Consumer versus Retailer

Have you ever walked into a store and thought, "Ohmygosh! I LOVE THIS SONG!" and stayed in the store just to hear the rest of your favorite song played? It is the most pleasant experience, and more often than not, makes my day because I have one of my favorite tunes stuck in my head. 

However, after spending hours after hours at work this summer, I have come to see this from the employee's perspective....Like many stores, the candy store I work at uses XM radio because it is commercial free. We have 3 radio stations we are allowed to play during the work day because they are "candy store appropriate" and consumer friendly. 

Despite the fact that each station promises "the greatest hits from the 80's, 90's, and today", I still hear the same 20 songs. Over. and Over. AND OVER. You would think that these radio stations would be able to find more than 20 good songs over a span of 30 years. Instead, what they should really advertise is "top 10 hits of today, plus 10 more songs to drive you crazy". 

For the first few days of working there, I was silly and naive and enjoyed this. 

 "Yeah! I know all these songs. I can hum along and whistle while I work."

Three Weeks Later.....

"I have heard "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie TWICE and my shift is not even half over".

XM radio has also ruined songs I would have at one point added to an iPod playlist. For example: Hey There Delilah by the Plain White T's. I have been a Plain White T's fan for a while, and knew of them before this song became famous. I was a little disappointed that of all their songs, Hey There Delilah was the one to become popular, but glad that more people would start to appreciate the band. My sister loved the song so I even had it as her ringtone for when she called me. After two weeks of working and hearing this song at LEAST once every time I worked, it got a little old. Now, I can not STAND it. Every time it comes on the radio, I feel an uncontrollable urge to change the radio station.

Now, because the stations we play in the candy store are "consumer friendly", they often play current hits. So, I will admit that this has given me the benefit of being introduced to some new songs that I like. i.e. I'm Yours by Jason Mraz. I'm not sure I would have been liked this song quite as much if I had heard it outside of the candy store. Its happy-go-lucky singsongy melody always perked up my day whether I was making caramel corn or stocking Bubblicious. 

But again, the downside of XM radio: Hearing "I Kissed a Girl and I Liked it" by Katy Perry. Catchy. SUPER CATCHY. and I don't like it. I heard it for the first time ever and it was stuck in my head. I wanted to claw at my ears with a fork. The beat just stays with you. And, I was appalled to see little six year old girls belting it out and singing it along as they perused the candy shelves. I mean, I'm all for tolerance and acceptance, but I feel that the song is a little mature to be considered "candy store appropriate". 

And my rant about XM radio continues: the Holiday Season.

I love Christmas songs. I really really do. But Candy Store Policy says "convert to XM Holly the day after HALLOWEEN." Not a fan. The week of Thanksgiving? Acceptable. Anything before that: an abomination of man. It's just too soon. It's like seeing "Back to School" binders and notebooks right after you start summer break. Seriously, please let me enjoy a little down time in between. 

With that said, I feel the obligation to be a jerk and not only get an annoying song stuck in your head, but a ridiculous Christmas song at that.

"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas...Only a hippopotamus will do. 

No crocodiles, no rhinoceroses, I only like hippopotamuses

And Hippopotamuses like me tooooooooo".

Thanks for reading!!! :-D

Cotton Candy For Bella, Snow Cones for Edward

What exactly does a candy store and Edward Cullen have in common? Besides the fact that they are addicti

ve and too good to be true (Don't lie. You know that Edward is at the top of the Fictitious Hottie Hot

 List.), they are also both conveniently sold at a midnight book release of Breaking Dawn. 

I work at a small local candy store called Naper Nuts and Sweets, and we sometimes pair with other local business for special events. This time, there was a ticketed book release (themed prom style and including a live band) sponsored by a local book store, and Naper Nuts was invited as a vendor. Now, for you to really understand my dedication to my duty as candy slave, you need to know that as vendors and event sponsors, we workers were also expected to dress in prom attire. Even the best candy slaves find the art of Cotton Candy Making difficult in a full length dress or vest and bow tie. 

There is a very precise method used to gently wrap the flavored cloud around the paper unicorn horn and the unexpected tension from tightly laced dressed or a jacket with narrow elbows severely inhibits the perfection of a plush cotton candy pillow. 

 And, with the help of my candy-slave team, we came up with some purely ridiculous marketing slogans to help sell some of our items. Our red strawberry lollipops became creatively named "blood suckers", the big gem rings became "Bella's Engagement Rings", and we completed our array of candy with wax fangs.

 We all picked one item to model....and hilarity ensued when Matt tried talking to customers while wearing wax fangs.

So, as many of my candy store adventures go, I catered to a group of rowdy kids- mostly girls this time- dying to read Breaking Dawn and rot their teeth with candy into the wee hours of the morning. Odd as it may sound, I have a new appreciation for carnie folk....the ones who constantly move around the country selling funnel cakes and lemonade, and terrifying foods like fried twinkies (could there be ANYTHING more toxic? Seriously, the combination of those two items is biohazardous). 

I did not realize just how much effort went in to setting up a table and a few little machines.....After wrestling with several extension cords and untangling a knotty mass resembling a bag of pretzels, I managed to plug in a small register, a cotton candy machine, a snow cone machine, a popcorn machine, and a clip-on flood light in preparation for the evening. Upon starting the Snocone machine, a logistical epiphany slapped me in the face. Is it really a good idea to have a union of cords RIGHT BELOW THE MELTING ICE OF THE SNO-CONE MACHINE? No, my friends, no it is not. So I battled the cords once again (and won.) Contemplative after my battle, my thoughts  returned to "carnie folk" and my new-found respect. Although I was certainly disadvantaged by wearing formal attire, I have determined that it must be at least three times as laborious to work in the confinements of a truck in a hundred degree weather. I no longer have a right to say my job is tougher than theirs. They win.

Anyway, back to the bigger picture. So, here I am, at dark, in a parking lot, selling sweets and various novelty items to a group of teenage girls fawning over fictional characters, and in formal attire. As the live band hummed pop favorites in the background and I waited for customers, I began a new mental debate:

Is it materialistic and wasteful for these girls to spend their money on a pre-book release party that the public should be ashamed of, or should we embrace these girls so passionate about reading, plot, and character development? Can I, a candy slave, minion to the event sponsors, justify hiring a live band in celebration of youth reading, or should I be encouraging literate adults to force feed more widely accepted classic books, such as To Kill a Mockingbird to this same audience?

 I'm not really sure that a ticketed prom-themed book release party is the proper response to excited readers, but at the same time, I don't think there is really any scenario in which youth reading should not be celebrated and championed. So, now as a legal adult and perhaps a role model to many of these girls, how do I encourage them to not only continue reading books they currently enjoy, like Twilight, but to also expand on books with similar themes and parallel concepts, such as Romeo and Juliette?

And then at midnight, the hordes and masses of squealing girls were gone as quickly as they had come, each rushing home with a delicious new hardback book, free of dog-eared paged and small spinal cracks, each girl eager to devour the end of the Twilight saga.

And I remained, to clean up my tiny army of machines, still pondering to myself, but now wondering if I myself had read enough “classic literature” to debate this topic without seeming hypocritical.