Every time I hear about a product or company having a potential problem, or facing a coming challenge, I try to think about what I’d do about it.

This time, it’s grocery stores. Apparently, the handle on a shopping cart at your local grocery store contains 10X more harmful bacteria than anything else you come in contact with on a regular basis. Yuck! Is this a problem facing grocery stores in the future? I happen to think it’s an opportunity, and here’s what I’d do:

Highlight the problem. Next to the carts, in the store, during checkout, I’d have posters/flyers/whatever blaring the problem at customers. Why? To sensationalize the issue and damage the competition.

Solve the problem. Have a self-serve Purell alcohol dispenser at the shopping cart pickup area.

Profit from the problem. Sell Purell and other disinfecting agents and tools in checkout, right next to signs explaining the problem and what Your Store is doing about it.

Anyway, What Would You Do is a fun game to play. Anyone else got any fun problems and solutions? HP already used my favorite solution: get rid of Carly!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 19th, 2005 at 9:34 am and is filed under personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.