A Blue Light makes a special return
By Elliott Brack
Gwinnett Forum.com Editor and Publisher

April 10, 2001-- Hurrah, hurrah. The blue light is back at K Mart!

Why it ever leave? Granted, it was a grandstanding markeeting tool, but it was a good one.

Why did the blue light disappear in the first place? No one is saying, but we have a theory.

We bet some marketing or acounting knucklehead looked over thefigures, and lo and behold, K Mart was losing money generally when it signalled a Blue Light Special. This beancounter mentality somehow got the upper hand, and suggested to management that one way to increase profits was to eliminate Blue Light Specials throughout the company. Presto! They were gone.

None of us got a vote!

With the exit, K Marts started suffering. No longer was it the fun place to shop. Missing was the spontaneity and fun of buying a Blue Light Special. Some people, we bet, even haunted the K-Mart aisles waiting for the blue light to shine! Boy, were they disappointed!

Weren't you enticed to at least check out the blue light when the KMart announcement signaled another special? That whirling light, reverberating all over the store, created an excitement, which most likely helped sales.

The blue light, we bet, was also a useful tool for store managers.If they got down to having only two or three of a particular item, then it was a natural for a Blue Light Special! And shoppers came to understand the bargains often associated with blue lights.

Now K Mart, paying attention to its veteran staffers (or even its customers!) and is returning the blue light to its special place of promotional honor. We feel they will bring customers back to K Mart, many having strayed to upstarts like Target and Wal-Mart. The question, of course, have the blue lights returned in time for K Mart?

We are delighted to see the return of the blue light and welcome its return!

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"Think for yourselves," Voltaire said, "And let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too."

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Collins Hills High Physics Teacher Jim Small likes to tell his students (which might serve to motivate them), "He who knows more than you will be your boss."

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Neighborhoods which feed a Georgia School of Excellence see that property values go up, we hear from the education community. That's a natural outcome since Realtors tend to steer people toward areas with good schools. If that's the case, it means that the Collins Hills High area saw their property values jumped a notch when Collins Hills was named a Georgia School of Excellence. Keeping smiling, Collins Hills' residents!

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And with the return of the baseball season, this thought, from Columnist John Leo last year: “Because the state of free thought is so fragile now, people like John Rocker should be left alone. He’s a jerk, but he’s no threat. The threat is trying to shut him up.”

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