Memo to Miami

You should probably take a lesson from the industrial produce cooler industry:

Sanders also points out that besides enjoying steady growth, American Cooling is trying to diversify its base. What he means is that strawberries are becoming a bigger part of the commodity mix the coolers handle. “Our strawberry business has increased dramatically,” Sanders said, which explains why he has been so busy.

Strawberries must be separated from other commodities since they need a drier, less humid environment than regular produce. The cooler operator must either rearrange the existing facility to isolate the berries or create a new one.

“When we have a customer commitment, we will build or remodel a cooler,” he explained. “This isn’t baseball. We don’t reverse the process and assume that if we build a facility the customers will magically appear!”

So they build their strawberry coolers themselves and only when there’s a demand for them. How novel!


6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Andy L
15 years ago

Well, making a product and creating demand isn’t entirely awful.  Look at De Beers!  They totally created the idea of diamond engagement rings.

Chris H.
15 years ago

De Beers isn’t a fair comparison, what with having been essentially a monopoly for a long time.  Besides, mucking around with “love” is a lot different from any other target.

Chris
15 years ago

I think this post works a bit too hard to make its point…

Craig Calcaterra
15 years ago

I won’t argue with you there.  They ain’t all gems.

Chris Simonds
15 years ago

I think way too many MLB team owners watched “Field of Dreams” way too many times, probably when way too drunk. Build it and they will come. Yeh, right. Except Ray Kinsella didn’t use taxpayer dollars and Kevin Costner is much better looking than Jeff Luria.

Jorge Costales
15 years ago

The post got me to thinking, if not the produce cooler industry, which industry is a better parallel. I gotta go with the weight-loss industry.

High hopes, temporary progress [attendance does improve at first], followed by setbacks [Gil Meche-like signings] and the yearly 3% weight/attendance creep.