Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Advertising and Perceptions


Road side stall, in the middle of banana fields, selling: bananas.  You think the bananas are from the local fields? Nope. I, and I wasn't alone, was thinking they where, but I arrived early one morning and met the guy restocking. Not so local bananas after all. He has a route restocking several road side stalls each day. Ripened bananas from the store room. I recall that he said the bananas did come from somewhere in the Far North Queensland area, but not the near by fields.

Still, your getting better value than the large supermarket stalls. I wonder how it pays though; The bananas sell at $2/kg. He has to buy them from a farmer, pay transport to get them to the store room, the store room running costs, costs of driving around stocking the stalls. How does this work to be economical to sell for $2/kg?

Bicycle shorts: I don't use padded shorts, but the el cheapo KMart 'cycle shorts' also called gym wear. Recently was forced to actually buy a new pair, rather than finding a second hand pair. Lots of stickers on the product: "Moisture wicking fabric". Cynical me, checked the labels of the new versus the old; both the same  95% cotton, 5% elastane. Marketing!