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.
