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What Business Name?

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Categories: Humor and sarcasm; Commerce and business

Word count/read time: 449 words; 2 minutes

Continuing with the recent theme of unusual situations, yet another presented itself that left me scratching my head and hoarse from talking on the phone. See The Quest for Tools entry a few posts back.

I have an expensive rectifier/power supply bought secondhand and so far, seems to be working. I wanted to have someone bench test it to ensure it was working properly. Obviously, the internet is the place to look. So I looked and looked and looked.

According to one gentleman, all of the electrical repair guys for this type of work have gone away thanks to the disposable society we live in. I stopped at about 25 phone calls because this was turning into another fruitless search. One thing did catch me off-guard. It was the name of a business.

It was called XYZ Electrical (name changed). On the snippet that accompanies the search engine results, it said "We specialize in testing..." before the rest of the text was cut off - these results only show a sentence or two from the website. I thought, "Yes! Finally some local place that can test this." A quick phone call proved me wrong.

The receptionist said they do nothing with electrical stuff or electronics. Pardon me for being Captain Obvious but your business name has the word "electrical" in it and the website says testing. For some reason they thought this name was good for a company that tests cardboard boxes and other containers that electronics are shipped in.

This reminded me of another incident many years ago. In this small town with about ten restaurants or food places in the village center, I saw a pizzeria. Their name eludes me but it was something simple like Jim's Pizzeria.

They had menus in a basket near the register and large signs behind the counter. Looking...looking...looking. There were neither pizzas on the paper menus nor the huge sign behind the counter. I asked one of the employees. His response was, "We don't sell pizzas here." I turned around and made a deliberate effort to look at their business sign in such a way that the worker understood what I was intimating.

I know businesses have to do all they can to compete in today's tight market but isn't this taking specialization or uniqueness to an unprecedented level? In my 40+ years of conscious awareness I have never been in a pizzeria that doesn't sell pizza.

Beware: Just because a business has a name associated with a product or service, it means nothing. Perhaps I should rename my shop to "Joe's Buttplugs and BDSM Supplies" as it would unmistakably confer that I sell religious artifacts, children's toys, and family-friendly games.

Posted by M: November 22, 2015

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