From: phil osborn (philosborn@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Sep 29 1999 - 21:22:21 MDT
The Power of Ideas
This was already on my mind when I caught the tail-end of the special on
local TV last Thursday regarding the bill on CA Governor Wilson's desk to
severely limit warehouse discount store's selling of grocery products. This
vile piece of legislation, passed at the last moment of the session, was
purely and totally special interest law sponsored by the intended
beneficiaries, the grocery chains and grocery unions (Based on the
experience of clerks I know personally, a checkout clerk with an 8th grade
education in a union store typically makes only $20+/hour, poor thing.).
Both the consumers and the smaller groceries and convenience stores, who buy
their merchandise largely from the warehouse operations such as Costco,
would have been screwed. To my surprise, Wilson vetoed it, both on consumer
grounds and because it was anti-free-enterprise. This immediately brought
to mind some family history I had just been reminded of.
In Shrewsbury, Massachussetts, there is a general merchandise,
warehouse-discount style store called Spag's (spags.com), which has been in
business since 1934 - at that location, I believe. Spag's was the
concept-proving prototype, to the best of my knowledge, for KMart, Target,
Walmart, Cosco, Sams Club, etc.
In addition, Spag set a standard of sorts for employee relations and
community involvement. Whenever a townsperson died in Shrewsbury, Spag
would donate a book to the local library in his or her name. Even part-time
summer employees could count on a Christmas bonus. On my recent visit to my
aging relatives in Shrewsbury, they related a long list of Spag's
philanthropy.
Old man Spag (a nickname), the founder, who I may have met when I was a kid,
worked for my father for $0.15/hour at my dad's gas station in the late
1920's, according to my uncle. Spag and my dad did not get along as
employer/employee, and Spag quit pumping gas to open a little store on a
corner of the family homestead. However, as neighbors who had grown up
together, they continued to stay in touch, and later I believe that my
father worked briefly for Spag as a grocery clerk.
At some point, as I vaguely recall my dad relating, and supported by
testimony from his brother, Spag was complaining to my dad about the high
cost of doing business, especially the taxes, and particularly the inventory
tax. My dad asked him if he had to pay inventory on merchandise en route to
the store. When Spag said no, my dad suggested that he keep the inventory
in a tractor trailer until he was ready to sell it. He could then buy bulk
lots of over-produced or remaindered merchandise direct from the
manufacturer, store them cheaply in the trailers with no inventory tax, and
then sell them quickly at a discount. According to my uncle, my dad worked
out the details and then convinced Spag to try it.
It worked spectacularly. Today, it is my understanding that Spag's, now run
by the founder's daughters, has many hundreds of these tractor trailers.
The store is a Massachussetts institution, and for decades people from all
over New England have driven there for its spectacular sales.
Spag was unique and sometimes trend-setting in other ways. "There's no bags
at Spag's," was one of his slogans. The merchandise boxes were stacked by
the checkout registers for customers to use. All sales were cash-only,
until recently, which I have often thought would be a good store concept by
itself. I and most other consumers lose a big chunk of our lives - about
one work-week per year in my case - just waiting in line for check or credit
processing.
(Now that may no longer be as feasible, however, as the latest stats I've
seen say that 85% of consumer purchases in the U.S. are from the ruling
elite - i.e., women, who have had both the majority of wealth and votes
since the 1930's - who are typically 90% of the credit card or check users
in any retail checkout line, even though the cards and checks are actually
both more expensive and more of a danger to carry than cash. But using cash
is unfashionable. Maybe a men-only store??? With an "honorary man" card
for women who swear to only carry cash??? ;) )
Spag told my dad that anytime he needed a job, he knew where to go, but I
don't think he ever took him up on it. My dad didn't die impoverished as
far as I know, but I don't think he ever got any significant personal return
on an idea that has benefited consumers and businesspeople to the tune of
tens and perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars.
Of course, first Spag had to listen. And that's the difficult part,
apparently. People with any kind of capital and accomplishment in their
field seem to be the most resistent to new ideas. Not Invented Here (NIH -
pronounced niiiihh h h, as in a horse neighing - very effective in chorus)
uber alles.
I can't even begin to recall how many times I've been told by some
independent programmer that good ideas are a dime a dozen, and then seen
that very idea make someone else very rich - as when I tried to convince
Amiga programmers to develop a hypertext system in 1986 (having worked out a
set of ascii-based tags and protocols), a couple years before the Mac
introduced its wildly popular HyperCard. And I have hardly ever seen so
much NIH in one place as the couple of Extropian meetings I attended in L.A.
(of course, a lot of that is the Mensa influence). Spag's great
accomplishment was that he did listen, even though he and my dad never got
along that well personally, I gather.
Another relative, a great uncle who ran the largest straight rasor company
of the time, was approached by some nut proposing to separate the blades
from the rasor. Of course, my uncle had him thrown out, after which he went
to Gillette. ;) Hiihhhh hh hh h
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