New Product Excursion

I tried three new products today. My ears have been ringing for three days. I knew it was an ear infection, because I used to have them as a kid. So instead of a more complicated trip to a doctor, I decided to stop by FirstMed, just down the street, to get a prescription for antibiotics. Was it as a good as going to a doctor? I waited 25 minutes and the magazine selection was reasonable, about like a doctor's office. The Nurse Practitioner was in her 20's, but she had one of those cool cone light things that let her look into my ears, just like a real doctor. (I'd like to have one of those myself.) Her diagnosis was unpretentious and to the point: "You've got infections in both ears." I was as confident in her assessment as if the Surgeon General himself had spoken. She gave me a prescription and I went my way. It was certainly more convenient for me. And it has to be cheaper for somebody--probably my insurance company. And it all just seems to make sense. These patient care centers are going to be a huge business in the next few years, replacing doctors for 75% of what ails us in Wal-Marts, Walgreens and strip malls. Good idea.

I went to the grocery store to get my prescription, so I had 15 minutes to kill. I wandered down the aisles, not really interested in buying anything. But I was fascinated by the beverage section, where the burgeoning water SKU's lure you with ever more exotic flavors and packaging. I settled on a bottle of "hint," which was billed as "Premium Essence Water with raspberry, lime and other natural flavors." Not sure what "Essence Water" is, or what "premium" got me, but after downing the bottle in-store, I concluded that beyond the marketing and wide-mouth packaging this was nothing special. I also noticed on the shelf bottles of "H2O Zip--caffeine-enhanced water." Finally, someone is willing to play this one straight--you want the buzz, but nothing else. So scrap the vitamin baloney and fruity tones and quit forcing drowsy shoppers to read the fine print to find out if it really has caffeine. This one makes it easy.

Finally, I wandered by Red Box, the portable DVD rental units that have become omnipresent in the past few years. I've seen and studied these many times, but because I've had a DVD store in my office for six years, I've never actually used one. I rented Eastern Promises, a brand-new thriller that Blockbuster was out of earlier this week. There was something very satisfying about only paying $1.07 for a one-night rental. Red Boxes are already a big idea, and now I know why. They deliver just what you need, without the unnecessary expense of capital, labor or packaging. I'll be using them again.

I do love capitalism, where Adam Smith's unseeing hand gooses the backside of eager entrepreneurs, resulting in fabulous trial and error, and the occasional emergence of really cool and useful products and services.