I’ll date myself a little bit here and mention that I recall a time when TV commercials would show the friendly Welcome Wagon lady coming by people’s homes and dropping off a basket of goodies to welcome people to the neighborhood. Usually there were some useful products included in the basket and the local Welcome Wagon lady provided additional helpful information about local resources, stores, schools, etc.
Well, I guess those days are gone with the Internet ruling the land and you can get your welcome coupons and products virtually. For me, I find this a little sad. There’s so little personalization when it’s done this way and no live connection is made to the neighborhood. I realize it’s probably very difficult to get people to go door to door nowadays. Heck, the Girl Scouts don’t even do it for their cookie sales anymore (much to my chagrin) and we’re forced to face the girls and their parents at the door of the grocery store or local hardware shop. I used to be one of those girls long ago going door to door in freezing winter of Kansas taking orders for the tasty morsels and I miss the days of wanting to give my order to a young, entrepreneurial girl rather than the order taker at the store. Despite what the website says, there is very little that is entrepreneurial about the program anymore. It’s gone purely to money maker program and a girl needs to know very little about how to sell, market or merchandise to do well.
But, enough of my rants about the Girl Scouts program and back to Welcome Wagon although I guess I’m going the same direction with my comments on both… Wouldn’t it be a great and welcome surprise to see a person knocking at your door with a basket of goodies and possibly some cookies or bread? I have to say that the Welcome Wagon resources for my area (Seattle and Renton) was a little on the meager side. Maybe since the program has gone online and lost the personal touch they aren’t as great of a marketing tool as they used to be.
Ahhh, oh well, guess it’s time to get my warm and fuzzies online…. but I still plan on taking my neighbors zucchini bread this summer after my garden has grown at the new house.
