Recession Unworthy Products

by Katy on July 27, 2009 · 9 comments

Senior Discount

With any difficulty comes great commercial opportunity. I saw this with September 11th, (9/11 T-shirts were printed up within days!) and I’m seeing this with the current recession.

A startling example of this jumped out at me from the ice cream case this evening:

ice creamDreyer’s/ Edy’s Red, White and No More Blues flavor ice cream. With a medallion that reads, “Recovery never tasted so good!”

Hmm . . . interesting way to milk our country’s economic woes in the name of a creamy sweet profit.

Another recession era product that caught my eye was the Don’t Forget my Senior Discount” baseball cap: “The cap that saves you money!”

Let’s just move past how butt-ugly the cap is, and go straight to ask the all important question:

Are they suggesting that seniors can’t remember to ask for their discount, and that they’ve lost all sense of pride?! At age 41, I’m only nine short years away from my own AARP discount. And let me tell ya’, there’s no way, shape or form that I will be wearing this cap any more than I could wear a cap reminding grocery store checkers to ask me for my coupons.

Ain’t gonna happen.

Are you noticing retailers hopping on the recession products bandwagon? Are there any products or specials that have caught your eye? Please share your observations in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

Sierra July 28, 2009 at 6:54 am

I saw this for the first time yesterday in, of all places, a trade magazine for the American Chemical Society. It was an ad for vaccum pumps for university chemistry labs, advertising itself as a “recession-friendly” pump because it was energy efficient. Silly, silly, silly.

Reply

GLM July 28, 2009 at 8:08 am

People’ll put whatever they think they can sell on the market. I agree – the truely frugal will laugh AT them, not WITH them!

🙂
Gretchen

Reply

mike July 28, 2009 at 10:11 am

Did I miss the recovery? It seems like the economy is getting worse by the day.

Reply

Kate July 28, 2009 at 7:06 pm

Any event is an opportunity to sell a product…

Here are some silly recession t-shirts:
http://shirtcrazy.com/recession-wear-tshirts.htm

Reply

diane July 28, 2009 at 8:55 pm

I always get a chuckle out of what you say.
thanks 😉
As I sat in the Vet’s hospital the other day, waiting for a friend, I was so blessed to speak with a man who was with Patton’s army in Germany. He was an absolute delight, over 80 and still kicking. He says that he experiences the “oh, he is just an old person” alot. But to me he was a young man back in the war, telling me some stories I will never forget.
He didn’t have a butt-ugly cap on but a Patton’s Best with alot of bling pinned to it.
Just another great post. thanks for saying like it is.

Reply

alunachic July 29, 2009 at 6:43 am

Katy I have not noticed this it’s not surprising to see!
I received my AARP notice last year- yikes. I just can’t bring myself to join even though today I am 51.
The only statement I get is my social security statement and that thing is SAD to look at. LOL

Reply

Pennie July 29, 2009 at 10:35 pm

I laugh all the way to the bank with my AARP membership! I’m only 49…but enjoy “associate membership” rights as DH is 54. ;p

We saved $600/yr on our auto insurance (through Hartford), and could have saved $100/yr on home insurance but the darned underwriters didn’t like our DIY-installed pellet stove insert (bummer). We get great discounts when we travel also.

Annual membership fees are $12/yr, and I receive their free quarterly magazine. If you can get over the shock if it, AARP memebership can be a real bargain budget-wise.

Reply

jj July 31, 2009 at 6:34 pm

It seems like every other radio ad I hear starts with some variation on ‘beat the recession with our deals’ or ‘your ________ bailout store’ or something like that.

I wonder, how on EARTH do they come up with the idea to remind people they’re broke and THEN ask them to buy something? If I were selling expensive things the last thing I’d do is talk about how bad and getting worse things are…you’d hear nothing but good news out of my mouth! Maybe talk about value but certainly not the actual words ‘bailout’ or ‘recession’.

Reply

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: