Trucking is a big business

I think because I work in a big corporate building downtown I sometimes forget that this country is huge and there are a lot of businesses not in the online information site building and marketing industry. Trucking is one that I am reminded of every time I drive out on 294 or I-55 in Chicagoland. The number of trucks going from distribution warehouses out in the Aurora-Joliet area to all over the country is immense. The distribution of all the things we buy, eat and use every day is done with Trucks. Without them (or oil) we would not have supplies or anything we could live on for very long. (much like if we suddenly couldn’t import anything from China) So you wonder about this business and how it runs even though it is nothing like any business I know.

I started wondering about some of the elements of the business. Like do you still manage inventory with computers even though nothing is really “online”? Do you have to buy new trailers and trucks every year or are used trailers ok? How much growth is in this industry with shipping consumer goods all over the country and how much is for industry anymore? My dad was working at a truking company for a while when he was out of his engineering job about 10 years ago. It is interesting to hear stories about it because it is so offline and the people who work there are too.

Advertising makes you less sensitive to price changes

Ah, so now they find this out? A new study says that a lot of advertising bombardment of customers makes them less likely to be sensitive to price changes.  I wondered why I could go buy the same things at the grocery store month after month and the cost seems to always be a little bit more. They must know to blast the TV and Internet with ads and a flashy new campaign saying why to prefer their brand and then hike up the price 15%. Well I guess it is predictable though. If you build value in a brand people are more likley to prefer it regardless of price. Hello luxury brands. So raising the price when it is prefered and top of mind does logically make sense. So we, as consumers have to be more careful of buying things because of ads and careful about price comparison when we are in the shopping isle at the grocery store. Is it really a better deal? Better whip out the calculator and find out.