It's only been a week and I'm starting to running out of ideas :) And the fact that I have to finish an article this weekend (but am so lazy on saturday), also contribute for having this slow brain.
Anyway, I went for a walk. Yup, in the middle of the day (I enjoy walking, so no comment ok? :D) Brought my MP3 to balance my mood a bit for having a hot day during ramadhan. I was checking out my neighbourhood, started with Plaza Cibubur :) A nice and cozy place to go to during weekend. They have a super indo for groceries, couple pharmacies (well, having a 73 old mom is like having a big baby, you have to locate the nearest pharmacies, hospitals, labs, etc), and a book store. The three things I need most from a plaza. Mind all those shoe, bags and clothes stores. After I bought what my mom needs, I went to a book store, of course, a place that you can always find quiteness and peace.
I looked at those books and realized how this reform era has made so many books available. A good thing, actually. But forgive me for had been living under a tyrany regime for 32 years where books are monitored and controlled by the government, this freedom of publishing books somehow made my mind go nuts. Yes, I do understand that freedom is about having choices, but not that many! Please, deh :)
And giving too many choices is not good for business, either. There is one chapter in galdwel's blink, a story about a research on whether giving many choices is good for business or not. The research was conducted in two supermarkets. The first supermarket was given only 5 choices of jams: strawberry, apricot, peanuts, burberry and mix fruits while the second one was given more than 10. It turned out that having more choices confused the customers and didn't boost-up the sales of those jams. And it seems people tend to categorize their choices, the classic, the contemporary or the crazy one (test-out). So the choices is whether you go with the classic, the contemporary/fushion or choosing a more risky-one. And people tend to go to the first or second choices. Few of them are the risk-takers customers.
And that's what I did. I went for the classic one, sorry. Comics! :) Why? Well, suddenly my mind went back to my childhood. The idea of having comic for ramadhan. I remember dragging a table outside, having my comics to be rented for couple hundreds of rupiahs and so happy to get some money from my small business. And as an additional value, I also sold a traditional breakfasting snacks and drinks. Yes, they're all super sweet. We all have sugar-tooth in this country :) It is either sweet, sour or spicy.
Some people see ramadhan as a time for break from the business. They're closing their business for a month. Some people see it the other way around. Ramadhan is a time for doing more and more business. It is a time where all those moslems would spend all of their money for.. almost anything. They would go for new shoes, new clothes, new bed, new paints, new car, new house, you name it. And we even don't have a giving gifts tradition! Only a tradition of forgiving. But of course you have to look nice when you do that. And when I mean you being nice, is not just what you wear, but your house, your everything have to look nice :)
Mind all those nice people, but for the sake of my childhood memory, I prefer to see ramadhan as a time for the kids to learn earning their own money, to be creative and responsible for their own ideas, and to be independent. Although they have to cheat their parents a bit while they're doing that :) It's not cheating. It's what the business people call it as, how to negotiate and influence people :)) Let's have a nice ramadhan for our kids! Not just learning how to fasting but how to make the best out of it :)
No smart idea for today. Have to go back to work.. or somebody would kill me for not finishing this one chapter by tommorrow morning :)
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