NICE GRUDGE

VERSION ONE

Once upon a time a man came up with a novel idea for a pet shop.

His unique idea ended up making him millions and millions of dollars.

His idea became so popular that he had a chain of these pet stores all across the country. You could see them everywhere: “N AND G Pet Shop.” You could find one in the biggest shopping centers as well as small ones.

He was a success. His idea was very unique.

And it’s strange and a surprise that his pet shops were so successful, because they only sold two pets: one was called a “Nice” and the other was called a “Grudge”.

The Nice were nice and furry, soft and cushy. You would fall in love with a Nice as soon as you saw one. It was so warm, so cuddly, such a gentle, loving animal.

In other words, there was no contest. You didn’t have a choice. As soon as you walked into a N And G Pet Shop and saw a Nice, you had to have one.

So everybody wanted a Nice, especially in comparison to a Grudge.

On the other side, the Grudges were ugly, skinny, scrudgy, scraggy. They were angry looking animals. They stayed there cowering in the corners of their cages. But if you came close to their cages, they would always snarl at you or anyone and everyone who walked over to look at them in their cages. Their porcupine like hair stuck out like so many warning needles: “Don’t even think of coming near me.”

They were just the opposite to the Nice who would be leaning up over the edges of their boxes as soon as you walked into a N and G Pet Shop.

That’s right. You got it. The Nice were in open simple cardboard boxes  open at the top - while the grudges were kept in steel tight locked cages.

So obviously, everybody who came to the pet shops would always buy a Nice and never buy a Grudge.

And obviously, somebody, somewhere, sometime had to ask the obvious question: why then are they selling Grudges when nobody would ever buy one? Why not just sell a Nice?

As it always happens, a newspaper editor asked one of her  reporters, to do a story on these N and G Pet Shops and their phenomenal success.

So on Monday morning, new newspaper reporter, Jane Harris, with pad and pen and tape recorder, headed for a local shopping center. She had the things she wanted to ask about jotted down on her pad. “1) 2) 3) 4) 5) .” Having heard about N and G Pet Stores in talking to people and how they were selling just two pets and what they were like, Jane figured the secret of their success was just that. It was like sort of like, “Good Cop / Bad Cop”, “Bait and Switch”. People are always coming up with unique ways to make money.

So her newspaper article was already being written in her mind as she walked into a N and G Pet Shop. She posed as a customer.

She wondered if the success of these nation wide pet stores was in the contrast. Have the Grudges up there for sale and everybody buys the expensive Nice.

As she continued her investigative reporting— as she continued to write her article for the newspaper - she began to have more questions than answers.

What's the theory here?

So she went into several more of the N and G Pet stores at random.

In every story there would be the long line - but always on the side of the store where there would be the Nices —far away from the other side of the store where there would be the Grudges.

Obviously, people felt much safer on the Nice side.

Something felt funny!

She wondered why there were so many Nices. How could multiply that fast?

She went back to a few of the same stores - a few times - and even though she held her distance, she noticed that the Grudges were not the same ones who were in the cages she visited the day before.

A major question hit her: Could it be that the owners were selling more Grudges than Nices?

Impossible.

So she began to hide in the parking lots of shopping centers where they had these pet shops. She would see cars coming at night and people would get out and look both ways and take out of their cars a cardboard box—go back into the store and come out 10 minutes later with a cage.

They were trading in the Nices for Grudges.

Sometimes people would go into a store and come out with a Grudge in a cage.

Next she talked with the owners and finally someone said, “The Grudges are animals that people keep wanting, keep feeding. The Grudges can be use to protect you when someone attacks or hurts you. They can protect you when you’re angry.

So to be honest, we have found out people rather have a Grudge than a Nice.

VERSION TWO

Once upon a time a man came up with a novel idea for a pet store.

His idea became so popular, so unique, that he opened up these pet stores all over the country.

It became a chain store business.

And they became so successful -- perhaps because these pet stores were so unique.

They sold 2 pets. Just 2 pets.

The first pet was called a “Nice”. It was an unique pet. It was nice so it was called a “Nice”.

A Nice was a furry, cushy, cuddle, warm little animal. If you walked into one of these pet stores and saw a Nice, you would automatically want one.

This would happen especially, because the other pet was a “Grudge”.

A Grudge was skinny, had porcupine like hair, was scrounge and scraggly, cowering, always backed up against the cage wall furthest from a viewer.

But the Nice was always in the edge of his box, not a cage, with its paws up on the sides, like hands, looking at each customer with a bright smile and a pawshake.

The Nice always had a nice smile and looked right at you.

And the people going into the pet store always walked out having bought a Nice.

Who would want to buy a Grudge, especially because these stores were always filled with people.  How could you walk in and buy a Grudge?

Well, time went on and money rolled in and the owners of the Pet Stores kept on making money and more money.

Well, as always happens, a reporter got the idea to do a story on these pet shops and why they were so popular.

So he visited all the Pet Shops and as he stood there watching the crowds, while he stood there seeing the Nices on one side of the store and the Grudges on the other side, he started to notice that people walked out with a box with a Nice in it and never a cage with a Grudge in it. He wondered, why were these stores selling Grudges if nobody ever bought one.

That intrigued him.

So he did some more undercover investigation.

He went to as many of these “Nice Pet Stores” as he could and he would stand on line - always to buy a Nice and then when he’d get up close to the counter, he’d look at his watch and go semi out loud, “Oh no,” snapping his fingers and then head out of the store, saying “Sorry” to the customers behind him as he made his way out of the store. They would all smile, glad that they would be served that much sooner.

That much sooner they would  be walking out of the story with a nice Nice.

He noticed people always bought a Nice and they always had enough of them in the store and nobody would buy a Grudge.

Nobody.

It was the same in every store. People only bought a Nice. They never bought a Grudge.

“Why are they selling Grudges then? Why? When nobody is buying one? Why And why are there always more Nices and few Grudges, if they are selling only Nices.”

And then one day, he snapped his finger. He had the answer. It was so simple.

Put the ugly Grudges in the store on one side and put the nice Nices on the other side and people will always buy a Nice because who wants to own a Grudge?

It was the basic principle in advertising: Use Contrast.

This is much better than that, so I’ll buy this.

So he began writing his article and just as he was finishing it, he said to himself, “Wait a minute? Something is still wrong.”

That afternoon he was in one of the Pet Shops that he had been in a few times and there was one Nice there that he thought he had seen before.

Was it the child of a Nice? Was it a twin? Are they being cloned?

So the next day he went back to a Nice pet store and studied the Nices.

He wanted to go over to the Grudges - but he hesitated because the thought everyone in the store would be loking at him. They would be judging him.

For a whole week he kept on going back for 3 weeks and sure enough there were the same Nices he had seen earlier.

Something is funny here.

So one night he went back to the shopping center and parked his care and turned off the lights and waited.

Every once and a while a car would come into the Shopping Center Mall and drive slowly to the back.

5 minutes later the car would leave just as suspiciously as it came. Then 15 minutes later another car would come and do the same thing -- going around to the back. So he got out of his car and silently and sneakily snook back to the back. He got himself behind a dumpster not far from the Pet Shop back door. In the shadows he waited. Sure enough another car came. A man got out carrying a cardboard box. He was bringing back his nice. And 3 minutes later he came out with a Grudge in a cage.

What! What’s going on?

He had the beginning of a great story.

They were trading in their Nices for a Grudge.

Why?

This triggered in the reporter all kinds of questions. All kinds of wonderings. He needed to do more research.

And that’s what he did.

He wrote down the license plate of every car that came back at night and then would check out who they were.

He discovered they were everyone.

And he began asking Grudge owners about their Grudges.

And people would finally open up and say that it was much easier to keep a Grudge than keep a Nice.

You have to be Nice to a nice. But you can yell at a Grudge or you can take care of your Grudge.

And on second  thought, it is much easier to feed your Grudge and nurse your Grudge. 

it’s too much to keep a Nice.

It’s hard to always be nice, be like a Nice, keep a smile, reach out to everyone.

“Then people will use you. People will expect a lot from you. But Grudges are better and bitter. You can use them to protect yourself when people want to use you.