The flu has been rampant through our office the last few weeks. It hit me last Wednesday, as I was flying home from a business trip in New York. I don’t remember a time I’ve been on a plane with four blankets shivering all the way back to KC. I landed, drove home and spent four days in bed.

When I was finally able to re-enter the real world, I went to the Hy-Vee in my neighborhood for soup, toast and Sprite. Even though I go to the same grocery store all the time, I had never noticed the horse ride as you walk into the store. In fact, I stopped the cart kid as he was pushing a ton of the cars in, and he told me it was there for as long as he worked there. Interesting.

Immediately, I was reminded of when I was a kid, and my mom and dad would take me and my brother to K-Mart on Metcalf, near 95th (incidentally, just a few minutes from the Hy-Vee). Without fail, we would talk our way on the horses outside the store. Needless to say, if I called my brother right now, I think he’d have the same memory.

My mind thinks differently now. I sat there, got out my phone, snapped this photo, thinking of the business model behind the horse.

These things have to be expensive to buy - probably several thousand dollars, yet rides cost 25 to 50 cents. That’s a lot of rides to return that investment. But wait… is it more of an attraction… like it was at K-Mart when I was a kid? Is this a cheesy marketing ploy to get moms and dads (and kids to boot) to come that that store over others? Not sure, but it sure did make me think…

And then it made me grateful. I was thinking of our successes and failures of a business over the years, and I was proud that it has never included “cheesy marketing ploys” - and that just so happens to be delivered day-in and day-out from our team members every day.

Our team is more excited about this spring that any other spring I can remember. And the fact we’re real, honest, and transparent, I think makes us better at what we do every day.
…regardless of the horsie I really, really want to buy for outside our office…

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