The headline read, "Home Depot Hiring for Spring Rush". Each Home Depot expects to hire an additional 25 to 30 employees to handle "Spring Black Friday". The article noted, "A year ago, two-for-one petunias and other price cuts drew more customers."
Once more, the legendary Petunia Effect comes into play. Obama missed the boat by concentrating on "shovel-ready" infrastructure improvements with his economic stimulus package. Tax cuts for the wealthy? Trickle-down economics? Both are failures. Clearly, the path to full employment is lined with two-for-one petunias.
Like all marketing breakthroughs ("A bald guy with a gold earring is going to convince housewives to buy our cleaning product? Come on now!"), the Petunia Effect took courage to implement. Imagine the scene at Home Depot headquarters last year at this time:
"Spring Rush 2010 may be the worst ever for Home Depot. After buying food, people have no money to buy stainless steel grills to cook it on. What can we do?"
"Let's offer two-for-one petunias! Nothing says Spring like a flower with a funny name. People will flock to our stores. While they are there, they will want to buy garden gnomes and birdbaths to accent their petunia patch. We will clean up!"
And so it happened.
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