Getting Through the Checkpoint Just One Hurdle
I think yesterday was the day that I came to the conclusion that people are in general crazy. A flight attendant loses complete control and goes so far as to pull the emergency chute on a plane and people barely blink as this type of silly behavior is almost normal. All of it points to the accumulation of stress as the supposed economic recovery is a total disaster and people are simply beginning to lose any hope of a more positive future. With confidence in the economy plummeting among consumers and small businesses there is very little chance the economy will avert a second slide.
With stress aversion a major factor in my life I have begun to look for ways to make my travel time easier. About three years ago I saw a well dressed business traveler fly through security with a laptop bag that zipped open for easy access. Meanwhile I had to take my expensive laptop out of the bag and leave it in the hands of a fumble handed TSA inspector. Leeds has recently released the Verve Checkpoint Friendly Compu-Messenger which doubles as both a simple everyday promotional messenger bag and a computer case. Beyond the basic features of a full zip laptop compartment it has other features that make your day easier such as the earbud port for your iPod. With a slightly larger capacity for the typical wide screen the Summit Checkpoint-Friendly Compu-Case has a bungee storage area on the front of the case for odd shaped items like water bottles or umbrellas. I particularly like this simple and inexpensive feature as I stick everything from bottles, hats, towels and even the neck pillows I utilize while flying. Consider putting a bundle together by asking your distributor to provide other imprinted items that may fit into the bungee area such as a throw towel. Quite often you will be able to obtain these items for a discount and the impact with your customer will be dramatic.
There is very little hope for the domestic economy. Wall Street made a lot of money in the first half with the market rising as much as it did but the rest of America is suffering. The stimulus high is rapidly wearing off and all signs point to drooping confidence in any sustained recovery with most small business owners now believing we will drop back into a shrinking economy later this year. The perfect storm of factors continues with consumers saving more each month, using less credit and in general being uncertain about the future. This will only lead to lower sales down the road in the all important retail sector which in turn will only make the situation worse as we head into the later half of 2010. Without a strong retail outlook the holiday jobs will not come again this year and without those jobs there goes a lot of holiday spending. There is now very little that can be done and much like Japan in the 1990's we appear to be entering a lost decade where we have very little real growth and very little opportunity to change what is happening. Companies like 4imprint which are actually foreign companies selling in the US continue to grow at strong rates while the rest of the small American businesses suffer.