Consider your grandparents and the work they did. Their employment could have been on the farm, in the factory, in a store or in the work of their hands.
If your grandparents were business owners most of their customers were face-to-face. They may have gone to church with your grandparents or attended school games and concerts. They knew each other and that made marketing much less taxing.
Advertising was often in the form of an ad in a school program or a booster club for the airing of the local football games. The advertising wasn't always essential to the success they had in business, it was often used as a way to support the local feel associated with their business.
They knew the other business owners in town and often worked together to keep the local spirit of a town alive.
As large retail businesses began to dot the landscape these small businesses often died when no one was really paying any attention. The empty storefronts in rural America pay tribute to the radical change in 21st century retail.
Why has online business created the need for abstract thinking?
Internet shops are composed of graphics and text. These shops are developed with software and not brick, mortar, glass and wood. These businesses can operate 24 hours a day including holidays and the owner does not have to be present for a customer to complete an order.
The business owner cannot see the site visitor or customer, they can simply track the number of visitors and information about the area they may be from.
There is a sense of intangibility that may make online business seem like some elaborate computer game and less like traditional business.
In order for some businesses to move into a cyber environment there was a need to hire younger employees who had an insatiable appetite to learn and utilize the skills associated with online business.
Early on the business owner may not have believed it was even worth their while to delve into this brave new world of ecommerce. Yet as time went by the online sales improved, equaled and then surpassed what the business had been able to do with a local shop.
Many of these early pioneers in ecommerce may not have understood everything there was to know about ecommerce, but the results were clear ? ecommerce was a force much more powerful than they would have ever thought.
As time passes more and more online business owners have accepted their role as marketer, dream maker and web design pro. They have grown accustom to this brave new environment where faces are not associated with the sale, where customers aren't your neighbor down the street and where the cyber doors are always open.
Online business defies the notion of a simple local marketplace by tapping into something more global. Many small shops around the world have become staging areas for a worldwide customer base. Niche products can now be the primary thrust of a successful online company instead of just one of many diversified products one might have found in an old general store.
Online business has challenged our thinking and changed the way the world does business.
Route 66 first entered the general public conscience in 1939 when California writer John Steinbeck published his novel ?The Grapes of Wrath?, detailing the westward migration of Oklahoma's Dust Bowl farmers to California's San Joaquin Valley. During the story, he refers to Route 66 as the ?Mother Road?, a nickname it still has today. When Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, the road became even more famous.
The highway also gave its name to a popular television show, ?Route 66?, broadcast during the early sixties in the United States. The show featured two young men looking for adventure along America's highways and was clearly inspired by passages from ?On the Road? by Jack Kerouac, his book describing several cross country adventures undertaken in the 1940s. The book has since become a literary staple for any would-be road trippers and has inspired countless journeys down Route 66.
Starting in the 1950s and continuing gradually over the next 25 years, old Route 66 was bypassed section by section as the high-speed Interstate highways were completed. Finally, in 1984, when the last stretch of freeway was finished, Route 66 was officially decommissioned; the old route is now designated Historic Route 66 and is firmly lodged, with an almost mythical quality, in modern popular culture
While much of the appeal of taking a trip down the legendary highway lies in the thought of being on the open road in the wilderness, speeding past one great attraction to the next, Route 66 also takes in some of the United States? most archetypal roadside scenes including great displays of neon signs, rusty middle-of-nowhere truck stops and kitschy Americana. These almost accidental tourist attractions detail a rich part of America's history, with many of the roadside cafes and motels being opened during the Great Depression when hundreds of thousands of farm families, displaced from the Dust Bowl, made their way west along Route 66 to California. Indeed, many of the small roadside towns along the route only survive today due to shameless self promotion of attractions and nostalgic travellers, eager to enjoy a small part of this increasingly endangered American experience.
Over the past 50 years, more and more people have set their sights on a trip down Route 66 and with constant developments in the world of automobile travel, particularly in the realm of , the experience is no longer exclusive to people with time on their hands and money to burn.
From the suburban idyll of Southern California, past the Grand Canyon and the Native American communities of the desert southwest, to the gritty streets of St. Louis and Chicago, a trip down Route 66 is truly the pinnacle of road tripping for any traveller and offers an unforgettable journey down the Main Street of America.
Both Scott Lindsay & Adam Singleton are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Scott Lindsay has sinced written about articles on various topics from Payday Loans, Computers and The Internet and Mens Health. Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at:. Scott Lindsay's top article generates over 1830000 views. to your Favourites.
Adam Singleton has sinced written about articles on various topics from Mortgage, Culture and Society and Credit Cards. Adam Singleton is an online, freelance journalist and keen gardener. He lives in Scotland with his two dogs.. Adam Singleton's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.