So Many Words...

My junk email has basically exploded in the last several months. I’m getting 300 junk emails a day! It’s all CBD supplements, erectile fixit pills, horny women, and Tinnitus – whatever that is. I also seem to have an issue with my US Bank/Chase/Target card that I didn’t know I had.

I am beginning to see this as a concerted marketing strategy. The advertising industry has made a career out of selling us things we didn’t realize we even needed. Now, they have taken it one step further and created an entire supply chain of interconnected products/services that support/lead to each other. Regardless of where you begin in the chain, you will be dragged kicking and screaming to them all. And the kicker is that you didn’t realize needed any of them.

Example: I’m feeling rather stressed and finally look at an email for CBD gummy bears and am convinced to give them a try. I purchase them with my Chase card, get mellow and kind of bunky at which time I contact a ‘horny local college student’ only to find out that I am too mellow to get it up for said ‘college student’, so I click on another email and purchase a years’ supply of Erect-ylanol on my USBank card. By this point, my Tinnitus is flaring up due to the screeching of my credit card bills and I am so stressed out that I need to upgrade to CBD-infused bubble bath to relax with my horny college girl and her mom. Now you might think that I have myself fixed up tight, but noooo….. It turns out that mom is still married. Luckily I just received a very timely email for Extreme Tactical Black Ops flashlights, which I, of course, purchase with my Chase card…

Now… you see what I mean.

I haven’t foggiest idea what an Extreme Tactical Black Ops flashlight can do, but I am very very sure they don’t allow you to put ‘Tactical’ on just any old flashlight. This ‘horny college student’s’ mom’s husband doesn’t know what he has coming.

WoooW…

This may be the CBD bubble bath talking, but I’m feeling like a psychic reading, right about now, and maybe a payday loan… hell, why not?

In the last few years, I have noticed small single-use bottles popping up everywhere. From alcohol sales to shampoo. My neighborhood is littered with them. It seems that the drunks can afford a handful of $.99 shots but not a full bottle. And they leave the detritus in my front yard.

Well, there is a growing pushback on the industry to limit the use of these bottles. And there seems to be some movement in the right direction.

Those Tiny Hotel Shampoo Bottles May Soon Be A Thing Of The Past

Consumers are getting lazy. I think we can all agree with this statement. We can buy almost anything we want and have it delivered. Amazon alone has nearly the entire world available for next day shipping. Grubhub and Uber Eats will bring you food from almost any restaurant in your area. In the past, I have chosen my housing by who delivers in that area. I no longer need to consider those logistics.

Along with having my food delivered, I can have all my clothes, electronics, furniture, and entertainment delivered also. Shopping has become less of an outside activity than an in-home activity. I can peruse thousands of websites to find exactly what I am seeking and have it delivered the next day. How amazing is that?

Admittedly, online shopping and next day delivery are killing local retail stores and small businesses. I know this and have lamented it for years. But I have recently been forced to look at it from another perspective. How could this shift in business traffic, money flow, and consumer habits be a good thing?

I am an introvert and hate going out in public. I hate shopping. I hate crowds. I hate noisy restaurants with a hundred televisions distracting me. If I could avoid all of those things and stay home, I would take advantage of it. I think thousands of other introverts would also. The new consumerism gives me that freedom. Now, rather than just having the selections that the local retail shops have chosen to carry, I have the entire world of options to select from. This does have its own issues – too many options can be a problem. However, I can take as long as I want to make my choice in the comfort of my own home, without needing to leave the house or spend time going to different stores or even getting dressed. No crowds, no limited variety, no limited sizes, no limits at all really.

I have stopped complaining about Amazon taking over the world. They are but I no longer see it as a bad a thing as I used to. Our consumer habits are changing as they have always changed. Businesses need to change with it or die. Malls are going to disappear and I’m not really sad about that. Imagine what our cities and neighborhoods would look like if all the strip malls and ugly retail parking lots disappeared. How could that be a bad thing?

I still prefer to do my grocery shopping the old fashioned way and I still do most of my own cooking. I also prefer a good bookstore over Amazon any day, but for items that I don’t need immediately and that can be packed in a box, online shopping is now my friend. Please delivery my world to me. It would be a great future if I never ever have to stand in the lone open checkout lane behind six other people. That is something I will never miss.

This is the first post of a series documenting my travels through the maze of a modern writing career.

Since this is the 21st century, I was told that a website and blog are required. I’ve begun a number of blogs over the years and have even posted to them on occasion but had trouble with producing enough material to post. I have a million things I want to write and say, but once I’m sitting at the keyboard they seem all flutter away like moths leaving me staring at the screen wishing for a topic.

However, I have made the conscious decision to take my writing more serious as a career path and purchased my own domain to support my work. I have a novel that I am shopping around and have some short stories that I am polishing. I felt that the time had come for me to take a step into the social aspect of marketing my work and my website is only the beginning. I truth I am not a very social person but over the years my wife has trained me to fake it. She now calls me a ‘charmer’. Crazy.

My wife is very supportive as reader, inspiration, and cheerleader. She is the social one of the team and can start a conversation with anyone. She will be supplying a topic when I can’t come up with one. I’m the writer of the team, so I can write about anything once confident about a direction. Between the two of us, I expect to be able to keep a regular flow of posts to the site.

Here is the first of many… I promise.