Long Beach Events: Holiday Bone-anza!

Coming up on November 17th, from 10am-4pm at Good Neighbor Park in East Long Beach, Friends of El Dorado Dog Park are putting on the Holiday Bone-anza to help raise funds to complete the El Dorado Dog Park!  There will be gourmet food trucks on hand, a live DJ, Christmas music, dog training demos, a silent auction and raffle prizes, and they'll be making snow to play in.  Come on out and have some fun with the whole family with over 40 vendors helping to support the El Dorado Dog Park, opening this December!

A Holiday Message to Retailers

I saw a Christmas "Holiday" Tree lot almost completely set up on my way to the office this morning.  It got me thinking about the retail-driven nature of the holiday season that we will be innundated with over the next 60 days, or so.  The furvor of the season even spills over to Wall Street, with expectations always lofty, and retailers painsakingly trying to achieve those expectations.  The traditional answer to boosting sales was to emphasize the importance of being first -- we open at 9pm on Thanksgiving for Black Friday, or we have a Pre-Black Friday sale!  But to all those retailers depserately trying to snag extra dollars from the over-fatigued and under-informed consumer, please remember this one constant and unwavering tenant of retail consumerism that creates a huge buzz, lines out the door, and commands a premium in price.....

No matter what, the Club does not open before 10pm.

It's a bold posture, but nothing whets the consumer appetite like anticipation and being told they must wait for what they want.  The Holiday shopping season is ripe for a make-over, and I think this is just the trick.  But delayed gratification in America; is that even possible?