Sunday, 05 July 2009

• Things We Have Now Because of Recessions

  The recession will eventually come to an end and when it does, we'll dissect the good and bad of the time period.  During our last great depression, a few products came about that we continue to use today.  Here's a few of them from Billshrink.
  
  Self Service Grocery Stores
  

  
  

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  Prior to 1916, the grocery store of today did not exist. Instead, consumers visited small neighborhood drug stores, where assistants and clerks fetched the needed items from the stock room or behind the counter. All of that changed when Clarence Saunders opened the first known self-service grocery store in Memphis. So innovative was this new store that Saunders was granted a number of patents on the methods he employed there. However, it wasn’t until the Great Depression was in full swing that Saunders-style grocery stores expanded to more communities. According to Ryan Matthews’ Special Report: Social Change & the Supermarket, consumers became so price-sensitive that established retailing behemoths like Safeway were forced to adopt the supermarket model in order to compete. The end result: entrepreneurs realized if they could have the customers fetching their own goods, then they could service more customers, at the same time, and at lower prices.

  Scotch Tape
  
  

  
  

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  When papers needs adhering and the stapler isn’t handy, scotch tape is the first thing reached for. But it comes as a surprise to many that scotch tape was invented in 1930 (the onset of the Great Depression) by 3M engineer Richard Drew. According to About.com, Drew conceived of the tape when he noticed that auto painters at a local body shop “were having a hard time making clean dividing lines on two-color paint jobs.” Comprised of a transparent adhesive, oils, resins, rubber, and coated cellophane, Scotch tape stands tall as one of the most noteworthy products to come out of a recessionary period. 3M’s website also notes that Scotch tape was used by grocers and bakers to seal food during the Depression, an important benefit given that waste could not be tolerated during such harsh economic times.  Perhaps the greatest testament to its staying power is a recent Fool.com article on how to profit during recessions noting that “companies are unlikely to put off buying Scotch tape…” when the economy tanks.
  

  Diet Coke
  
  

  
  

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  Conventional wisdom holds that economic slowdowns aren’t the best times to introduce new products, but that didn’t stop Coca Cola from launching Diet Coke in 1982. With the markets reeling from the disastrous economic policies of Jimmy Carter, Diet Coke was released to an excellent public reception, overtaking Tab as the top-selling diet soft drink in short order. Diet Coke has never lost its popularity, and was recently publicized in SmartMoney’s 2008 article “6 Stocks That Are Resisting Recession.”

  Twinkies
  
  

  
  

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  Sold at every gas station, convenience store, and grocery retailer in America, the Twinkie was invented by Jimmy Dewar in 1930 as an inexpensive treat for cash-strapped consumers. Working as a baker for the Continental Baking Company, Dewar decided to put the company’s strawberry shortcake baking machines to use when strawberry season ended by making banana creme filled snack cakes. According to KitchenProject.com, Dewar “charged a nickel for a package of two”, and Mahalo.com reports that over 500,000,000 Twinkies are now sold every year.

  To read more, check out Billshrink here.
  

  What are some new innovations that you think will be remembered as started during the recession and have become global icons?  One my friends said the iPhone is next because it was released during the summer of 2007 when the recession was slowly starting to become a global problem.  What do you think?

  
  

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