I’ve heard of Pay-Per-View.
I’ve heard of Pay-to-Play.
I’ve heard of Pay-to-Click.
I’ve heard of Pay-to-Post.

However, it appears as though we’re about to open up a whole new category. Prepare to add any or all of the following to your vocabulary:

Pay-to-Pee
Wee Fee
Flush Fee

And there could be even more. This is not a joke. In fact, there’s nothing funny about it at all.

RyanAir is an Irish low-cost airline headquartered in Dublin, and it constantly strives to bring new meaning to the term “cost saving.” This Irish airline is renowned for its cheap flights and has made no secret of its quest to boost revenue by any means possible. It has almost become an industry joke.

RyanAir operates 181 aircraft and has orders placed for an additional 141 planes. It is the third largest airline in Europe in terms of passenger numbers and the world’s largest airliner in terms of international passengers. Some say it has copied its low-cost model after Southwest Airlines while others claim it has far surpassed that particular model.

RyanAir’s “no frills” approach includes:

• no business class.
• operating a single model of aircraft.
• charges for food, soft drinks and even water.
• charges for each bag checked into the hold.
• plans to remove all its check-in counters to encourage travelers to take just one piece of hand luggage.
• flying into only regional airports where they charge lower fees.
• charging a fee for bringing aboard any airport purchases.
• hawking bingo cards and duty-free goods during its flights.
• seats that do not recline, seats without back pockets and no window shades.

One might be tempted to think that RyanAir is prepared to plumb any depth to make a fast buck and is constantly putting profit before the comfort of its  customers. Just when you think they’ve reached rock bottom, they come up with another idea which leaves you asking yourself: “What Were They Thinking?”

Now RyanAir has decided to start charging passengers to go to the bathroom. Again, this is no joke. It originally requested the engineers at Boeing to design a mechanism for the toilet door to accept coins. That was quickly dismissed as the airline operates heavily in areas which use both the euro and British pound. Now RyanAir has designed a door which will open only if you swipe a credit card through the locking mechanism. To add insult to injury, you not only have to “pay-to-pee,” but you’ll have to do it on credit.

Don’t think for a moment that U.S. airlines aren’t watching this newest revelation to note passenger responses. If it works at RyanAir, we’ll soon be seeing it in the states.

The airline estimates if 20% of passengers pay £1 to use the restroom, this would generate £15 million annually (21 million American dollars)! It might want to consider the fact that charging to use the restrooms might impact the income it has been enjoying by charging passengers for over-priced drinks on board.

Of course, I guess RyanAir could make up for that loss by selling corks and pooper-scoopers!

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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Just about the time I think I’ve seen it all … I quickly learn how wrong I am! I was recently shocked by a headline in our local newspaper serving a community of 150,000. It read: “Going out of Business? That’ll be $50.”

Yes, it’s pretty much what you guessed it to be. It was the story of two local businesses located in a dying downtown area which simply couldn’t keep their doors open any longer. Both stores are well-known national franchises operated by hard-working local residents. They did everything they could to succeed and finally had to throw in the towel. Both were in the middle of a going-out-of-business liquidation sale when they received a letter from the City Clerk informing them they needed to pay a fee of $50 for a license to go out of business … the final nail in the coffin of their businesses. As one owner put it: “$50 to close—can you believe it!”

Adding insult to injury, the application for the going out of business license also required an itemized list of goods to be sold, described with make and brand name … plus a separate list of goods purchased 60 days or less immediately prior to the date of application including the cost of each item, name and address of the source, date of purchase and delivery date, and the total value of the inventory. Apparently, this fee is standard all over the country. What were they thinking?

The City Clerk claims the $50 license fee is a consumer-protection measure to prevent businesses from duping the public with false “going-out-of-business” sales. Here’s a much cheaper way of doing the same thing: When a business advertises “going-out-of-business” and then doesn’t do so—fine them $50!

The way the license fee is set up at the moment, it’s nothing less than the city kicking the merchants while they’re down. May as well rub their nose in it one last time to remind them of their failure.

Here’s another thought: Just don’t pay the fee—you’re going out of business anyway. Well, the geniuses running the city have considered that course of action as well. They have another law that says if you don’t purchase the “going-out-of-business” license and adhere to all of the requirements, you will be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable by up to $500 in fines and six months in jail.

Remember when those in government were elected or hired to serve the taxpayers? Apparently, those days are long gone. I wonder if any of these civil servants are aware of why we left England to come to these shores.

I wonder if they’re aware that April 15, there will be well over 300 well-organized Tax Day Tea Party Protests taking place from coast to coast—each predicting a minimum of 5,000 people attending each. That number is expected to grow between now and the 15th.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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I recently heard a political genius on one of the news shows discussing the new $3 Trillion Stimulus Plan. In his wise rhetoric he actually pointed out that we’re no longer in the “five-and-dime” era. What an observation!

I couldn’t help but wonder if this well-known politician had any clue of the make up of his current constituency. I would have to guess that at least 80% of those he represents have no idea what “five-and-dime” refers to. It’s frightening to consider that our future lies in the hands of people who think like this. What was he thinking?

For those who have read this far and may fall into that large group who are not familiar with the term “five-and-dime,” allow me to enlighten you. The term “five-and-dime” refers to a variety store where everything costs either five cents (a nickel) or ten cents (a dime). Kind of hard to believe, isn’t it?

The originator of the concept may be F.W. Woolworths (later Woolco), which began in 1878 in Utica, New York. Other well-known “five-and-dimes” that existed across the country included S.S. Kresge (later K-Mart), W.T. Grant, McCrory’s, and Ben Franklin Stores.

Chat with your grandparents, and they’ll explain the joy of a pilgrimage to their favorite “five-and-dime.” You’ll hear detailed explanations of uneven, squeaking wooden floors, background music, the smell of fresh popcorn and peanuts, candy counters that stretched on for what seemed forever and lunch counters where you could choose a booth or bright-red revolving stool to enjoy a hamburg, fries and a large Coke for 85 cents! In fact, the popular lunch counter made Woolworth’s the largest seller of restaurant food in the world! There’s much more to this fantasy world, but I’ll let you learn that from your grandparents.

The early 1970s saw the demise of the “five-and-dime” … a victim of cultural changes. The growth of malls and discount stores and the demise of downtown shopping centers took away the foot traffic that dime stores needed to survive. Inflation took away the five-and-ten-cent prices. Today, we’ve grown accustomed to the many variations of the Dollar Store concept, but the atmosphere and joy of the “five-and-dime” can never be replaced.

Apparently we’ll always have a friendly politician to remind us that the “five-and-dime” era has passed … even though his audience has no idea what he’s talking about. What was he thinking?

Other well-know “five-and-dimes” included:

• Butler Brothers
• Kress Stores
• J.J. Newberry
• TG&Y
• McLellan’s
• G.C. Murphy
• Neisner Brothers (later Big N)
• H.L. Green
• Walton’s Five-and-Dime

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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