I'm suffering from cognitive dissonance after reading the first and third parts of the newsletter. Wouldn't it be better to skip spending $450 to $5900 on one of these machines and just go to a local coffee shop to support your local business and hug it out with the people there face to face?
I'm suffering from cognitive dissonance after reading the first and third parts of the newsletter. Wouldn't it be better to skip spending $450 to $5900 on one of these machines and just go to a local coffee shop to support your local business and hug it out with the people there face to face?
Admittedly, I'm just an old crank, having reached the age at which one turns into a rusting old Ford and every time I turn around something either breaks or falls off. And back in my twenties and thirties, when I wanted every toy in the Sears tool catalog, I would have been right in the front of the line to buy one of these coffee machines if I could afford it.
But still, those two parts seem to be a little at odds. No?
I did a short stint at a high end cookware store (the employee discount!) and my casual observation is that the expensive toys are much more fun if you share them. The people who were happiest with the high-end purchases did a lot of entertaining. Not necessarily formal dinner parties or cocktail parties, but they either hosted people overnight on a semi-regular basis and thought it was fun to have the item as a "novelty" or had casual recurring social events on their calendar (girl's weekly brunch/book club/poker night/Friday-night-BBQs/game-day-parties). They made up a lot of the repeat customers, who would come in to buy a new thing and couldn't stop raving about the last "toy" they bought. On the flip side, there'd be a rash of people purchasing big ticket novelty items such as espresso machines, Belgian waffle makers, and fancy juicers in early November who would return them a few weeks into January. Maybe they were deliberately scamming the store, but I think at least some genuinely overestimated how badly they wanted the item after they no longer had a house full of company to share it with.
I'm suffering from cognitive dissonance after reading the first and third parts of the newsletter. Wouldn't it be better to skip spending $450 to $5900 on one of these machines and just go to a local coffee shop to support your local business and hug it out with the people there face to face?
Admittedly, I'm just an old crank, having reached the age at which one turns into a rusting old Ford and every time I turn around something either breaks or falls off. And back in my twenties and thirties, when I wanted every toy in the Sears tool catalog, I would have been right in the front of the line to buy one of these coffee machines if I could afford it.
But still, those two parts seem to be a little at odds. No?
I did a short stint at a high end cookware store (the employee discount!) and my casual observation is that the expensive toys are much more fun if you share them. The people who were happiest with the high-end purchases did a lot of entertaining. Not necessarily formal dinner parties or cocktail parties, but they either hosted people overnight on a semi-regular basis and thought it was fun to have the item as a "novelty" or had casual recurring social events on their calendar (girl's weekly brunch/book club/poker night/Friday-night-BBQs/game-day-parties). They made up a lot of the repeat customers, who would come in to buy a new thing and couldn't stop raving about the last "toy" they bought. On the flip side, there'd be a rash of people purchasing big ticket novelty items such as espresso machines, Belgian waffle makers, and fancy juicers in early November who would return them a few weeks into January. Maybe they were deliberately scamming the store, but I think at least some genuinely overestimated how badly they wanted the item after they no longer had a house full of company to share it with.