Every once in a great while, I write about subjects other than photography. This is one of those instances. Not to worry, we will return to the true subject of Earth Images next time.

The thoughts below have been swimming around in the fertile (well, sometimes) resources of my brain for many years, just waiting for a moment to share them. It may be the fact that we are in the midst of another Christmas shopping season that may have finally pushed them to the forefront.

Free market/capitalist economics work only when everyone does their job. We rightfully have laws that dictate the honesty of the claims made by the producers and sellers of products and services. It is a never-ending job. Consumers have a right to expect that the sellers of goods and services are not committing fraud. Those sellers/producers have a responsibility to represent what they do or make, truthfully. The drive to succeed will indeed move some people, and some corporations, to do undesirable things to enrich themselves. Even more so, the fear of failure, will prod people to do the wrong thing.

It is not our responsibility as consumers, to see to it that those in the business of selling, succeed. That is their job not ours. It is not however their job, to coddle us and take a “brain cell count” to ascertain if we are good enough consumers to think for ourselves.

The biggest portion of the “day job” years of my life were spent working on commission. I sold to retailers not the general public. That meant that my customers were savvy and difficult to sell anything extra to. I still found ways to reach them. I was honest, but I knew how to use their own personalities to get them to quite often but not always, buy what I was selling. I never felt bad about that. It was their job to buy only what served them best, and it was my job to sell them all that I could.

When I headed home from work, I became a consumer just like anyone else. If I had to stop at the appliance store and price an expensive item, it was the job of the salesperson to with honesty, get me to buy what they wished to sell me.  In fact, their job is to get me to buy more than I came in for. My job, and I take this job seriously, is to buy only what I want, or only what I need, when I walk into store. I am pretty good at it, but just like I sometimes failed to sell what I wanted, I have at times bought what the sales person wanted me to buy.

One great sales tactic is to show you, or better said to convince you, they only want you to buy what you want.  They may even try to stop you from buying something you didn’t come in for.  The hope is, that your recognition of the fact that they put you ahead of themselves, will cause you to buy even more. It works.

Like any consumer, I may be excited about buying something new that I need, and especially something that I want. For me, the buying experience in a store is not part of that joy. It is merely the road we drive to get from point A to point B. Drive safely and efficiently so you can enjoy what you truly want or need, when you get home. You shouldn’t be rude to the seller, but you do not owe it to them to make your visit pleasurable for them…..or profitable.

A little secret (apparently) is that nothing is for free. Gimmicks to get you to buy extra, are fine as long as you take the time to think about why and how they can do that. Thinking is not what they (often) want. They want you to act impulsively. There is a lot of thought and research used in getting you to buy extra goods or services. Wise consumers never forget that.

In the world of e-commerce, there are still sellers as well as buyers. Watch carefully why things are priced they way they are. Do you really need or want those extra five items? Notice how they are grouped together. Buy only what you want!!

When companies or individuals who are charged with the selling of goods or services, fail to attempt to do their best to move those products and services, our economy, right down to the janitorial services in the factory, stagnates. It takes success minded, hard-working people to keep the products and services moving, and keep commerce economically viable. When consumers cease to be diligent, and buy what they do not need, or don’t truly want, they create a society choked with debt. Their life if overfilled with things they do not need or want. When more is owed than is paid, it will sooner or later all collapse. The same is true for governments

As consumers, children need to be guided and watched, but adults should be just that….adults. Buy when it is appropriate, but keep your cash in your pocket, or on your credit card when it is not. As a seller, sell everything you can, but do so honestly. There will be another chance to sell tomorrow.

I’ve not only been a seller and a buyer, I have been a success and a failure at both. Take it from me, life is much grander when you are a successful seller, and a successful buyer.

Sellers and buyers balance the system when they are both edified and diligent. Life works well when you keep it in balance.

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The experts say, that doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting to get different results, is the one true sign of insanity. I suppose that would mean that all of us have been insane at some point in our life. Have you ever fixed something that was broken and when it broke again (re-broke?) you applied the exact same techniques as when you fixed it, only to find it didn’t work this time? In fact, it didn’t work over and over again. You repeated that technique exactly the same, over and over, expecting it to work, even though it has failed 25 times in a row. You finally gave up and just about the time you crawled into bed, you realized that there was one little thing you did the first time that you left out in your attempt to re-fix it.

Those experts might actually know what they are talking about.  To get better results, you must do something differently.

Have a great day,                                                                                                                             Wayne