HardcopyLove

In Praise of Coupons

2008-07-22T02:51:00.004-04:00

I must admit... I love coupons. I'm the type of guy who will buy dog food because I have a coupon (I don't own a dog). My wife, an Economics Professor, always reminds me that I'll save MORE money by NOT BUYING anything to begin with.

But there's something about that cold hard paper promising savings if all I do is show it to a cashier. A small price to pay. In fact, I get a kick out of impressing cashiers with the deals I can get!

Recently, I signed up for a text messaging coupon service from Borders. Every week a text message is sent to my phone (an iPhone of course) and all I have to do is show it to the cashier. There's no charge, but of course, the phone company charges for incoming messages. With my iPhone plan, I get 200 SMS text messages each month, which is plenty. The only messages I get are from my hipper, younger employees and then it's maybe 20 a month.

But with AT&T's new iPhone plan, all text messages will cost extra. I've used the Borders coupon once or twice, but now I'd pay anywhere from $1 to $5 each month to enable this service. If I didn't buy something every month, I could end up losing money on the deal.

But this post isn't about AT&T... It's about the value of hardcopy coupons. Instead of charging the end user, it's the provider who pays for it. I get a lot of traditional coupons in the mail and invariably they go right in my wallet or car. Those hardcopy coupons are treated like currency, and valued higher perhaps because they're someone else's currency. It's like spending other people's money. Just don't tell my wife!

Buy The Book

2008-06-12T13:03:00.004-04:00

I bought a book the other day.

Actually, I bought two books.

Well, technically, I bought two copies of the same book.

The book was "Son of a Witch", written by Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, which was turned into a terrific musical. The touring version of the musical came to town and everyone in my family saw it, some more than once! So, for my niece and my mother, I bought this book which is a sequel to Wicked which is itself an unofficial prequel to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz".

I was reading about Amazon's Kindle and other e-book readers and I pondered what it would be like to "give" an e-book to someone? Of course there are advantages such as the environmental impact, electronic delivery, and so on. I think I might buy an electronic book for myself, but as a gift? Would the recipient have been as appreciative? Would I have still bought two "electronic" copies?

By buying a hardcopy version, I have a tangible memento, a souvenir, not electrons. A book is a vote of confidence in the author, that this will earn a place on a bookshelf, to read and experience again and perhaps share with the next generation. Long after my current PC has been recycled.

Never Go To The Bathroom Alone!

2008-05-28T10:00:00.004-04:00

Forgive the inevitable 'bathroom humor' or 'potty language' this post will contain, but in this case, it's appropriate.

There is a business philosophy that recommends never eating alone. The idea is that dining can be an opportunity to do business so dining alone could be considered a waste of time. But today, my proposal is to never go to the bathroom alone.

Mind you, I'm not talking about the stereotypical 'girls chat' in the ladies room, nor the senatorial hookup in the men's room.

I'm talking about going to the bathroom with a good piece of hardcopy. It's hard to find the time to read industry magazines and newspapers that deserve to be read. Between email, web sites, PowerPoint, meetings, traditional "desk time" is used up. It is said that articles in People Magazine are even designed to be read during the average bathroom break!

Hardcopy is ideal for the situation. There are too many horror stories of iPhones dropped in toilets, etc. I recommend recyclable items like newspapers and magazines, for reasons that don't need to be listed.

So once again, hardcopy has its place. And that place just may be the bathroom.

Welcome to HardcopyLove

2008-05-19T14:41:00.003-04:00

Make no mistake... We are all about going green.

In fact, we have tools (PDF Pro & PDF Lite) to convert print jobs to PDF for viewing rather than printing and we have helped customers like the City of Baltimore drastically cut down on pages printed.

But sometimes only hardcopy will do.

Plus we want to have a little fun with the topic of printing. And that's where HardcopyLove comes in. Sometimes irreverent, sometimes informative. Always fun.

We hope you will enjoy this blog, and if you do, please check out our corporate site, www.rocsoft.com, for more tools to improve your Print Center's efficiency.

Todd Bernhard,

Director of New Media

TSB@rocsoft.com

Rochester Software Associates, Inc.