It was an ordinary day. Skies were beginning to darken and the weather newscaster on my local TV station came on with a big smile on his face. Seems that a big front is heading our way which could bring tons and tons of snow...if everything works out...for the newscaster! So what do you do when you hear an announcement like this? Check to make sure your snow shovel is closeby? Make sure your car has enough gas in the tank? Check the pile of firewood next to your fireplace? Check to make sure you have plenty of sidewalk salt to keep the walk from freezing which in turn would make it slippy? Check to make sure you have plenty of bottled water and other important items on hand to feed the family? How about...make sure you have lots and lots of Pop-Tarts?
Well, that's exactly what our local Walmart does when a storm is predicted. They studied customer shopping data during storms and found that they stocked up on Pop-Tarts! You can eat Pop-Tarts without toasting them in the event that the power goes out during a storm. The toaster pastries were specifically created to be shipped and stored without refrigeration. They are also non-perishable and made to last even if they are sitting in your cabinet or on store shelves for a while. They checked out shopper history before and after storms and found that shoppers stocked up before storms with strawberry Pop-Tarts. So, when a storm was predicted, they stocked their shelves with strawberry Pop-Tarts and watched them fly off the shelves. What they used was known as "predictive technology." "Predictive technology" has been used for many decades by meteorologists chiefly for weather and climatic forecasting and prediction. With time, this concept came to be used to study customer behavior at Walmart and forecast supply and demand in economic statistics. Data from previous studies is used to predict the patterns likely to occur in the future. Many business strategies are developed from this method, which in turn helps in business expansion and growth. A number of modern technologies and methods have been introduced to make the prediction more accurate for business, computing and weather forecasting. Data is analyzed and modeled into a system which is then further processed. As for Walmart, buying box after box of Pop-Tarts at the beginning of the winter was a good idea. When a storm was predicted, they would haul out the Pop-Tarts, make extra space on the shelves for them, and make a killing by selling box after box of Pop-Tarts. Next time a snow storm is predicted...and you just know it is going to happen sometime in the near future if you live in a Northern environment...make a quick trip to Walmart to buy some Poptarts before the shelves are empty. My problem is that I used to be a few minutes from my closest Walmart, but after moving to our new home at Woodcrest Villa, I am about 15 minutes from the same Walmart and in 15 minutes the lines will be out the front door and around the back of the Walmart. But wait! I could park in the back of the Walmart and be in the front of the line when I get there. Make any sense to you? Me neither! Oh, well...perhaps I should head over to my Walmart today and buy a few boxes of Pop-Tarts before the bad news of a gigantic storm happens, and you just know it is going to happen! Actually...I'm saving this story until tomorrow so I can get my Pop-Tarts before you do...since I know you will head to your local Walmart as soon as you read this! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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