27.7.06
Criatividade e escassez
Creativity and scarcity
Há um sujeito em meu bairro que, apesar da aparência desvalida e de ter sido evidentemente maltratado pela vida, usa de um expediente criativo para viver.
Ele compra um bilhete de loteria em uma lotérica por R$ 1,00 e o revende, na mesma calçada freqüentemente, por R$ 2,00. Volta na lotérica, compra dois bilhetes e assim por diante.
Não o enriquece evidentemente, mas tira disso seu sustento. Ele é muito chato e insistente - e qual vendedor não é - e isso aparentemente funciona.
Não consigo achar uma boa explicação para um cidadão que, tendo lotéricas por todos os lados, escolhe pagar o dobro por um bilhete, a não ser uma: O engenhoso personagem baseou seu negócio em compra por impulso. Um minúsculo mestre do marketing vendendo com um lucro de 100%.
Mas hoje, na sua persistência, deixou escapar uma frase doída. Disse que os clientes eram seus únicos amigos, e que se não fossem eles, não teria ninguém com quem conversar.
Triste.
***
There is a man in my neighborhood who, despite the poor appearance and having obviously been mistreated by life, uses a creative ruse to make a living.
He buys a lottery ticket in a shop for around US$ 0.50 and resells it, often in the same sidewalk, for around US$ 1.00. He goes back to the shop and buys two tickets and so on and so forth.
It clearly doesn't make him rich, but he makes his living out of it. He is very boring and insistent - and what salesperson isn't - and this apparently works.
I can't find a good reason for a citizen who, having lottery shops all around him, chooses to pay the double for a ticket, except one: Our ingenious character based his business on impulse buying. A minuscule marketing master selling at a profit of 100%.
But today, in his persistence, he let escape a painful phrase. He said his clients were his only friends, and that if it weren't for them, he wouldn't have anyone to talk with.
Sad.
He buys a lottery ticket in a shop for around US$ 0.50 and resells it, often in the same sidewalk, for around US$ 1.00. He goes back to the shop and buys two tickets and so on and so forth.
It clearly doesn't make him rich, but he makes his living out of it. He is very boring and insistent - and what salesperson isn't - and this apparently works.
I can't find a good reason for a citizen who, having lottery shops all around him, chooses to pay the double for a ticket, except one: Our ingenious character based his business on impulse buying. A minuscule marketing master selling at a profit of 100%.
But today, in his persistence, he let escape a painful phrase. He said his clients were his only friends, and that if it weren't for them, he wouldn't have anyone to talk with.
Sad.
