Way back in 1998, my first job in the UK was creating and maintaining spreadsheets for a company that supplied beauty products. I was employed by the chief buyer. I was actually employed for six weeks but was then made permanent.
After a while, the buyer left (or was asked to leave) and I was made the Operations Manager/IT person, who had also left. I have no idea if it was because of the Millennium Bug, but he left halfway through 1999.
The company came up with an idea to group different products together and sell them under a single brand name (Mr Mascara), the idea being that Mr M knew more about selecting the best products than anyone else. It was quite a good idea and the packaging was bright and cheerful and the cartoon images were great.
Part of my Ops position was to work out how to pack and combine products in the bags, ready to go out. This included stock control.
It was while I was doing a regular stocktake of products that I came up with the idea that each Mr Mascara bag should have a name. A human name. Nothing to do with anything but a bit quirky. It was also a lot better than using the numbers assigned by the stock control system. I mean what does 1001.7 mean?
I suggested the idea to Simon, who was the second in charge of the whole company. He wasn’t enthused so the idea just floated away.
Then, yesterday, in Hemtex, I realised that someone else had not only had the same idea but had implemented it.
And, so it was, that we bought two duvets called Selma, a couple of pillows called Filip and a neck pillow called Simon. There was also a duvet called Emma but it was the warmest one and a bit too much for us.
I still think it would have been a great idea for Mr Mascara. Maybe I was just a bit ahead of time.
Meanwhile in the real world, I spent the vast majority of today in bed just lazing around, my abdomen dictating the degree of movement allowed. I didn’t eat and I drank only tea and water. Hopefully I’ll be better tomorrow.
