Good Afternoon out there in Cyberspace

Here in reality I just got my copy of Handguns magazine for December/January and yesterday I got my Guns magazine for December.  Now maybe the publishing world uses a different calendar then the rest of the world, like Mayan maybe?  But anyway, mine says it is October.  So my pondering question of the day is, why pre-date the magazines by 2 or 3 months?  I am sure somewhere, way back when, some supposed marketing genius came up with the bright idea of moving the dates forward so they would appear to be the competition. ,Ok, maybe that worked for awhile.  But I really don’t think anyone was fooled for long, at best.  So the question of the day is why are they still doing it?  In this day and age of electronic publishing and the web there does not appear to be any logical reason to continue this misguided old fashioned idea.  So why continue?

Now to go one step further along this rabbit trail, let’s ask the same question of automobile manufacturers?  Why bring out next year’s model 3 to 6 months beforehand?  For that matter, why do they have to change the cars and trucks every single year?  Why not do it every other year?  That way the designers could work on real improvements.  Like improving the reliability of the component parts?  Or increasing the overall efficiency of the vehicle?  Not to mention in the second year of production of any given model they should be able to reduce the production costs and then cut the retail price to John Q Car Buying Public.  WOW!  I know!  Radical ideas that make sense to regular working class people.  So why can’t the big wigs in the auto industry in Detroit and Tokyo figure it out?

I could go on and on asking “Why?” about these types of things.  Like Christmas trees in stores before Halloween? etc. etc.

To make you wonder even more, this type of moving the calendar/clock forward does not cross all industries.  For example, the shooting world of the firearms industry and supporting accessories don’t normally bring their new products to market until the SHOT show.  Held each year in January.  So a new 2014 model comes out in 2014.  What a really practical concept, when you stop and think about it.  It simply makes sense!

So why are publishers and car makers trying to be different?  There are more guns and shooting accessories sold each year than cars?   Maybe they should learn something from our industry.

Just food for thought for today 😉

Take care and be safe out there in Cyberspace . . .  and especially in this crazy world we call reality.

S3