Build a Better Mousetrap

The old saying goes that if you want to catch more mice, you need to build a better mousetrap. I'm not sure how that really works because as I learned during my two years living in Iowa, mousetraps are pretty simple devices and work quite well. But certainly the idea holds that if you want to do something like sell your products and services to more customers, you need to create and put out a better product.

The auto industry is certainly learning this lesson, bailouts notwithstanding, if they want to sell more cars to the increasingly strapped and frugal American public, they need to start building better cars that meet our needs. If restaurants and retailers want to continue to sell to us, they also need to produce a better product and let it go at a more reasonable price. We may be able to justify $50 for a mediocre meal at Friday's, Chili's, or some other such generic American food restaurant during good times, but in a recession that dog won't hunt.

Price is a big point, and sometimes even a quality product won't sell if the price isn't right. This is evidenced by something almost unheard of in the sports world, NFL playoff games not selling out. In Arizona, where there has never been a playoff game in the 21 year mostly sorry history of the Cardinals, the local stadium is still a few thousand seats short of a sell-out, which in addition to a black eye nationally for Phoenix, will mean that I don't get to watch one of the four playoff games this weekend as the game will be blacked out in the local market.

Even more surprising, and another sign of the economic times, is the fact that the Minnesota Vikings are in the same boat. Get it, Vikings in a boat. Anyways, the product is still the same great product, pro football that we as a nation love and support, but the cost of tickets, parking, and concessions is just too much for many people to handle during times when funds are tight. I expect to see many more empty ballparks starting with the coming baseball season because of the recession, and the Florida Marlins might have to resort to bringing homeless people in off the streets to put people in the stands, they should give them a free meal to boot for having to sit through a Marlins game.

The article in today's LA Times, which if the link works can be accessed from above, was about the dire straits that the movie industry finds itself in. Cutbacks are hitting Hollywood, and everything from scaled down executive parties to job cuts are hitting the industry as movie attendance was off 5% last year. The potential actors strike is also a looming threat to the film industry, as well as to the broadcast networks.

But the answer again here seems relatively simple. If you want to start drawing more people to the movies, then start making better movies. Perhaps the economic reality in the land of make believe will force the decision makers at studios to start being more selective about what they decide to produce, and as a result the movie going public will start to have more quality flicks to choose from.

I went to three movies last year, all of which I enjoyed, and while I am not the biggest movie buff out there, I do enjoy good film and I enjoy the experience of watching a picture on the big screen. I'll go to more movies if the options are better. People have different tastes in movies, mine run towards dramas with rich characters and intelligent story lines and dialogue, historical pictures, witty comedies, and chick flicks, so long as they don't have Kianu Reeves or Hugh Grant. Other people enjoy action flicks, sci-fi, comic book movies, graphic novel movies, stoner comedies, horror pics, there is something for everyone so long as they are done well.

So if Hollywood wants to get our collective butts back in the theatres, then the answer is to start producing a higher quality product. I know it can be done, because of the three movies I saw, the first two were solid, Sex and the City and Mama Mia, but the third was a classic and everything that great film can be. Dark Night was one of the best movies I've seen in awhile, and I'm not even inclined toward action flicks or comic strips, but this was brilliantly acted, especially by Heath Ledger as the Joker, crisply directed, and wonderfully produced. The story was interesting and the characters had depth to them. I don't see any reason why Hollywood can't produce more movies on this level, and if they can manage this along with a drop in the ever increasing cost of a movie ticket, they will see more of us coming back to the theaters on a more regular basis.