Nothing could be further from the truth. What I object to is people being deceived by the millions by wording that’s at best misleading and at worst false. If we made a conscious decision to stop receiving messaging and instead spent a few minutes actually thinking, naïve though it may sound, I believe we could be well on our way to bringing the corporate class to its knees, which is exactly where it belongs.
Here, then, are a few simple ideas that are too wordy for a Facebook comment, but not for a blog.
One: There is no reason to wait for American Express or any other company to advise you to support local merchants. There’s an amazing store down the street from me, for example, called Mr. Plywood. You pay slightly more there, but you get higher quality, you get better service, and the people who own the store are quite generous with the neighborhood. Plus, it’s close. One potential drawback is inventory, but if enough people asked for specific products, I have a strong suspicion that they’d stock it. With Mr. Plywood right down the street, why on earth are there pilgrimages to Home Depot and Lowe’s? In a word, marketing, which, as we know, works.
Two: When you shop at a small business, go out of your way to say that you’re not there as a result of direction, guidance or inspiration by or from American Express. Comments expressed by real people with real mouths who use real words are important. I’d bet that members of the marketing team that came up with the small business shenanigans is counting – literally, as in dollars – on people being rendered speechless, cocooned in the warm and fuzzy afterglow of Small Business Saturday. Somewhere, the holiday bonus for some rising, super-smart, super-strategic marketing superstar is riding on this campaign. Wouldn’t it be fun to help jeopardize it simply by speaking up and stating the obvious?
Three: Pay cash. I know plastic is more convenient, but it’s like a one-way superhighway for money to travel elsewhere, never to return. You get charged, the company you’re buying from gets charged, and the companies who offer us all this convenience get billions in bailouts when their greed, combined with our gullibility, gets the best of them. Go to your bank or your ATM and take out a certain amount of cash on a regular basis. That way you’re only paying one fee. Better yet, move your bank account to a credit union. It’s your money, and it’s your life. Why should you give a rat’s ass about creating “shareholder value”? If you’re short on cash, you could be really old-fashioned and write a check. It’s good to see your handwriting from time to time, and I think it’s time to reintroduce the youngsters to the concept of balancing the checkbook.
Four: I think we should all be really careful with the “Like” button on Facebook. As I understand it, when you “Like” something, you’re opening yourself and all of your “friends” to the individual or corporation – one and the same, according to current court wisdom – that sponsor the page. I apologize for “Like”[ing] Don’t Let Bristol Palin Win Dancing with the Stars and Gay Boys with Beards and a few others, but when it comes to pages with commerce at their core, I think caution is in order. More than 1 million people decided to “Like” Small Business Saturday, and given the deception at work, who could blame them? It sounded like a good idea, as marketing campaigns almost always do. But when it comes to Facebook pages dedicated to Best Buy, The Gap, Microsoft, Toyota and many others, the less cross-channel, cross-platform, light-touch engagement hocus pocus bullshit I’m participating in by refraining from one simple click, the better.
