Tom Buxton
I WAS WRONG (OUCH…)
Like anyone else, and especially other guys, I hate being wrong. But it’s worse when you have to admit it. So, now that I have made that big step, please indulge me while I complain about others being wrong before I expose my own error. It’s supposed to be snowing right now in my hometown of Denver, Colorado, and our weather people told us that it could be anything from bad to “Snowmageddon”! However, when I woke up this morning, there was nothing to shovel; and they just moved on with their lives. They never said, “We got it wrong.” Oh no; they just FEBRUARY 2023
moved their prognostication forward and highlighted how grateful we should all be that they do such a good job of helping us negotiate our winter weather. Are your weather people like that? And more importantly: have you ever made a mistake that you didn’t admit to? There—now I feel better about admitting mine. A number of months ago, I wrote about the utter despair I experienced when I purchased a Diet Coke from a McDonald’s in Texas. The price had increased from $1 to $1.79 without warning. I was devastated! And just to be clear, I am not addicted to Diet Coke—or even my
favorite drink, Diet Pepsi; but if I don’t have at least three of them before 2:30 p.m. each day (I can’t handle caffeine after that time and still sleep), I am not a happy camper. But I am not addicted! When I wrote my McDonald’s article (November 2021, if you want to read it), I made three observations that have proved to be wrong. First, I thought that all of their restaurants had raised their prices like the McDonald’s in Texas had. I was wrong! In Colorado, we still paid $0.99 plus seven cents tax at my favorite location until December 1, 2022, when it went up to $1.69 plus 13
INDEPENDENT DEALER
In addition to serving as national sales manager for AOPD, Tom Buxton, founder and CEO of the InterBizGroup consulting organization, works with independent office products dealers to help increase sales and profitability. Tom is also the author of a book on effective business development, Dating the Gatekeeper. For more information, visit www.interbiz group.com.
cents tax or thereabouts. I could have invited you to come have a drink with me all of last year, but I didn’t; and—even worse—I didn’t share that fact until now, because I was still getting my Diet Coke for “cheap.” Another of my observations was that people don’t normally change their habits just because of price changes. I think I was half-right about that, because when everything is going up, only the most important or emotional increases are noticed. I am buying half the number of McDonald’s Diet Cokes that I did before the price increase in Colorado, PAGE 40
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