“Damn it, that was my idea!”
How many times have you said that as you flip through the SkyMall magazine for goods that you will certainly not buy? Today the parent company of SkyMall declared bankruptcy citing a lack of demand for its coffee table book about coffee tables. Analysts believe the decline in SkyMall’s fall from 30,000 feet has more to do with passengers being preoccupied with their onboard electronic devices than from their useless product selection.
This makes sense as I used to spend a good 30 minutes flipping through SkyMall page by page in an effort to pass time. Now I just flip through all my travel photos or passport pages to remind myself how cool I am, something that SkyMall does not offer. To be perfectly honest, I don’t even know how to make a purchase from SkyMall. Is there an 800 number or website you visit when you land because you don’t feel like paying for Boingo Wi-Fi? By that time the fascination for the floating bar for the pool that I do not have has dissipated.
By comparison, I do make purchases from the in-flight duty-free catalog because after 1 bottle of Krug Grand Cuvee, that $250 Red Ferrari watch seems like a good purchase. (Fortunately, on my last Cathay Pacific flight, the lady in charge of duty-free was asleep, so I sobered up before making an ill-advised purchase.)
So to all my would be entrepreneurs and inventors who have found their jump to conclusions mat on sale in SkyMall, I say rejoice, the company is broke and so are our bad ideas.
Not everyone is happy. The smart folks are sad. Skymall had many things people buy at big box stores they just did not look. Skymall would price match the best price and would pay out 5x Skymiles for the purchase. There was value if you looked – most did not.
How is the sarcasm lost? It’s a joke because everyone thinks they invented everything in skymall and now don’t have to kick themselves for not being the first mover.