Pneumatic Tubes, Seashells, Surfing

As I close the array of browser tabs with articles I've recently read, I've decided to try document each, two or three at a time, with a quick two sentence impression of the article and link.

Chicago’s Strange History With Pneumatic Tubes - From one of my, maybe my top, favorite writers of Chicago interest, Robert Loerzel, a Chicago Magazine article from 2013 describing the nine-mile network of pneumatic tubes that were originally installed in downtown Chicago. Like abandoned subway tunnels and stations, these tubes remind me of the aspirations behind infrastructure and our collective, inevitable pull toward faster and easier communication — like Moore's Law but not for processor speed or transistor density. As technology shortens the distance in lines of communication will we take the time to compile our thoughts before hitting 'send' or just let the conversation devolve into a series of knee-jerk impressions? Complete article here.

Google Search on 'Fahrenheit 451 Seashells' - Like Apple Airpods, Ray Bradbury predicted a similar 'thimble radio' that would take us away from the written word, simply speaking ideas directly into your ear. At a stoplight last week, a younger gentleman, dressed for success, walked in front of my car, across the crosswalk, lost in a world of music made possible by his headphones while missing out on the sounds of the city in the summer.

Guardian Interview with Laird Hamilton, the Surfer - The most important thing to me about Laird Hamilton, about whom I knew very little, was the American Express commercial that featured the Los Lobos song 'Mas y Mas' as the soundtrack. I read this article to learn more. While I've already forgotten about nine points of his ten-point plan to 'supercharge your body,' I did lock in on and appreciate his candid discussion of quitting alcohol. He also credits his top physical shape to, among other things, alternating ice baths and saunas and 'the ability to suffer consistently.' Full article here.

– Jon Roketenetz

Jon is the CEO of GimmeAnother and founder of 3VERB.

Sinkhole

Amazon Wants You to Build Another Store

I've read enough Medium and Vox articles recently to know I should get right to the point.

Prediction: Regional grocers will lose the battle against Walmart, Amazon, Target, Peapod, and specialty meal providers (Blue Apron, etc.) as they try to stem losses with physical store expansion rather than developing technology conveniences to re-engage and cement consumer loyalty. They will stumble into resource-heavy projects — home delivery, in particular — and burn cash trying to match the logistics game of retailers who have mastered delivery years ago.

Bonus Prediction: There are a million ways for regional grocers to defer this fate, but Amazon, in particular, wants to draw them into this losing battle. Just watch.

Additional reporting on the from WSJ here.

– Jon Roketenetz

Jon is the CEO of GimmeAnother and founder of 3VERB.

Against the Tide

On WSJ's “Big Brands Risk Losing Their Voice” - Original Article

When we started GimmeAnother about 5 years ago, we posited that there was a large and kinda obvious efficiency that was being left on the table by online retailers. In a nutshell, online shopping was still defined by a standard checkout routine, a process that was the same for both new orders and orders that should be recurring. Or, to put it plainly: the checkout process was exactly the same for the purchase of an expensive durable good, like refrigerator, as it was for consumers who regularly returned for refills of vitamins, diapers, or contact lenses. To a great extent, many major retailers retain this complexity in their checkout and re-order processes to this day – even for recurring orders from their most loyal customers – as they try to beat (or simply compete with) Amazon at a game that the book-store turned everything-store monolith has largely perfected. The race to be present in voice re-order by Amazon's Alexa is the latest in their set of hurdles.

It always struck me, though, that beyond the traditional brick and mortar retailers, regional grocers, and pharmacy chains that would inevitably be hit hard by Amazon – and indeed they were, are, and will be still – the largest long-term overall loss of core value might, in fact, be among by established household brands that can no longer found an easy home on the end-caps at Target and Walmart. Simply put, as Amazon drove prices down, and made home-delivery a snap, large box retailers like Target and Walmart would prioritize in-house brands (like 'Up and Up') over well-known staples like Tide or Cascade. The goodwill and name recognition that had taken decades to build would start to erode. Amazon's success with the Alexa voice assistant, of course, has made it all an even more difficult equation as Amazon is now set to control the distinction between actual product type and the priority of brand that ends up in your cart via Alexa. You can count on receiving Amazon-brand batteries before Duracell unless you specify.

While it's hard to know exactly where CPGs (Consumer Packed Good) behind these “big brands” might choose start a relationship with the end consumer, it does boggle the mind a bit to think that in the first 20 years of the internet, they've not found a way to give it an earnest try. As per the attached WSJ article, CPGs that continue to rely on retailers – and now retailers voice assistants like Alexa – as their sole channel for communication with the end consumer are sure to lose additional cachet with consumers and presence in the digital end-caps and aisles of the future.

– Jon Roketenetz

Jon is the CEO of GimmeAnother and founder of 3VERB.

Majestic

Three Songs of Accidental Majesty, Depth, and Immediacy for the New Year.

“Last Night it Snowed,” The Ass Ponys

About this time of year, I anticipate the first legitimate snowfall here in Chicago and do so knowing I'll have the chance to play (loudly) the Ass Ponys' brilliant, compact, and majestic song, “Last Night it Snowed.” It's an annual tradition of sorts – my favorite of Chuck Cleaver's AP work – to sit back and marvel at the perfection of these “econo” lyrics:

A blanket white
At least it was when it came down last night
The morning brings the rain
The blanket's washed away
Now everything turns back to grey

It's hard to imagine that so much goodness could land in just over two minutes of song: all the mixed-up optimism and rainy, overcast second-guessing of a Southern Ohio winter with the added bonus of a delicate mandolin that falls apart into garage-band urgency as he sings: “So live and learn, The snow is melting never to return.”

Here's Chuck singing this classic with a local School of Rock:



The original studio version of the song is available here.

“Wasted,” Pere Ubu

Like “Last Night it Snowed,” this song leads the album, 1993's “Story of My Life,” from Northern Ohio's most important post-punk combo, Pere Ubu. It's an album that finds lead singer David Thomas in a reflective mood, at one point recounting his pre-Cleveland childhood in Florida and stumbling upon“the secret of anti-gravity.” But “Wasted” finds him in real-time, trying to decipher his marriage and “breathlessly, throwing time away.” It makes me think the album runs in reverse, marching backward from today, with Thomas' melodeon (aka the button accordion) setting the scene and his enjoinder to “rock” at 1:33 as guidance to take care of business moving forward. It's as inspirational to me now as when I first heard it.

“This is the Sea,” The Waterboys

I had forgotten about this song and album – the album “Fisherman's Blues” is important to several friends and I'd always marked their career by it – until a cold, rainy day in Northern Wisconsin. I was away from my family for a few days and had just hopped out of a hazy mid-30s mist into the car when the skies opened up. The rain started falling in buckets but, as I started to drive, advanced in waves quickly, so I pulled the car to the side of the road. The windshield wipers couldn't keep up. I turned on the radio to find "This is the Sea" at the beginning. I sat there, not a soul around, feeling a bit underwater while Mike Scott sang:

You're trying to make sense
Of something that you just can't see
Trying to make sense now
And you know you once held the key
But that was the river
And this is the sea

I'm convinced now that “Fisherman's Blues” couldn't exist without this prelude. Get ready, the open ocean is in front of you. This is the sea. If you're ever unconvinced of the epic adventures ahead, try this song again... in the rain.

– Jon Roketenetz

Jon is the CEO of GimmeAnother and founder of 3VERB.

Jet Steps on the Gas

Walmart's Acquisition Propels Email Campaign while Regional Grocers & CPGs Sit on the Sidelines

Over the past four months, Walmart's Jet.com has aggressively pursued visibility of items generally identified as traditional grocery store purchases in email after email. It's not Amazon that should be worried, though.

To wit: please find screenshots of from over a dozen emails since June of this year promoting their grocery items. They cover all sorts of brand and product types... and they make a case beyond price: convenience.


From Barilla Pasta to Pace Salsa, from Dove Soap to Quaker Oats, Jet.com is picking the low-hanging fruit: the inability of regional grocers, CPGs, other retailers to cement the loyalty of their customers with the technology convenience tools their customers have come to expect.

– Jon Roketenetz

Jon is the CEO of GimmeAnother and founder of 3VERB.

Before & After

Brighten, Sharpen, Push, Shove, Just Make Sure it Looks Perfect

I've had the chance to work with the renowned Midwest commercial real estate broker, Terry Coyne, for about a dozen years now. Terry's a friend, too, so no matter how good the composition [photo credit: Gabriella Gallo] of an arriving photo might be, we're certain go the extra step in production to make sure it looks perfect.

Before:

After:

These little details always matter, especially as it relates to premier products and brands. Taking the time to really care about the presentation, the quality of the copy, and the beauty and personality of images pays off in the long run. Need office space in Cleveland, Ohio? You already know who to call.

– Jon Roketenetz

Jon is the CEO of GimmeAnother and founder of 3VERB.

Pressure Cooker

Retailers, Grocers Prepare to Get Roasted as New Competitors Bring the Heat

In the few short months since I wrote the Unclumsy article on the sad demise of Radio Shack, the wave of retail closures has continued, now plainly visible above even our loud national politics as the business press covers every terrible detail of what, actually, seemed like a pretty obvious and inevitable arc.

One after another and across all industries, the casualties keep arriving:

Gander Mountain Closing all Locations, Going Out of Business [Read More]
HHGregg to Shut Down all 88 Locations Nationwide [Read More]
Bebe Is Closing All 175 of Its Stores [Read More]
JC Penney to Close up to 140 stores, Offer Buyouts [Read More]
Central Grocers Will Close 9 Ultra Foods Stores, Sell 22 Strack & Van Til Sites [Read More]
Sears and Kmart Might Not Have Enough Money to Stock Their Shelves [Read More]

In particular, having been plainly outplayed at their own game by online retailers, the news on Sears is harsh:

"Our historical operating results indicate substantial doubt exists related to the company's ability to continue as a going concern," Sears Holdings said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

...and the smart money says it's not slowing down anytime soon.

The New York Times, indeed, asks: Is American Retail at a Historic Tipping Point?

And, Bloomberg reports, simply: America’s Retailers Are Closing Stores Faster Than Ever

It's a fact, of course, that brick and mortar stores are stymied by (a) the challenge to draw foot traffic from consumers who already prefer online shopping, (b) the overhead of real estate, (c) the burden of local sales tax, and (d) finding quality staff, but it's also true — and a much simpler explanation for their woes — that they've simply not prepared a way to follow their consumers out the door. Like Radio Shack, many retailers just have NO PLAN to extend the relationship with a loyal customer into their day-to-day mobile world. They had loyal customers and they let them walk away to Amazon.

The retailers that are succeeding in this new environment, like Walmart — note recent acquisition of Jet — and Target, are investing widely in technology. They're active — in investments, at the very least — and engaged — just check out Walmart Labs — and, like Amazon, unafraid of the change and advantages that smart technology investments will bring. They are working to develop the services that will integrate their brands and sales channels seamlessly into the daily and busy lives of their loyal customers. Take Amazon, for example. In the past few years they've rolled out:

1. Subscribe and Save: A simple mechanism to keep consumer dollars out of the hands of Walgreens and local grocery chains by auto-delivering items on a weekly or monthly basis. If you get the timing right — that's always the trick — this is the perfect reliable revenue stream for Amazon and a real convenience to the consumer.

2. Dash Buttons: A pack-of-gum-sized device to re-add detergent, your favorite brand-name snacks, and the rest of your recurrable items directly to your Amazon cart. I'm not sure the practicality of these buttons, but they make a heck of marketing statement and, without a doubt, have been a combined effort of brands to run an end game around retailers' premium shelf space and endcaps. In effect, Amazon will now own the real premium shelf space: at the consumer's fingertips, right in place of the item they need to re-order.

3. Amazon Echo: The latest in the Amazon assault on local merchants, it's a lot like Google's Home Assistant and it can, with the sound of your voice, re-order items, adding 'em directly to your Amazon cart. A virtual butler of sorts, it provides every reason in the world to forget about driving to your corner store or local grocer.

Aside from Radio Shack and the stores noted above, the pressure will continue on local merchants and, sadly, so will the march of poor earnings reports and coverage of store closings. Who will bear the burden of the next brunt? If you're in the grocery business, the answer is... probably YOU! Between the convenience of Peapod and Blue Apron and Instacart, the perfect shopping experience provided by specialty stores and boutique markets, and and strong initiative of Target into the grocery business — not to mention their dedication to finding keen technology solutions — the old-line merchants, it seems, will continue to feel the heat until they find the right mix of technology to co-exist alongside their current channel. That's what consumers expect, anyhow.

There's time for all this to change, of course, with executive leadership that recognizes that the upside to the challenge of change is really greater long-term stability for a business model that no longer relies on physical presence as much as it relies on a responsiveness to its consumers.

– Jon Roketenetz

Jon is the CEO of online re-order facilitator GimmeAnother and founder of 3VERB.

One Good Punch

Be on the Lookout; The Next Great Sentence is Just Around the Corner

I read somewhere* that this – by the sportswriter John Lardner – is the “the greatest novel ever written in one sentence,” about the professional boxer and Middleweight World Champion, Stanley Ketchel, aka “The Michigan Assassin:”

“Stanley Ketchel was twenty-four years old when he was fatally shot in the back by the common-law husband of the lady who was cooking his breakfast.”

...and it’s probably true. Or, at least, I’ve not yet encountered a single sentence that beats it for pure intrigue, balance, and depth. Can you fit the entire plot, character development, and scenery of any novel into a single sentence? Probably not, but I'm reminded often that you can find – and should look for! – a single sentence or sentiment tucked away in every book that truly resonates at some cosmic level, a sentence that wraps the entire idea of the book into its own ideal, the one corner of a photograph that tells the whole story. Back when I only read books made of paper I would dog-ear the bottom of the page (we nicknamed this “the bottom dog”) to make for easy reference later. I miss this about paper and it’s a lost opportunity with e-books, the ability to pass along the book itself and have that modest hallmark persist.

A few years ago, I wound my way through Bob Dylan’s Chronicles – who knew then that its author would go on to win the Nobel? – and stumbled upon the great scene wherein Dylan and Dave Van Ronk’s wife, Terri, wander through the Village in NYC, past the plate glass window of a hardware store. She notes of an electric can opener displayed in the window:

“What a ridiculous thing, an electric can opener,” Terri once said as we walked past the shop window of a hardware store on 8th Street. “Who’d be stupid enough to buy that?”

I burned through the rest of book – the lengthy sections about his time New Orleans still my favorite part – but I kept returning to those few sentences about the can opener which I now keep in a text file on my computer desktop to this day. Why? They’re the perfect reminder, to me, of the complexities of perception of consumer products AND a warning about obsolescence alongside the importance of utility in product design. Who would be stupid enough? The 1970s and 80s, I guess, when electric can openers were the thing to have in your kitchen. Useful and uselessness, all wrapped up with a bow and sold straight through to the consumer.

More recently, I worked on typesetting a book for a friend that was filled with a good amount of life lessons, sorrow, and hope. I read it in detail – proofread, in fact – and am certain to walk away with more knowledge than I had before starting it. And, along the way the author had inserted this line, a quote by Thoreau:

“The bluebird carries the sky on his back.”

I felt like I read the whole book just to encounter that one line, so perfect and meaningful. And so true of the mighty well-placed sentence, a small bird upholding the atmosphere for the clouds.

– Jon Roketenetz

Jon is the CEO of GimmeAnother and founder of 3VERB.

Citation: The John Lardner Reader (The University of Nebraska Press) attributes this quote to the sportswriter Red Smith in True.

Watching Your Dolllars (Walk Out the Door)

Specialty Retailers Shrug and Wait to See What Goes Down

Brick and mortar retailers remain under pressure from online retailers, of course, especially as Amazon continues to hone their game: products offered at little or no margin and an almost perfect delivery channel, your gift of instant gratification arriving the day after you hit the order button. Indeed, recent reporting on their Prime service also indicates that Amazon is willing to lose revenue on this service in order to establish that recurring and impulse related relationship with the customers. What amazes me most, though, is that so many brick and mortar stores – many that consumers still like and trust – let these dollars walk out their door in light of this challenge from Amazon, conceding the opportunity for a repeat order or the chance to establish a longer-term relationship that might yield additional revenue.

In 2015 Radio Shack closed almost 1800 stores. Think about that for a second. A store and brand and signage that had economically and visually anchored strip malls in communities across the country, sunk. The demise of these stores, no doubt, was a confluence of events – they certainly weren’t helped by the recession, for example – but also an opportunity for other brick and mortar stores to do an honest assessment of their own customer relationships in a retail landscape being rapidly redefined by perfect experience after perfect experience at Amazon. Why bother to stop by a Radio Shack? They couldn’t answer that simple question. More pointedly, why hadn't management called for the obvious: a simple, dedicated initiative to bring consumers across to RadioShack.com? I’ve bought a thing or two at RadioShack in the past but, like you, can’t say I ever received a single email communication from them asking or incentivizing another order. What planet where these guys livin’ on? This was 2015, not 2005.

Over the next few years, Amazon's investment in an array of distribution centers dotted across the country – just check the local news or ask your favorite commercial real estate agent – are sure to make brick and mortar a terrible challenge for those retailers who just shrug and wait to see what happens rather than making simple technology enhancements to engage the omni-channel expectations of consumers. They’ll shoulder the burden of rent, real estate, taxes, and staffing headaches while trying to entice modest foot traffic that may never arrive. They'll learn the lessons of Radio Shack as consumers walk away, just like Amazon was hoping.

– Jon Roketenetz

Jon is the CEO of GimmeAnother and founder of 3VERB.

Making Your Life a Bit Easier

Save to Mobile Makes Common Sense for Retailers

It's been a while since my last blog post, but I've got a few new topics on deck and, as always, I'm eager to re-start the conversation, share some ideas, and have a chance to stretch out my writing. Below, find a bit of inspiration for me, a successful 'Save to Mobile' implementation caught in action at DiscountFilters.com, a super-smart online retailer who won't let Amazon take away their orders.



Stay tuned for an upcoming post on how Amazon, other technology companies, and food delivery start-ups are gonna put a terrible hurt on the grocery industry in the next few years.

– Jon Roketenetz

Jon is the CEO of GimmeAnother and founder of 3VERB.