Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

I'm forever astonished by the variery of ways that people find to earn a living, & sometimes make a fortune doing so.

We all want to make our mark in life, or earn a few bob, & rack our brains for a great invention.

Sometimes, though, the answer is staring us in the face.

Every day, all of us use soap, in some shape or form, almost everyone in the modern world does so. We buy it in the Supermarket without a second thought.   

I went in a soap shop on Boxing Day. A soap shop. That was interesting.......

They sell "novelty soap", little bits of shaped soap, scented, or "bath bomb" style.

But I went googling, & looked up the business.

They began in 1994, & used to sell stuff to Body Shop. Eventually, Body Shop paid them £6 million (!) for the rights to market their stuff.

Now, just 20 years on, they have 830 shops in 51 countries. How many?

The business is essentially privately owned, & the founders, Mark & Mo Constantine, are rumoured to be worth £200 million. Knock a zero off for media hype, & that's still serious money.

 
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2330932/Bath-bombs-net-Lush-duo-Mark-Mo-Constantine-millions.html


The company is "Lush".


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lush_(company)

You ever been in one of their shops? Well you can buy a little chunk of soap - unwrapped - for a fiver.

And Mr & Mrs C must laugh all the way to the bank.

I have nothing but admiration for them, not so much for those that buy the stuff.

A bar of soap for a fiver, what on earth is happening?

What an amazing thing, from such a beautifully simple idea.

[Tal]

They leave their doors open in shopping centres and you can smell a Lush shop from fifty paces. Great marketing tool.

Their shampoos are really good. Again, a squat, cylindrical block of smelly.

[tikay]

Highlight of my "holiday" was bumping into this ensemble of young men in Covent Garden.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

There were some 50 or 60 of them, all singing Christmas Carols (yuk) in a sort of barbershop style.

And they were fantastic, all so perfectly pitched & in tune, very professional.

They had a "leader", but the lads were all aged, I'd guess, at 10 to 14 years old. It seemed all so wholesome, it was an incredibly moving sight & sound. Young men, superbly representing the best of their generation.

I had to find out more, so when they had finished, I approached a small group of them.

They were American, & scrupulously polite, deferential & respectful.  I read time & again, here especially, "Americans are stupid". That's utter bollox, uttered by rude, stupid people . Some, yes, but no more or less than Brits, or any other nationality.  In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest that, on the whole, American perople are better mannered than most. It's always been my experience, anyway.

They were from Kentucky, or I think they were, & were in London for 3 days. Next stop? India!

They all had matching windcheaters with "KSB" on them.

KSB?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_State_Boychoir

And yes, they have sung their stuff on all 7 Continents, including Antartica.

Honestly, it made my Christmas to see such pure & wholesome goodness in young men.

God bless them all.

[tikay]

They leave their doors open in shopping centres and you can smell a Lush shop from fifty paces. Great marketing tool.

Their shampoos are really good. Again, a squat, cylindrical block of smelly.

How much do you pay for that little block of smelly?

I had never heard of them before. What a thing, all that money from novelty soap. Incred.

[Tal]

They leave their doors open in shopping centres and you can smell a Lush shop from fifty paces. Great marketing tool.

Their shampoos are really good. Again, a squat, cylindrical block of smelly.

How much do you pay for that little block of smelly?

I had never heard of them before. What a thing, all that money from novelty soap. Incred.

https://www.lush.co.uk/category/148

I have a tin for it, too. Perfect for the gym shower.

[tikay]

They leave their doors open in shopping centres and you can smell a Lush shop from fifty paces. Great marketing tool.

Their shampoos are really good. Again, a squat, cylindrical block of smelly.

How much do you pay for that little block of smelly?

I had never heard of them before. What a thing, all that money from novelty soap. Incred.

https://www.lush.co.uk/category/148

I have a tin for it, too. Perfect for the gym shower.

You attend a gym?

Another stunningly simple money-spinner, with most money made from those who join, then lapse. Almost like the Colmans Mustard thing, where 90% of the product is left on the plate.

When I were a lad.....if we wanted exercise, we'd jog round the block, up to the newsagents & back, or round the park. Now peeps pay £50  year or whatever to attend a gym.

So simple. The idea, I mean, not those who subscribe.

[Tal]

What can I say? It's a leak

[tikay]

What can I say? It's a leak

Oh, I have leaks, too.

[aaron1867]

Death.

I'm not sure we need to be sad when folks pass away, assuming their time is due. It's the only certain thing in life - death. Premature death, of course, is another thing entirely.

I was perusing a "these people passed away in 2013" List yesterday, & the following all caught my eye for one reason or another, in most cases, they affected my life somehow, for better or worse.

Amazingly, when I read the list, I'd already forgotten that most of them had passed on.

Christopher Martin Jenkins

Alvin Lee

Kenny Ball

Lady Thatcher

Mick McManus

Esther Williams

Sir Henry Cecil

Alan Whicker

Bert Trautmann

Mel Smith

Cliff Morgan

Sir David Frost

David Jacobs

Nelson Mandela

David Coleman

Thinking about death is very depressing, we all do it, but you just can't seem to get away from it, probably the ageing nation we live in at the moment. But what a nation we live in when you are not hearing about the sad death of X,Y or Z you have the nice stories, the birth of George earlier in the year, which I was looking foward too, but yet you have people who get sick of hearing it, like when Nelson Mandela passed away too, the lack of respect sometimes is quite irritating. You can't win either way, when reading about such individuals.

Would also love to hear how such individuals like Thatcher and Mandela had an affect on your life.

With regards to Lush, perhaps it's not a novelty? Is it weirdly a luxury item?

PS - Loved the posts this morning!

[Tal]

You've reminded me of something there, Aaron.

Charlie Brooker once did a piece in his show about rolling news and the culture of wanting it. People got by just fine with news at 7am, 1pm, 6pm and 10pm. He uses a small part of a huge news story as a demonstration: the McCann parents being considered as suspects by Portuguese police in the disappearance of their daughter, Madeleine.

It's a brilliantly incisive six minute piece.

[77dave]

They leave their doors open in shopping centres and you can smell a Lush shop from fifty paces. Great marketing tool.

Their shampoos are really good. Again, a squat, cylindrical block of smelly.

How much do you pay for that little block of smelly?

I had never heard of them before. What a thing, all that money from novelty soap. Incred.

https://www.lush.co.uk/category/148

I have a tin for it, too. Perfect for the gym shower.

You attend a gym?

Another stunningly simple money-spinner, with most money made from those who join, then lapse. Almost like the Colmans Mustard thing, where 90% of the product is left on the plate.

When I were a lad.....if we wanted exercise, we'd jog round the block, up to the newsagents & back, or round the park. Now peeps pay £50  year or whatever to attend a gym.

So simple. The idea, I mean, not those who subscribe.

try £50 a month

[Tal]

Yeah, I wasn't going to say anything...

[RED-DOG]

Those soap people really cleaned up didn't they.

BTW - Should rhetorical questions have question marks?

[DaveShoelace]

Did you catch the first of this two parter on dolphins on the beeb? Fascinating stuff, thought it would be right up your street:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/tv/episode/b03n2x1n

[booder]

Hey Teeks , some photos that you may enjoy.


http://www.boredpanda.com/must-see-historic-moments/


http://www.boredpanda.com/must-see-powerful-photos/