As I mentioned in the previous post, Leslie believes that there are interesting insights all around us and that a large part of a planner's role is to observe what's happening and glean those insights. She's asked that we take our observations one step further and record some of them in a journal. I will be doing this both in the lovely little spiral bound notebook covered with earth images (appropriate) as well as here on this blog.
Today's entry is about a food that I love: Swedish Fish. I can't recall exactly how or why (not that it matters) the conversation started, but I was very surprised to learn that my coworker had never in his entire life enjoyed a Swedish Fish. So unfortunate for him. Naturally, upon hearing this I promptly left the office to head across the way to Newsspot where I could purchase Swedish Fish in bulk.
Upon arriving at Newsspot and making my way to the bulk candy section I noticed something highly unusual: the number of red fish in the bulk candy sea far outnumbered the green, yellow and orange fish. Now, anyone who's had the pleasure of nibbling on these gummy candies knows that red is the tastiest flavor. I was bewildered. But what was more bewildering was my sudden desire for the non-red fish flavors. I dug around and managed to fish out (pun entirely intended) a couple oranges, three greens and maybe five yellows.
This sugary scene reminded me of the premise behind luxury goods- maintain a low supply (presumably of a high quality good) in order to increase desire. I asked the clerk about the unusual ratio of reds to non-reds and he explained to me that when he only orders the mixed bag, the reds tend to disappear quickly, so he started ordering one all-red bag to every mixed bag to appease his customers. A sensible business decision indeed. But I wonder if maybe, just maybe, his ordering strategy will help the oranges, yellows and green fish swim a little further up the preference stream.
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