send one of the following feedback:

    1. I couldn’t be happier with the way our cooler is filled. All the right flavors organized like the cupboards in Sleeping with the Enemy.

    2. Generally good job but Diet Coke cans could be pulled closer to front of case.

    3. No Mellow Yellow? What a crock!

    4. Ran out of chocolate milk again. Room for improvement.

I don’t mind companies who genuinely want to improve their business by gathering feedback. But it’s easy to see right through those who are only concerned about the score. These companies badger the crap out of customers to get a number when only the right number will do. What is the difference between a 7 and 9 anyway? To me the number means absolutely nothing without descriptive feedback. In fact, keeping a running score seems about as useful as McDonald’s telling us how many hamburgers they’ve sold. To the guy deciding whether to pony up two bucks for a Big Mac, is there any difference between having sold 80 billion vs.90 billion?

At my current company the survey results only go up to 9 which is hilarious. We’ve told ourselves that nobody can realistically earn a 10 so we we lower the high score to 9. So I guess 9 is the new 10.

Are you employees more concerned about coaching the right number out of your clients or actually taking care of your clients?

New York Magazine article on Steve Jobs

The entire 8-page article is worth the time to read. But this quote stood out and may describe one big weakness to the iPod/iTunes model:

“All this stuff (internet radio, subscription models, Pandora, Last.fm) is Apple’s blind spot,” says Fred Wilson, the New York venture capitalist and rabid music buff. “Right now, the download model is necessary because I want to take music in the car or to the gym. But once we have true mobile broadband, the streaming model is going to take off. Then there’s never really going to be a need to own files at all. It’ll all just be there in the cloud.” As for music discovery, Wilson says, “I’ve never found one single artist or song on iTunes … It’s an online version of Tower Records, only worse.”

I can’t wait for the day when I can share my playlist with anyone and my podcasts and music are sync’d to all my PCs, my car and my phone. In the meantime, I will buy CDs and rip them to MP3 where I can upload to my iPod.

Ask vs. Live vs. Google

I find myself using Ask.com more and more these days. I think it’s by far the best designed search site. It’s clean, uncluttered and modern. Earlier this year I started using Ask Maps instead of MapQuest. I tried Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s mapping products and none worked at well as Ask Maps for me.

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I haven’t used Microsoft’s Live Search very much because I don’t like how the search results are laid out. But it feels as fast as Google. Both Live and Google seem a little faster than Ask, but not enough that it matters to me.

I tried searching for “Nordquist” on each site. Asks lists my blog as the 4th result. Google lists it as the 6th result. Live lists it as the 1st result.

I don’t know that it matters very much anymore which search engine I use. I’m going to try using a different one for a week for all my searches. Currently, my mind defaults to Google. But I’m going to try living with Ask and then Live for a week and see if I notice any difference.

I didn’t include Yahoo in the mix because their home page is cluttered with news. Search is more an after thought which is probably how they designed it.

But if I’ve learned anything today it’s the Google’s dominance in search isn’t the same as Microsoft’s dominance in operating systems. It’s difficult to switch from Windows to Linux or Apple, not to mention costly. It would take me several days to migrate my work onto another operating system.

But how much work is it to switch from Google to Ask or Live or some new kid on the block like Mahalo? It’s just a click away. No pain, no cost.

DirecTV forces me to make a call

DirecTV is yet another example of a company that makes it easy to add services thereby giving them more of my money, but sets up barriers when I want to cancel a channel.

As a DirecTV customer, I added HBO to my service a few weeks ago. I’m planned to cancel it and setup a Netflix account instead. I logged into my account and tried to remove just the HBO programming. But DirecTV gives me an error that I need to call since it’s less than 30 days since I added the channel. What a crock.

Direct assumes that by forcing customers to call in and speak with a sales rep, they can talk a percentage into customers into keeping the service or programming.

Lame. Double Lame.