Window dressing

Fanta Grape

My idea to consume a beverage is plainly to enjoy it. It was lunch and I promptly went to the pizza shop round the corner. It was small shop selling pizzas of all types and was owned by a Greeko-American. There were pictures of Athens all over the walls and said very little about the pizzas they were selling. The shop was aptly named 'Olympic' - a word which the Greeks will be proud of, any given day. The pizzas were cheap and attracted a number of Mexican and Asian workers. It was a family business started off by the grand old man who passed on the baton to his son who later on made sure his son learnt the trade. The old man was a strict disciplinarian who saw to it that the place was clean and the restrooms smelt good. The floor was swept and mopped regularly due to constant littering by consumers with poor table manners. The workers who came were usually tow truck guys, garage boys, IT workers and low profile college students.

The shop also boasted of a huge Cola cool storage, which had racks of different Coca Cola products. Each rack was dedicated to a particular flavour and the whole storage was colourful as it had transparent hard plastic / acrylic doors.This was a good marketing gimmick by Cola to lure it's customers. All you had to do was slide open the cool storage door, take out a drink of your choice and pay the price at the counter. It made life easy for the consumer, shop keeper and the manufacturer. A nice way to go about selling products. Guess that's the reason why 'window dressing' is so popular a concept.

Each time I step in this shop I see customers gaze at the beverages. They invariably pick up a drink while ordering food - overall the whole process became habitubal and compulsive. Consumers got hooked to the beverage while enjoying a fresh bite of pizza. I took the bait today and tried out a fairly new flavour - 'Fanta Grape'. The colour of the drink was tempting and it was perfectly chilled to suit my likes. I quickly paid the money at the counter and opened the cap with a certain enthusiasm. The whole feeling to taste the new flavour was killing me. As soon as I tasted the drink all the energy and excitement vanished. It was insipid or should I say it tasted more like a bitter cough syrup. I would rate Corex and Benadryl far better! In fact there is no comparison at all. The whole point to enjoy the drink was lost and left a bad lingering taste in my mouth - swearing never again to be lured by window display.

The whole episode leaves me with one big question - 'Should I be lured by window dressing and displays?'