I’ve just done something I haven’t done in a very VERY long time.
I switched off.
Completely.
Time to turn 46 years old, so I took a week off work, had my boy over for the week, and literally ignored my home office and anything to do with work or socials.
Whilst I do absolutely love my work and using LinkedIn to help network, it was definitely worthwhile. I recharged, refreshed, and most importantly, engaged properly with my boy. I even played football in our park with him! Something we haven’t done in far too long.
As always, the time-out comes to an end, but during my week and now that I’m getting back into things, I’ve been reflecting on what things cost while I watch the money fly out the door during the holiday season!
With all this cost reflection, I was looking at the possibility of stepping up my LinkedIn account…
With the thought of upgrading that particular part of my online profile, I couldn’t help wondering if it’s really worth anything from £25 to £95 “per month”!?
They even state “pay as little as” against their costs. And those costs are if you pay annually upfront! So, it’s even more per month if you actually pay “per month”.
Honestly speaking, their lowest price in my mind is still WAY too much for essentially an online platform.
Would they not get many more people paying for the upgrades if they were actually sensibly priced? For me, if it was something along the lines of £4.99 or even £9.99, per month, I’d genuinely happily stick that in my little bag of direct debits, completely forget about it and crack on.
And that’s the important bit here. I’d be able to crack on and honestly completely forget I was paying for it. That’s surely got to be the way to gain a huge audience and more importantly, KEEP THEM!
We see this over and over again in our lives. One particular one that will ring true with so many of you…
The cinema!
That fantastic evening out event that pretty much everyone loves to do. The latest major movie in all its huge screen, massive noise glory.
My favourites to see at the cinema are quite simply the whiz-bang boom films. Big and loud explosions and sci-fi spectaculars.
But I haven’t been in years.
Not just because there’s been a global pandemic and I don’t want to sit for 2 or 3 hours wearing a mask, but mainly because it simply isn’t cost-effective to go anymore.
It does help that as I’ve worked in the AV industry for 20 years, I have learned to explore screen technology and sound technology at home.
If we want to see a blockbuster, we simply wait until we can stream it at home and just turn the lights off. (And yes, I mean legally stream)!
Yeah ok, one of the two dogs tends to wet herself with loud booms, but she’s learned to disappear to another room and chill out until we’re done.
On top of the benefit of not paying the inordinate costs of cinema tickets, our food and drinks are dirt cheap at home too!
Working it out now, the last time we went to the cinema, was about 4 or 5 years ago.
What did we go and see?
Nothing…
With the cinema tickets and snacks/drinks we wanted, we were touching £60.
For two of us…
Not even a main meal!
We walked out, across the road and put that money toward joining a gym instead.
I should note here that the gym membership lasted 12 months and then got canceled.
We should have just gone to the bloody cinema…
But the point is the same as LinkedIn.
If the cinema companies lowered all their ridiculous prices, so many more people would be rushing to book tickets far more regularly.
I know there are loyalty cards out there allowing monthly payments for unlimited films, but you are restricted to certain seating, and you still have to pay fourteen hundred pounds for a tub of popcorn and a bucket of Fanta.
Maybe a slight exaggeration but we all feel the pain.
Additional note as I’ve just also heard that Cineworld has decided to put their ticket prices up.
Wait for it…
By more than 40%!!
Forty bloody percent!!!!!!
These days, the working population is fighting for high salaries all the time. Everyone out there wants bigger basics and bigger bonuses.
This is always going to be the case. But the desperation wouldn’t be so bad if the big companies charging us for their goods and services took a leaf out of Jack Cohens' book.
100 years ago, Jack started a market stall. Nice and simple. He quickly learned that the cheaper the goods he offered, the quicker they sold and the more customers he had.
Jack developed his best-known slogan.
“Pile it high, sell it cheap”
He quickly took on a couple more stalls until someone approached him with a large number of tea leaves they wanted to sell. He became the local tea supplier and again, very quickly became a wholesaler.
Jack rebranded using part of his name (Co) and part of his tea supplier's name, TE Stockwell.
TESCO was born. While it had its ups and downs, it grew, as we all know into one of the world’s largest supermarket companies.
It’s still doing its absolute best to keep prices sensible and that’s why they continue to be used by so many of us every day.
“Pile it high, sell it cheap”.
It worked. Because it just makes sense.
The more businesses that lower costs to gain more customers, the less everyone has to panic about higher salaries and more bonuses.
I should note here, I’m clearly not an economist. So, I cannot sit here and state how the world should change its entire economy. That’s not my point.
My decision to write this little piece is simply because so many of us struggle to comprehend paying out some of the sky-high prices that companies charge for the simplest of pleasures or systems.
I know there are costs of setting things up, designing systems and building cinemas, etc. But surely it makes sense to at least try to recover these costs by a larger customer base, rather than relying on the “well, I have to pay it, so I will” customers that are far fewer.
One of the worst culprits is…
Wait for it…
I know you’re already thinking it…
Yes…It’s the motorway service station.
Now, these really do get my back up. Does anyone else out there do their absolute best to avoid these where possible?
Personally, I would far rather plan in advance and make sure I don’t need to stop at one of these. Essentially, you’re paying for the convenience of pulling off the motorway and driving straight through a Costa. Or filling the car up. Or grabbing a burger.
To stress a couple of these…
Fuel at these places is typically at least 20pence per litre more than a normal service station. So, if you have to put 50 litres into your car, it’s going to cost you £10 more for that tank of fuel than it would if you’d taken 2 minutes to fill up before you hit the fast lane.
Stopping to grab that all-important coffee to keep you alert?
What would normally cost you £3 in a Costa, will cost you over £5!
Grabbing a burger?
A meal will cost you the best part of £9 - £11 instead of what should be around £6 - £8.
I’ve just saved you around £15. On one journey!
Mobile phone companies.
They simply do NOT have to charge £40 - £60 per month for your contract. They really don’t.
Look at any business when it puts on a sale.
DFS is the classic here with their “MUST END SATURDAY” deals. We all know that if we don’t run into their showroom by this Saturday at 10 pm, we’ll be able to casually walk in any time next week because there will be another sale.
And their sales boast anything up to 70% discounts!
Seventy Percent….
Swallow that one and then do a calculation based on what you’re looking at spending. They are charging MASSIVE profits. They all are. Not just DFS and not just sofa companies.
It’s all got a bit, well, out of hand, hasn’t it?
I won’t be paying LinkedIn oodles of pounds per month. I’ll use the service I have today as much as I can and make the most of it.
I don’t know when we’ll next visit the cinema, but it won’t be any time soon. We’ll enjoy each other’s company at home and watch it for a fraction of the cost.
I’m keeping my “gym” activity to myself because it’s cheaper and I don’t feel I have to grunt to look “hard” in front of others.
And I’m definitely filling the car up locally before hitting the roads…
Oooo…But Costa…Costa is now calling.
Back soon. ☕️
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