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.

Exposing the Dirty Truth Behind “Sensitive Skin Care Products”

Do you have sensitive skin and spend your time searching for solutions? Are you always looking for great sensitive skin care products? Lets see exactly what sensitive skin is and what you can do when faced with selecting anti aging products for your skin.Of course there are always people with specific skin conditions. There are clear skin conditions that require the care of a dermatologist and people who may consider that their skin condition requires professional care ought always consult a doctor first. However it’s fair to say that the vast bulk of people with sensitive skin problems do not have skin conditions requiring the care of a dermatologist.If you have delicate skin you know what it’s like. You get the skin redness, dryness, flaking and itching and your skin looks blotchy. However the sad truth is that in almost all cases where this is the case it is not the skin that is the problem but the products that are used on it.The reality is that delicate skin problems are commonly the result of the use of big brand mainstream products such as cosmetics, anti aging products, personal and beauty products such as soaps, shampoos and deodorants that contain ingredients that produce an irritant or allergic skin reaction.This is not because it is impossible to manufacture these products without using these ingredients. It is perfectly possible to manufacture high quality cost competitive personal and beauty care products that work extremely well and which use natural safe and effective ingredients. The problem is that most of the chemical ingredients that produce the skin reactions known as “sensitive skin” are extremely cheap. Many are chemical ingredients produced in a lab and used in many of the big name products that you might be using right now.In fact the problem of dangerous and irritating ingredients in personal products is now so serious that there are entire organizations set up to combat this. Perhaps the best known of these is the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. They battle against the proliferation of chemical ingredients in personal products that are essentially dangerous to your health, that are irritants your skin and which are in some cases “known to cause cancer”.In fact it is unnecessary for there to be any sensitive skin products such as sensitive skin creams and sensitive skin moisturizers at all. There are many outstanding skin care products, for example, which are highly effective and which use only natural, known safe, and effective ingredients which can be used on all skin types and which do not produce any allergic or irritant skin reaction.In fact the company that makes the worlds best skin care products does not make any delicate skin products. This is because all of it’s products are safe to use on all skin types, work for all skin types, and do not produce any allergic skin reactions. If you use products such as these there is no need to buy any sensitive skin products.Sensitive skin care is not about selecting the best product for your skin type. It is about making a conscious decision to avoid the use of mainstream big brand personal, beauty and body care products such as cosmetics and skin care products, soaps shampoos and deodorants, and substituting natural skin care products and natural cosmetics in their place.If you’d like to find out where to source the worlds best natural skin care products and natural cosmetics visit my website where you can also see a discussion of many of the chemical ingredients used in modern products that cause so many of the sensitive skin care problems that we see in so many people today, and find what I consider to be the worlds best Sensitive Skin Care Products.

Reasons Why SMS Marketing Is Better Than Any Other Mode of Marketing

SMS Marketing is better than any other mode of marketing? This might seem like a hot topic among marketers all around the world. Most of the marketing mediums have been available since decades, but the widespread of mobile devices has definitely changed the way every marketer treat these options in the marketing plans.SMS Marketing is known to come as a reliable option to reach out to end users with precise and targeted messages. Mentioned below is a complied data that compares SMS marketing with the other modes of marketing to give you an overview of their current standing as an effective marketing tool.1) Open Rate- Open Rate of SMS Marketing – 90%- Open Rate of other modes of marketing – 30 to 35%These numbers do not leave anything for us to debate on as your customer is bound to read your message sent via SMS.2) Quantity matters- Number of text messages; the lesser, the better- Number of emails or ads, the more the betterWe do not need to think about this twice. Just think about how you treat your messages and emails. If you keep receiving an email from the same address, there is a probability you might just open it once. With messages, nobody is tolerant towards unnecessary disturbance. The point of a text message is just to give out the required information in a precise manner and that’s what people expect from marketing messages.3) Nature of Campaign/SMSThe nature of the message is very vital for text messages and any other mode of marketing. For instance, if you have an offer or discount to offer to your customers, SMS Marketing is the perfect mode. No other medium of marketing will create an impact as text messages when discounts and offers are considered.4) Click – Through – Rate- The CTR of SMS Marketing – 40%- The CTR of other modes of marketing – 7 to 10%The reason why every marketer is taking SMS Marketing seriously is because of the wide penetration of mobile phones in the market. Mobile phones are affordable and within everybody’s reach and so are the data packages.And so, the possibility of the end-user opening the link sent via message, provided it is of their given interests, is much higher now than ever.Regardless to say, an SMS will always find a way in your customer’s inbox. Finally, it is safe to say that SMS marketing is a more effective tool than any other. Have you tried it yet?