“No soup for you!” This became the cry of the “Soup Nazi” in one episode of the popular series Seinfeld when it was on. The plot is that one of the crew eats soup that is to die for, and the others won’t believe soup can be so good until they try it. When they go to the shop that sells the soup, there is a long line of people wanting this soup. Each person methodically and silently moves through the line, reaching and taking without talking to the chef. One of Jerry’s friends (or maybe it was him? anyway…) commits a horrible faux-pas and talks to the chef and doesn’t do something the way he should and ends up banned from the soup line, with the grouchy chef yelling this famous line after him as he leaves.The Soup Nazi came to mind the other week when I was musing over the latest nutrition fad to hit the market. Because I market liquid whole food nutrition as supplements to healthcare practitioners and those involved in the nutrition field, I hear a lot of people telling clients some pretty strange things. It’s not wrong to try something that someone you trust recommends. However, when someone issues mandates and absolutes about diets without the science to back it up, I start getting perturbed. So, I’ve coined a term for the people who are so far at the end of the nutrition spectrum that they have fallen off: Nutrition Nazis.A Nutrition Nazi is someone who requires another person to eat a plate of peas for lunch every single day. A Nutrition Nazi is a person who scares other people into eating certain foods with such authority that all types of (insert a certain food category) are eliminated from the diet. A Nutrition Nazi is a person who will not accept any other suggestions offered to a client if it is not made by them. A Nutrition Nazi will not accept clients if they do (insert something here that seems random) or don’t do (insert something else that seems random).Actually, you have probably seen Nutrition Nazis on TV (maybe even on Oprah!). You may have met one, or even followed one for awhile. They are people who make other people feel bad if they aren’t like them. They use nutrition as a reward and as a punishment. They look great, and they are healthy. But they make one mistake in their training that is a deal-breaker:They tell people to do things that aren’t enjoyable!I do believe in many, many things about nutrition that science, experience, and history back up as wise practices. These things come from all different sources. Anyone who converts his/her nutrition habits to even 20% of them would at least experience a greater sense of well-being and would be investing in their future good health. And I know better than to tell people to do these things.Good nutrition cannot be presented to clients as a god to please. I have yet to meet one person who craves failure, and to hold good nutrition up as something high to aspire to will create failure. So much in our culture that doesn’t relate to the stuff on our plates is twisted up in foods that I refuse to address clients in such black and white terms. If you happen to meet a Nutrition Nazi, I strongly suggest asking them up front what they won’t let you eat. Follow that with a question of what is the one food you should eat everyday. If they answer any food after question one, don’t sign any papers. If they tell you something odd, expensive, or yucky, make a one-eighty and tell them you’ll think about it. I hope you’ll think about how odd or expensive or yucky that food would be to eat everyday, and then think about finding some other sources (yes, plural) to help you grow in this area.
Importance of Free Online Business Directories
A lot of free online business directories are getting full attention right now because a lot of customers are getting several benefits from it due to the fact that they hold a compilation of information for different businesses. However rampant these online directories are in our time today, many small businesses still cannot afford it because almost all of them are requiring payment. Given this fact, the question now is despite being required to pay a certain amount, why should people still depend on these directories?First of all, these online business directories are a very good form of advertising for a lot of online businesses out there. Even though the business is just a small one and is just starting out, the fact that a lot of people look into these directories daily already increases the chance that these small businesses will receive more traffic. The job of attracting a lot of people will already be done by these directories given the fact that many people consult them; the only thing you have to do is back this up with interesting enough advertisements to succeed in convincing people to check out your online business. In addition, people will have the liberty to place in as much links they want in these online directories as long as they can really afford it. These directories do not impose limitations to entrepreneurs because anyone who can afford it can simply do as they please with their links.And speaking of limitations, people who visit these directories are not faced with limited choices of online businesses that are already huge and famous. Either small or large businesses are given an equal opportunity when their links are placed in these online directories. Therefore, if you are an entrepreneur who is just starting out with your brand new business, it is a good idea for you to start with online directories because here, it doesn’t matter how long you have been running your own business as long as you choose a field that generally interests a lot of people. Besides, instead of spending your money just to print out advertisement flyers, you can just save them and use them for other things related to making your business more successful. At least with an online directory, even though you spend a small amount for listing your link, you are somehow assured that people will really see your link because people visit these directories daily. Unlike with manual advertising, you will not be sure that people will be able to find their way to your flyers. Therefore you are not assured that the money you spent will really benefit your business in the long run.For those people who are thinking twice about listing their business link to free online business directories, just think about how your money will be more worth spending on them than on the manual process of advertising. Obviously, these online directories will bring in more profit for your business because of how much people patronize them.
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.