Mike DeWolfe : The Daily Edition

About a month ago, I wanted some chocolate ice cream-- not chunky chocolate nor dark chocolate chunk nor mocha frozen dessert. When we were kids, someone's Mom would say "do you want ice cream!" Then, they'd say "chocolate or vanilla?"-- milky goodness; or a liquid chocolate bar. It was great. I really do not need chocolate ice cream, so I let the wish linger for a month. Tonight I walked down to the supermarket-- one with LOTS of variety. There was every weird flavour of ice cream-- chunks of stuff and weird fruity flavours and lots of chocolate etc.. The closest I got to my childhood fave: dark chocolate frozen dessert (I am fearful when they are afraid to call it 'ice cream') and chocolate ice milk... Dejected, I opted for the chocolate ice milk and walked home. This is where we're at today: petulence and the need to assert ourselves through branding has left us with a fragmented set of choices. Chris Anderson coined this phenomeon as "t...

First things first: to read this blog post, you will need to pay me $1 in advance . How do you fill a shopping mall? Charge admission. This week, Hillside Mall in Victoria announced a "late night before late nights" event. For $5 per person, shoppers could come into the mall on a Sunday night when the mall is otherwise closed. Stores offered 10% or more off of select items and deals. As of November 23rd through to Christmas, the same mall will be open to 9PM every night. This afternoon, the mall was active but far from capacity. This evening, the mall was thick with people. No parking spots to be had. Line-ups in every store. The mall had carolers, live piano and free bottles of water. Did that fill the mall up to capacity? No: it was the feeling to exclusivity. To have one of the 2100+ cars in the parking lot; or be one of the 6,000+ people crowdng the stores. For $5 you could be packed into a mall that was a 2/3 full when it was free to visit. We're still not out of a r...