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What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime

What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.

As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.

That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.

Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.

Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.

Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.

Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.

That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.

Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.

Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.

My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.

Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.

And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.

All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:

• Farm eggs

• Fresh vegetables

• Cow’s milk

• Freshly baked bread

• Coal for our open fires

Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.

Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.

Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.

Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.

My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.

The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.

Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.

Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.

People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.

In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.

Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.

• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.

• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.

• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.

On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.

Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.

We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.

Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.

My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.

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Advertising in the Age of Google Empire: Killing Off Big Media Dinosaurs for Your Profit

Here’s a bold claim. Whatever your business, whether it’s brand new or well established, whether you live in America, on the Continent, and almost everywhere on the globe, Google and Google AdWords affects you today and will, in all likelihood, affect you even more in the future.This is not an exaggeration, simply a statement of fact.Just two decades ago, only a few people on the globe had ever heard of the World Wide Web. Originally governmentally funded solely for things like noncommercial research and enhanced networking capabilities for universities and governmental agencies, including NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the military, the world of communications and information exploded almost instantaneously in 1992 when the United States Congress opened it to commercial activity.Most Americans’ first experience with the Web came about with the peculiar, but very useful, little communication tool called email and the development of online tools and the first search engines like AOL, Netscape, even Yahoo. But, in point of fact, for most folks it was merely a fun novelty until two bright Stanford students, one born in the U.S.A. and the other an immigrant from Russia, set the internet world on its head. The world knows their work as Google.Like an electronic tidal wave, it submerged its competitors. Seventy percent of all global searches are made on Google. Every continent, nation, and city on the planet in hundreds of languages, including Klingon for Star Trekkers.”All very interesting”, you might say, “but I thought this was supposed to be about how Google advertising affects me”. To which I say: “Two words: Google AdWords.”Here’s the real deal you need to know. Even if you aren’t advertising your business with AdWords, your competitors are, to your business disadvantage.Don’t take my word for it. Consider: “We’re not in the business of keeping the media business alive… we’re in the business of connecting with consumers.” Trevor Edwards, Corporate V.P., Nike, Inc.Maybe you ought to ask yourself whether continuing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars for so little return on your investment makes sense when there’s a better way of getting customers. Think about the antiquated marketing model, you know, the one we all grew up with: radio, television, signs and posters, newspapers and fliers, magazines, billboards, Yellow Pages, and more. So expensive, so inefficient spreading your advertising marketing message far and wide instead of targeted messages to your real audience. Such a waste of your valuable marketing budget.Thousands, tens of thousands, sometimes way more, of dollars given to Big Media, making it rich and you, well, not so much. Can you keep throwing your money down an advertising hole? That sucking sound you hear is your valuable dollars, pounds, euros, dinero in the black abyss of old-style advertising. Sure, Big Media was once the mightiest economic dinosaur of all but, like its ancient reptilian ancestors, it awaits its cruel fate.You may be concerned about the risks of making dramatic changes in your approach to marketing but it is better to concentrate instead on the risks inherent in failing to make the changes necessary to compete for the modern consumer.We all know that many otherwise-smart companies remain mired in prehistoric marketing methodologies. If you’re hesitant, think about the fate of the dinosaurs, your competitors, and Big Media. Dinosaurs from long ago, competitors of today, Big Media. Carnivores all.How can you possibly compete in the face of all that? Simple: level the advertising playing field with the revolutionary Google pay per click model, still in its infancy, but already so powerful that it already reaches 85% of the world’s markets. 85%! Hundreds of countries, every imaginable language, every imaginable market. All not only affordable (you pay only for clicks on your ads), but once you understand the techniques for writing AdWords ads, you can set your marketing campaigns around your budget, compete with the Big Boys of commerce on your terms, and dramatically increase your customers through targeted ads.There is no exaggeration here. Just a decade old, AdWords advertising is the marketing meteor that, having flamed to earth, is killing off the Big Media dinosaurs. It’s almost everywhere. You see it every time you, and hundreds of millions of others, search Google. It’s probably on your cell phone and certainly on your Gmail. It’s on every YouTube video, not to mention over a million (!) commercial websites. Imagine your AdWords ad in the New York Times, Fox.com, or Sportsillustrated.com! And, now on Google TV which some are predicting will be more than a hundred billion dollar market.Plain fact is that, whether you’re a professional like a doctor or lawyer, own a brick and mortar or virtual store, a contractor or plumber or other service provider, student, housewife or househusband who wants to work at home to make a bit more money, AdWords already affects you. If you’re not in the online marketing game, know this: your competitors are.Your choice is stark. Be in the business of keeping Big Media advertising on life support… at your expense… or get in the business of connecting with customers in today’s world.

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Payday Loan Direct Lender – The Quickest Way to Get the Money

Even with the presence of numerous discussion threads on the internet, there are hardly any which deal with payday loans in detail. Some look at loans with suspicion, others revolve around the economic problems which have led to such a scenario. But there is one point where everyone is unanimous, that is, cash loans are good solution if they are handled well. Payday loan in actuality can solve your cash problems especially when they are negotiated upfront directly from lenders to determine the loan system and any legal obligations arising from it.One of the arguments given by opponents of payday loan schemes is the heavy interest rate which is attached with them. Though everybody is ready to pay some money for availing cash benefits, but the question is whether payday loans are beneficial when their interest rates are considered? When compared to regular loan schemes which are also available and competing with payday loan schemes, there are few schemes which provide short term loans without any property being used as collateral. And this ease and convenience is only provided by payday loan schemes which provide short term loans without any collateral.In payday loans, the lenders directly lend the borrower certain amount of money which he has to pay back to the lender along with the interest on the day the borrower receives his pay check. This scheme is useful in times of urgency or immediate need of cash funds. Getting payday loan is very easy from the lender as it requires a very limited amount of paperwork and documentation. And the money is given to the borrower immediately after the application for the loan has been made.Internet provides a cheap and fast way to apply and receive a payday advance. Lenders have increasing shifted to online transaction systems and provide their services at the click of the button. Now the applications can be submitted directly through the internet without any delay and tiring paperwork saving time, energy and resources for the borrower. Another added benefit of online lending is that the required amount is transacted in less than day after the application has been submitted by the borrower.The red tape and lengthy documentation procedures which caused delay and embarrassment are things of past. The payday advance schemes do not require mortgages nor demand heavy paperwork making the entire exercise comfortable and easy.The entire procedure is very easy and is different from conventional loan application procedures. Payday advances does not require credit history check of the applicant thereby eliminating the ground of refusal on the basis of poor credit history of the applicant. Also, it does not require any security when you apply for loan. In the end, the benefits offered by payday loan schemes are on all accounts better than those given by regular loan schemes.It is necessary to go through the entire loan scheme when the application for the loan is made. Payday cash advances are short term loans which are provided immediately in return for high interest rate. And there is a heavy late payment fine in case the debtor defaults on his payment. It is better to look at payday schemes as an easy way to draw money from your next month’s salary instead of looking at it as borrowing.The bad reputation of payday loans has arisen more from inability of borrowers to pay the sum at stipulated time and consequently defaulting on their loans. They end up blaming the entire lending system for failure which in case was a failure on their parts to repay the loan. The payday scheme is beneficial and also very helpful for those borrowers who understand the working of the scheme. It is a simple way to meet your immediate cash problems.