Way back in the good old days...before corona quarantine had set in...I purchased some large cannisters of cappuccino mix. I bought them for the church because I often make iced coffee for our youth group. I put them upstairs and planned on using them between March and May.
Then the corona stay at home-a started. By the time I returned to the youth loft in our church the cappuccino mix was approaching its end of life. They were still good until the beginning of August, but I was not going to have youth group until the end of August. I figured it would be best to just give the mix away. It was good quality stuff...I won't put the brand name here but it is quite recognizable. I took the mix and put it on a table in the church foyer. I put a note on the tubs that read "Free, help yourself". Sunday came. People walked by the table with the cappuccino mix on it but nobody took them home. I was a little disappointed. I took the notes off and put on some highly visible sticky notes with the same message. I hoped that people would be drawn to the brightly colored paper.
Nothing. After the following weeks service the cappuccino mixes were still there. I was perplexed. Why wouldn't people want those delicious coffee drinks! Week three was fast approaching. I decided to spy on people. I got the appropriate permits and then when Sunday morning came around I set up in a secret location.
People came up to the cappuccino mix. Several read the note...I mean how could they not read it with those brightly colored post it notes. After reading the note, they would look around suspiciously. That was where it started to get unusual. Some people picked up a container and shook it. Some checked to see if they had been opened already. Others checked the expiration date. Each of the 4 pound containers were evaluated and then just left there on the table. People passed up the the 20 dollar mixes and went on their way.
Four weeks had now passed. The mixes had been evaluated, handled, breathed on...it was a covid nightmare! I was on the verge of giving up...but then it hit me!
I took the free label off of the cappuccino mixes. Then I put them over by the coffee machine. I walked around the corner, bumped a few elbows, and came back. Both tubs were gone!
The moral of the story...people might not want it for free, but they will gladly steal it!
Then the corona stay at home-a started. By the time I returned to the youth loft in our church the cappuccino mix was approaching its end of life. They were still good until the beginning of August, but I was not going to have youth group until the end of August. I figured it would be best to just give the mix away. It was good quality stuff...I won't put the brand name here but it is quite recognizable. I took the mix and put it on a table in the church foyer. I put a note on the tubs that read "Free, help yourself". Sunday came. People walked by the table with the cappuccino mix on it but nobody took them home. I was a little disappointed. I took the notes off and put on some highly visible sticky notes with the same message. I hoped that people would be drawn to the brightly colored paper.
Nothing. After the following weeks service the cappuccino mixes were still there. I was perplexed. Why wouldn't people want those delicious coffee drinks! Week three was fast approaching. I decided to spy on people. I got the appropriate permits and then when Sunday morning came around I set up in a secret location.
People came up to the cappuccino mix. Several read the note...I mean how could they not read it with those brightly colored post it notes. After reading the note, they would look around suspiciously. That was where it started to get unusual. Some people picked up a container and shook it. Some checked to see if they had been opened already. Others checked the expiration date. Each of the 4 pound containers were evaluated and then just left there on the table. People passed up the the 20 dollar mixes and went on their way.
Four weeks had now passed. The mixes had been evaluated, handled, breathed on...it was a covid nightmare! I was on the verge of giving up...but then it hit me!
I took the free label off of the cappuccino mixes. Then I put them over by the coffee machine. I walked around the corner, bumped a few elbows, and came back. Both tubs were gone!
The moral of the story...people might not want it for free, but they will gladly steal it!
Also free: both WannaskaWriter's wife and WannaskaWriter have photographs featured on today's Wiktel homepage..
ReplyDeleteDigital presence on the Wiktel homepage is a friendly 3-way competition, despite that Chairman Joe seems to be lacking the competitive drive because of his strict commitment to Covid-19 isolation. His cellphone camera lens has gotten dusty in his pants pockets seldom used anymore. That is, his cellphone camera -- not his pants -- for the last time I knew he was still wearing pants on a daily basis. But maybe he isn't, who would know other than his lovely wife and/or neighbors, who would happen onto this, (I would suspect), unnerving sight? Uffda. "Yew git some pants on! "
ReplyDeleteGiving him the benefit of the doubt, isolation on this unprecedented level drives people to extremes, even there in Kansas, where, as this blog post suggests, church-goers have been driven to steal four-pound boxes (144 packets per box) of cappuccino in the church kitchen from right under the nose of You-Know-Who.
Originally offered in plain sight, hoarders waited until the boxes were moved to a discreet location where they could secretly stash the Prepper-sized four-pound boxes into the over-sized pockets of their trenchcoats and walk away without raising suspicion. Such depravity, the world has ever known . . .