Razor Blades

There is a saying that if you have a technical problem with one of the many electronic devices in a household, call a fourteen year old.  Young people have grown up with the devices, their software and other aspects that some older persons can find daunting.  A fourteen year old is part of what is called the I-generation, named for the I-phone, and I-pad commonly found among children.  This generation would be about 21 years of age and younger.  As for me, I am fine with my trac-phone. Each generation brings a different set of abilities.  While I could go on with varied stories, one story recently relayed to me by a co-worker, who is a millennial, regarding razor blades shows a difference.

This co-worker's father, who is in his early 70's is a truck driver, and can easily back up a large semi-trailer into many a tight corner or space.  A week or so ago co-worker told me the story of how her dad went to Wal-Mart to find blades for his razor, and was unable to find any.  He then went to Target, and was unable to find any at that mega-store either.  He did make an inquiry of someone at Target who provided a product number, and suggested he order them at Target.com.  Not having the Internet, he called his youngest daughter, my co-worker. "Did you know you can go to Target.com, he said "and order something and have it delivered to your door?"  She thought it was kinda of cute, and did not have the heart to tell him how often she has ordered from Target.com,  He continued, just like an Internet expert, saying, "Now go to Target.com and enter this number in the search area...." So, she placed the order and told him she would keep him abreast of the delivery date.  She also told me about her Dad's trepidation of having a package delivered to his home.  He lives in a rural area in Polk County, WI, with few neighbors near his farm.  To deal with his trepidation, she told me that he had put a small cooler on the porch and hoped the delivery person would get the hint and stick the package in the cooler.  She did not have the heart to tell him the delivery person probably thought that someone was going to pick up the cooler.  The delivery person did not place the package in the cooler. 

The on-line effect to retail is significant.  JC Penny is closing more stores. And Sears, a company which began as mail-order company, in a sense so similar to on-line placed orders of Amazon and other major e-retailers, is on its last leg.  Sears was a company that became too entrenched in the brick and mortar store system, lost its original mail-order purpose.  Had Sears retained a more robust business model in keeping with its original mail-order purpose it may well have had a leg up in e-retailing. In its heyday, one could get most anything you desired from Sears, even a prefabricated house.  One cannot use a computer as toilet paper, as the old stories of the use of re purposed Sears Catalog was said to occur in the outhouse.

As children, my siblings and I would look through the large catalogs from Sears and other businesses from which to make our Christmas lists.  I suppose today children do not lie on the family room floor with the television running, while they sort through varied catalogs to find that special item they desire. Rather, they probably use their I-phone while splayed on a sofa, listening to music through their ear buds.  The large thick colored catalogs have gone the way of the can opener and the oil can opener, just to name two household items now almost as past as the dodo bird.  The Smithsonian Institution may well wish to place some of these items in an exhibit, as there are now people reaching adult hood that will wonder what purpose of such items.  Part of me thinks that due to craft beer, the bottle opener (part of the can opener) is making a comeback.  It is like the gas stations of old, where someone would come out pump your gas, check your oil, and look at the car tires. Such stations are few and far between, like S& H Greenstamps. Gas stations with a small repair shop have been replaced by the general store of our day, the convenience store, selling gas and a whole host of other items.  You just cannot get your car repaired at such a location.

There does not seem to be as much niche retailing in big box stores any longer.  Menard's now sells food, and not just snacks, but ribs, and olive oil, and most anything a supermarket may sell.  Kroger's is coming out with a new store that is like a Super Target or the Super Wal-mart, to sell both groceries and department store type goods.  Yet, what my co-workers father experienced is that as large as the stores are, they do not sell common products one would expect.  While he used to buy his razor blades at a store, he now has to have someone go on-line to order them for him.  I certainly understand that older men are probably at the bottom rung of the purchase demographic, as they probably buy little, but they still have items to purchase for their daily lives.  They may also be one of the demographic groups least attuned to the Internet.  

Yet, they have some traits which we younger people may have a hard time replicating.  This same co-workers dad is a widower, and he has a lady friend who is a widow.  Their main past time is ballroom dancing.  One recent weekend they were dancing at a German restaurant in Minneapolis, and after dancing for a while they took a break, and a young couple (which my co-worker thinks "young" in her Dad's mind was probably in the forty year age range) came up to her Dad and his lady friend and inquired if they gave dancing lessons.  It pleased their hearts to hear such a compliment.  but, no they don't give dance lessons.

There can be more to dancing than gyrating your body in odd contortions to what many young people may term as music (noise?).  I find much of it difficult to understand, not to mention to try and converse over the noise.  American culture is a living and breathing series of events.  With the advance of the computer age, it also seems that culture is changing more quickly than in the past.  In 50 year time people may look at and wonder about the purpose of a selfie-stick.  Maybe that will even apply to an I-phone or an I-pad.  It will not even take that long for person to look at a CD and wonder what purpose this shiny wheel looking device had.  Times are a changing, but each generation brings its own skill set. The father of my c-worker does not have the Internet, but perhaps sometime in the future he may find himself adapting to changing shopping patterns and buy his razor blades on-line by himself using Target.com.