Imagine this scenario: manufacturing
facilities around the globe mass-produce a particular consumer product, but the
people who regularly buy this product never use over 80-percent of the items
they purchase. And of the small number of items that are put to use, the
purchaser only utilizes about ten-percent of the item’s capacity.
If we’re talking about automobiles, this
would mean a person purchases five new cars, then leaves four of them sitting
in the driveway, and uses only one of the cars to drive to the local
convenience store once per week. Or if we’re talking about a different consumer
product, say, Pop Tarts, this means a person purchases an 8-pack, opens one and
takes two small nibbles before throwing it away, and then leaves the other
seven Pop Tarts sitting in the kitchen cupboard indefinitely.
This is silly, right? Why would people
purchase a particular product in large quantities and then eventually throw most
of them away without ever being used? Surely, nothing like this happens in the
real world? Well, it does happen. And don’t call me Shirley.
This scenario happens every day with a
very common consumer product: the ballpoint pen.
Every person in the United States already
owns enough ballpoint pens to last them their entire lives, even if every
person lives to be 100. The middle drawer of every desk, plus the junk drawer of
every kitchen, plus the briefcase of every businessperson, plus the backpack of
every student, plus the supply cabinet of every company, plus the shirt pocket
of every engineer already contain enough pens to serve our collective writing
needs until the year 2525. And that’s true even if everyone suddenly stopped
typing email and text messages with keyboards and started writing all
communications with pen and paper. Of course, that would require a whole lot of
paper, and I’m not sure we have that many trees anymore. Also, based on the
sloppy handwriting of some people, especially me, the amount of clear
communication taking place probably would plummet.
If you go into a Staples store,
regardless of the day of the week or time of day, what is the busiest aisle?
It’s always the “writing instruments” aisle. All those people perusing the ballpoint
pens, gel pens, pencils (both wood and mechanical), markers, and highlighters
do not actually need any of those items. They have dozens of them back at their
offices and/or homes.
Whenever I visit a Staples store, no
matter what I need, I always make a quick pass through the “writing
instruments” aisle, just to see if something new and interesting has hit the
market. And even though I have enough pens at home to last about a thousand
years, at least half the time I buy something.
Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote
about being addicted to sports? Well, my supply of ballpoint pens is almost as
bad. Whenever my wife says, “Really? You bought MORE pens?” I defensively
reply, “Well, at least I’m not addicted to buying automobiles or Pop Tarts,
OK?”
Imagine you wake up tomorrow morning and
news reports declare that the world is out of oil; no more gasoline, no more
heating oil, nothing. That would drastically alter our lives and throw the
world into a panic.
Now imagine you wake up tomorrow and
news reports announce that companies will no longer manufacture ballpoint pens.
People would shrug and say, “Huh, I guess I won’t waste as much time anymore when
I visit Staples.” That news would have no impact on our lives at all (unless we
were employed by Bic, Paper Mate, Pilot, Pentel, Uni-ball, Zebra, etc.)
So, what’s the point of all this? Ball,
of course.
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