We’ve often called a cab/Uber to pick those up for us. Unless it needs a signature, or it’s fragile (as most super-villains’ death lasers are…).
I’m trying to avoid it, but might have to go that route.
There has been an advertising trend I’ve noticed lately that is both confusing and annoying. I’ve noticed that car manufacturers are making commercials where they will show a “concept car” (labeled as such in tiny print in the ad) and show off its great features in a slow pan with mysterious music. But they don’t actually make that fucking car. They might as well show a Batmobile from one of the films, or a flying car from Back to the Future. I guess they’re trying to impress customers with a made-up car that they can’t actually get, enough that you can go down to a lot and buy a shitty real car that has none of the features of the magic space car from the commercial.
Does that actually work? I’m sure it must work, or they wouldn’t waste their time and money making these commercials. In a country where Ancient Aliens can be on the air for years, and close to half the country will vote for Donald Trump twice, I suppose that you have enough stupid people wanting to buy a car that this garbage will pay off. But it’s frustrating to see this crap.
True “concept cars” are staples at car shows, giving a hint to what the styling department is thinking for 3 to 10 years from now. Most go nowhere after they’ve gauged the public’s reaction.
But model years happen every year. And they want to drop the ads a couple of months at least before the first car is available for sale. And it takes a couple of months (at least) to make the ads. Which leaves them with a dilemma: How to show pictures of something they’re not building yet.
I suspect the answer is simple: They show pics of mockups or pre-production prototypes or whatever, that are meant to be roughly what they’ll be selling. But just like the “serving suggestion” fine print on a cereal box that shows a bowl of cereal filled with fresh luscious berries & cream alongside the flakes, putting a “concept car” label avoids claims of false advertising when the actual car that year has a slightly different interior arrangement.
On a different note …
Sometimes companies aren’t advertising their products; they’re advertising themselves. “We’re GM. We don’t just build sedans; we’re also building the future” as they show pix of futuristic EVs powered by some soon-to-be invented modern turbo-encabulator gliding silently along a very green landscape.
Their point being: we’re not a stodgy yesterday company deserving a low stock price who should be ignored by anyone shopping for an EV. We’re a young hip with-it company deserving a high stock price and should be the first place young EV buyers go to find their dream machine. Maybe not this model year, but next year for sure.
OK Boomer. But it’s so cute they’re trying.
the revived Volkswagen Bug was a concept car. VW weren’t going to make it, but the public reaction was so positive they were eventually persuaded to change their minds.
People who buy and then distribute new junk (“keepsakes” or “mementos” in their estimation) to remember dead people by. I mean, like a grandparent dies and your aunt says “here, I bought everyone a Christmas tree ornament with a shell and a Pearl to remember them by.”
No. I do not need or want new junk to remember dead loved ones by. It gets left out in the laundry room at the budget motel I am spending the night in as I carry on with my itinerant ways. Collections of small junk were for my grandparents’ and parents’ generation (at least within this family) as they had the benefit of homes and stable lifestyles to gather and maintain such trinkets in for decades. That is simply not the case for me or, I gather from reading the news, a great many other millennials and younger types.
Think of them like an ugly sweater or a book you’ll never read - smile, say thanks, and discard it out of sight. Think of it as part of your present to your aunt (or whoever).
I think there were several reasons for this. One was that the VW Beetle holds an esteemed place in the memories of the Boomer generation. Another reason was that the Beetle rather uniquely underwent only incremental changes since its introduction in Hitler’s Germany as the vaunted “people’s car”. It failed to achieve that at the time, but gradually became a popular and very practical car in the later decades, renowned both for its build quality and its low price. Anyway, its successive model years introduced only incremental design changes and minor improvements. The original two-section rear window became a single oval, and then (I think around 1967) became a larger rectangular window. Parking lights and taillights grew larger, the engine slightly more powerful. But it was still the same Beetle.
I think the public was fascinated by the VW designers playing with the idea of “what if the Beetle got a total modernized facelift?”. And they ultimately created quite a good practical car when the public demanded to buy it. I never owned one but I had one for a few days as a rental, and it was lots of fun.
That’s my standard MO!
I have a well-meaning relative who thinks that if an item is for sale in an antique shop, it must be a valuable collectible. I’ve received loads of cheap plastic toys and decorations - most produced in the last 10 years or so - featuring a certain character because “it’s good for your collection!” >.< (I don’t actively collect; this was something I did as a child. I managed to get my hands on some nice things which I keep on display, but I consider them to be part of my overall home decor.)
Why is it that every damn meal plan out there for delivered prepared food, whether for weight loss or not, has either peppers or mushrooms in nearly every single selection? I do not LIKE peppers and mushrooms. I mean, I’m okay with the taste, but I can’t stand eating them.
Seriously, WTF. Can they not conceive that there are people out there who don’t LIKE those ingredients?
Eat everything or no dessert! 
I don’t get dessert either way.
Oh god the bell peppers in everything. Both my DH and I loathe bell peppers and if you put one piece in a gallon of soup it “flavors” the entire batch, ugh. I buy nothing without reading the label to eliminate the bell pepper ick, and it’s just about everywhere.
I love bell peppers myself.
But I hate mushrooms. Hate them. It’s like eating a slug made of earwax.
Also, while I don’t hate onions, I can’t eat them because I can’t digest them. And they are in EVERYTHING.
I love mushrooms but I have to say, that is a very good analogy.
I have been trying to get a prescription refilled for the past three weeks. The previous refills had run out, so when I first requested a refill from CVS I was told that they would request a refill from the issuing doctor and let me know when the refill was available. This usually only takes a few days, so when I didn’t hear from them after I week I followed up with another request, as well as going to MyUNC and putting in a refill request. After over a week CVS is still showing that they need to request a refill; last week I called CVS and they confirmed that they have never received refill authorization.
This afternoon I got a text message from CVS again confirming that they haven’t heard from my doctor. So I went to MyUNC and sent a message directly to my doctor asking him to follow up on this, pointing out that I’m going to run out of my pills on Saturday.
Why is it that, invariably, Christmas lights that worked when I put them away at the end of last year’s Christmas season are D.O.A. when I get them out this year?
It’s the magic of the season!
Yep. Unfortunately, they removed the features that I esteemed about it (air-cooled engine, rear-mounted engine, reserve fuel tank lever in lieu of a fuel gauge).