Cutting out the middleman?
From the Editor's Desk
Arthur McLean
One of the funny things about having a Tivo system is that sometimes your TV just seems to land on odd channels at odd times.

Of course, when that happens, you also catch odd things being broadcast. It's all kinda odd now that I think about it.

Anyway, there've been a couple of times that I've caught parts of this crazy commercial from a company touting how you can buy great stuff for your home, directly from the manufacturer, through the company that was advertising itself.

Just so we're clear on this, they're saying that you and I can save a lot of dough by buying our goods directly from the manufacturer but we have to go through them to do it.

So they eliminated the middleman by becoming the new middleman. Yes, that should save me a lot of money.

Once I caught part of this commercial and they were talking about how expensive your local store had to be to do things like advertise and pay employees. That's interesting. Since this company is advertising on TV, I can only assume now that they got rid of all the employees so they could save you money. I bet the customer service is great. Hopefully, they kept at least one employee around long enough to record the message "please continue holding, your call is very important to us."

At this point, I'm thinking that maybe they got rid of all those retail locations. Maybe this is some company taking advantage of the Internet in new and exciting ways. But then I see that they have over 100 showrooms!

I guess they're saving money somewhere; must be the whole no-staff thing, but then who greets you when you come in, a robot?

I don't know, but it sounds like a great business to get into. You don't have to work or have a staff or inventory. Basically, you just have to have an advertising budget and some catalogs on hand.

Do those kinds of places really save you a lot of money? I have no idea. And I have no idea if you'll really save a bunch of money by switching to Geico, either. But you can get some value out of your hometown newspaper, I at least do know that.

Reader Comments

No comments have been posted. Be the first!

Other Stories With Comments:
Article	Comments
Taking Names and Keeping Score	1
Frances Nichols passes at 91	1
Bryant is a contestant in Ms. Senior Alabama Pageant	1
Dunagans to celebrate golden anniversary	1