What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime

What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.

As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.

That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.

Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.

Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.

Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.

Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.

That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.

Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.

Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.

My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.

Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.

And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.

All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:

• Farm eggs

• Fresh vegetables

• Cow’s milk

• Freshly baked bread

• Coal for our open fires

Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.

Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.

Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.

Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.

My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.

The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.

Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.

Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.

People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.

In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.

Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.

• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.

• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.

• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.

On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.

Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.

We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.

Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.

My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.

How to Start Your Own Online Business Empire

Forbes Magazine approximates that 40 million people will want to start their own business online. The reason is because more and more people are realizing that entrepreneurship may be the only way to their heart’s desire. That being said, more and more people are wondering how they would go about starting a business online.Starting a business online is actually easier than what most people think. It’s actually easier than starting a business offline (brick-and-mortar). The reason is because starting a business online doesn’t have the big headaches that come with starting a business offline. Starting offline, you have to get A LOT of money, find a commercial zoned space for your business (the zoning has to relate to what type of business you’re running), and sometimes, finding employees which just brings in more headaches. On the other hand, starting a business online is almost completely opposite. You don’t need too much capital (money to start a business), you could work at home (or anywhere you can get internet), and you can do most of the work yourself. Though all that may be true, still, starting a business (online or offline) first requires research.Research is probably one of the biggest hurdles future millionaires have gone through. Even if you were to join a home based business, like an MLM (Multi Level Marketing) for example, you would still need to do some research. What I mean is that there are things you still must consider when joining any business (especially with all the HYPE going around on the internet). If you would like more information on how to find the right business opportunity to join, then read my article:You see, when business owner does thorough research in the beginning, he/she is able to plan their business much more effectively. Trust me, planning the business is very important. Without a solid plan, there will be no solid business. In fact, lots of people get so excited in starting a business, especially the ones that join already formed businesses (MLM, Network Marketing, Business Opportunities), that they inevitably forget to plan right. Here’s a saying in the business that may get you in the right mindset of entrepreneurship: “If you FAIL to PLAN, you PLAN to FAIL.” Simple as that.So now, you’re probably wondering what should you research. Well, before we get into that, you must understand that a business is, in all it’s purity, a solution to a problem. Think about it, McDonalds has the solution to the “I’m hungy. What should we eat?” problem. Home Depot has the solution to improve your home. Any business you see out there, is a solution to a problem. So, what you need to research is what solution are you going to provide? Are you going to provide great advice on how to get more healthy and fit? Are you going to provide a solution to those who need money? Are you going to provide a solution to those that are having problems with their spouses?There are a lot of problems out there. However, one person can’t solve them all. But then again, one person can solve one problem. What abilities do you posses that might be a solution to a problem? What passions do you have that may constitute as a solution to a problem? These type of questions are the questions you ask when you are starting a business. What you are essentially doing is trying to find the right market. For example: Maybe you love the idea of weddings. Well, then your market is, yes you guessed, The Wedding Market. Simple right?Yes, it is simple finding a market. However, that’s just the first step. The next thing to do is break it down. You need to find what we call a “niche” in the market. The reason being is because just wedding is too general. Lets put it this way: McDonald’s is in the fast food industry (Wedding). However, they don’t serve all kinds of fast food. Their specialty are hamburgers (Niche). So, their Market is fast food, and their niche is hamburgers. So with the wedding market, the niche can be wedding dresses. Another niche of wedding would be wedding planning. There are a ton of niches in each market. The simplest way to find the one you’re going to be successful at is one where you will have passion about. After all, you got to be enthusiastic about your product right?After the initial research stage, your next step would be to open up shop. You’re probably wondering how to do that. It’s simple really. First, you have to think a name of your shop. This may become a little difficult. I say so because, as stated in the beginning of the article, about 40 million people want to start an online business. That means, the name you want for your shop can already be taken. Just get a little creative, and you could end up owning a BRAND name. Now that you have a name, go register it. The name is what we call a domain. A domain is this: www.yourshopname.com Register your domain. There are lots of places to do this, but the one I recommend is namecheap.com (it’s the one I use). OK, now that you have your market and name, you need somewhere to put it. This is what we call a host/server. Think of it as the real estate if you were opening an offline business. There are a lot of hosting services out there. It really doesn’t matter where you go for hosting. It’s really your choice. I would recommend justhost.com because it’s what I use.Alright! You got a market, a shop. Now, you need traffic (potential customers). Getting traffic is what we call Internet Marketing. Marketing is the hardest part in the online business world. However, once you master it, you are set for life. Once you master Internet Marketing, you can go beyond what you are selling, and sell anything to anyone around the world while you sleep. Sounds good huh? Unfortunately, it’s not easy to master the Internet Marketing skill. It takes time, diligence, and hard, hard work. Fortunately, all the time, diligence, and hard, hard work will pay off 100x in the future. Think of it this way, work hard for 40 hours a week, for a year or two, and reap the benefits for life! So how do you market you say.Well, that is about another 500 articles to write. What I recommend you do is Google “how to internet marketing” and you will find 1,000,000 answers to that question. Internet Marketing is the meat of online businesses. It’s what makes you work. It also is what makes you rich. If you really want more information, take a look at my sig on the bottom and it will tell you exactly what I do.So now you know what it takes to start an online business. It may seem hard, but it really isn’t. As long as you set your mind to it, you can make it happen. Trust me, in this business, mindset is what counts. The desire to do something and change your life for, not the better, but the best is all you really need to succeed.

US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%

US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 1.14%. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 0.98% and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up by 0.71 per cent

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US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%
Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. Source: Reuters
US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 345.25 points or1.14 per cent. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 35.88 points or 0.98 per cent and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up 75.75 points or 0.71 per cent. A Reuters report said that today’s strength was on the back of a report which said the Federal Reserve will likely debate on signaling plans for a smaller interest rate hike in December, reversing declines set off by social media firms after Snap Inc’s ad warning.

Source: Comex

Nasdaq Top Gainers and Losers

Source: Nasdaq

Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. The BSE Sensex ended at 59,307.15, up by 104.25 points or 0.18 per cent from the Thursday closing level. Meanwhile, the Nifty50 index closed at 17,590.00, higher by 26.05 points or 0.15 per cent. In the 30-share Sensex, 13 stocks gained while the remaining 17 ended on the losing side. In the 50-stock Nifty50, 21 stocks advanced while 29 declined.