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.

Battle Between Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing

The confusion between affiliate marketing and network marketing or multi-level marketing is quite interesting. Some people even think affiliate marketing business and network marketing businesses are scams. While others think they are one and the same with different names. In this article, we will discuss and look at the definitions, distinctions and some misconceptions. At the end of this article, we should have been able to provide some clarity.What is Affiliate Marketing?Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing system in which a business rewards a person(s) or affiliate(s) for each visitor or customer brought by the person’s own marketing efforts.What is Network Marketing?Network Marketing is totally different. Here the marketer becomes associated with a certain product that they like or believe in, which they then buy from their supplier and resell to the public at a profit. Before the marketer starts selling products of a larger company, he/she signs some paper work which gives him/her a small franchise of the large business.Differences between Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing.In affiliate marketing, affiliates are not selling any product directly. They are simply the mouthpiece, or the advertising board that tells people where to go and buy products. You will not have to purchase anything, but you will still make money just for telling people where to go get a product. Affiliates get a commission when the person that they refer to a website buys something, so in this way the company is paying for a good lead and they will be paid generously.In network marketing, the foundation is in growing a team. You can start with one person (also known as a down-line) who then introduces the next person and that person introduces another and the chain goes on and on. The beauty of network marketing is that it is a game of numbers. The more individual down lines you have under you, the bigger your team, the more money you make.Another difference is that in affiliate marketing, commissions are paid usually on single level depending on business laws in different countries.In network marketing, commissions are paid on infinite levels of down lines. The “deeper” you build the closer you are to residual income.Which brings in More Money?Depending on your business goals, affiliate marketing can make you a decent fortune in a few years if can get a good number of customers to buy your affiliate company’s products.While Network marketing can generate an income more than you can comprehend if you consistently work hard at it. If you happen to belong to the top 10 network marketing business that are structured, a good one should have a rare provision in their company policy like making the business will-able. So you work the business and after you stop working it, you can hand it over to the next person. And that person does not start from scratch but continues from where you stopped. A recommendation of one of such companies can be found at the end of this article.What Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing Are Not.Whether you decide to do affiliate marketing or network marketing, once you have a good understanding of each, you will be sure that:1. It is not a pyramid scheme.2. It is not a “get rich quick” business.3. It is not for non business minded people.4. It’s not for those that want a “nice-play-thing” kind of business.5. It is not a one man’s show. It needs people with common business goals to thrive.

Exciting Careers in Fashion

Fashion has a rippling effect on people from different walks of life. It gradually gains popularity among different strata of society. To help fashion reach out to the consumers, a large number of professionals are needed. Apart from fashion designing, you can find a number of exciting jobs related to fashion.If you are not into designing but still want to remain connected with fashion, you can perform other job duties such as Fashion marketing/ merchandising/buying and forecasting in context of every kind of wear be it the sophisticated haute-couture, ready-to-wear or for the mass market and street wear.Basically, the fashion and the retail industry at large works as team where fashion advisors, buyers, forecasters, merchandisers and marketers, fashion designers play their part well and keep the industry going. If you love fashion and want to be related to this field professionally, you can take up jobs such as that of marketing/ merchandising/buying and forecasting in this field. These jobs enable you to execute functions that help designers to sell their collections. As a buyer you have to perform a number of functions such as that of a fashion buying. You’ll be entrusted with the job of buying raw material/accessories for fashion houses, buying houses, export houses and retail line. For this you need to have a superior knowledge about the new trends that are likely to hit the market and probably which will fetch a large number of consumers. Fashion Marketing is basically concerned with making fashion reach out to maximum number of consumers and assisting fashion designers, retail stores to make fashion accessible to the target customers. You have to work with fashion designers, suppliers and also at the manufacturing level in order to even the process that precedes fashion designing.You can also be highly involved in fashion by running a retail store. If you have knowledge about fashion and how the industry operates, you can open a retail store. Alternatively, if you are not too keen on entrepreneurship you can take up jobs as retail managers/executives in fashion houses and retail stores.Fashion Forecasting is another area where you can exhibit your love for fashion and work in the industry. As the name suggests, the job includes predicting fashion trends, the colours which will be popular in a particular a season or a year and the styles that are likely to become rage over a particular period of time. The designer takes cue from the trends predicted by forecasters and then decides upon the styles, fabrics, colours for the clothes line they want to launch and the clothes they want to design for creating a collection pertaining to a particular season. Analysing and evaluating new trends is necessary and designers/ retail houses depend a lot on extensive market research which forecasters make. The job may require you to travel extensively to get a peek into different markets in different geographical areas. You have to forecast the new colours which will become trend in the upcoming season, the new styles and trends that will become popular.