12/30/2016
Get with the Picture
Amanda Thomsen
Years ago, I was kicked out of a Menards for taking photos, on my cell phone, of the sizes of rolls of aluminum flashing in relation to other rolls of aluminum flashing for a crafty garden project I was working on. A sales associate, to be known as “That Jerk” for the rest of this story, accused me of being a spy for another hardware chain and of taking photos of the prices to steal them. I seriously didn’t even know that was a thing. Oh, also I should mention that I was dressed in a vintage floral sundress, with a very full skirt and a vintage wicker handbag. Overall, the effect was WELL HEY THERE, LOOK AT ME. I LIKE OLD CLOTHES, ICE CREAM SOCIALS AND ALUMINUM FLASHING. I AM SO CLEARLY NOT A SPY.
Anyways, That Jerk sees a woman (me) in the flashing aisle and decided I didn’t belong there and he took it upon himself to have me ejected. It made me laugh so hard that my sense of humor beat my outrage and I accused him of being my enemy in the Aluminum Flashing Wars of ’06. He didn’t get the joke.
1. If I’m going to be a spy? No one is going to know about it. There will be no wicker purses and red lipstick. No skirts with petticoats, every spy knows that.
2. If I’m going to be a spy? It’s not going to be aluminum flashing prices in Indiana that I’m risking it all for.
3. I think this could make an excellent Lifetime movie.
So perhaps it brought up some unresolved feelings when I was in a garden center recently that had a “no cell phones/no photography” rule, tiny signs posted throughout the shop. I made a note to go home and Google up the reasons why someone might think this was a good idea because I can’t think of any reasons by myself. Are there really spies? Is it really a thing?
I came up with nothing.
As a consumer (not a spy) I want my cell phone WELCOMED in your store. I love my phone and it loves me. You should be embracing cell phones and the photos they take by suggesting hashtags on your front doors and everyday signage. You could really be creating photo ops by the dozens. I want to be asked if I “checked in” and shared photos of your beautiful merchandise and cutting-edge ideas because that’s all free advertising. People are snapping photos, posting them on the Internet as in “I’ve been here, I approve of this place and you should go there, too” and YOU want to nip that in the bud?
The flip side, of course, is that you’re afraid the camera is going to catch something not-so-great. I say you should use this fear to create the most camera-ready garden shop under the sun. You should be constantly waiting for your close-up, Mr. DeMille …
Professionally, I go to garden centers to photograph available product, then I send those photos to clients for approval so I can to sell that stuff to them and install it. If you’re going to tell me I can’t use my phone to photograph your trees so I can send those photos to my customer, I’m DEFINITELY going to go shop elsewhere.
You can’t ban phones and photographs. It’s too late for that; everyone else is already embracing it. It’s kind of like when I go to yoga class all week and we put our mats “portrait” and then I go on Saturday and that day they want it “landscape.” You can’t do that to people. It’s awkward.
Get with the picture, learn to love it and make it work for you.
GP
Amanda Thomsen is now a regular columnist in Green Profit magazine. You can find her funky, punky blog planted at KissMyAster.co and you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter AND Instagram @KissMyAster.