I need you to get serious. I am about to provide some very valuable information that no one living in our society today should be without. It is powerful information, the type of information that can save business relationships, friendships and even marriages.
Let me set the background a bit.
I like Stride gum. I like the flavors and I like the packaging. It is a nice box that fits in a pocket. Sturdy enough that it doesn't bend and squish the gum, yet flexible enough that I don't notice it in my pocket. A great improvement over gum of yesteryear.
I took a pack of Stride gum with me to work on Monday. I chewed a few pieces throughout the day and when I left, I placed the gum right beside my phone ready for the next day's use. However on Tuesday I ended up not being in my office. So the gum sat unprotected for an entire day. When I returned to the office today I was in for a shocking discovery.
You guessed it. Someone had taken the majority of my gum. In fact there were only two pieces left in the entire box. There had been at least 10 pieces when I left on Monday, but now only two. Two pieces left in the BOTTOM HALF OF THE BOX!!
Those of you who know me well might have guessed what the real issue is here. You see I don't care about someone taking my gum. I will freely share my gum with all who ask. In fact you don't even have to ask. Just take a piece when you want it. The problem is not that my gum was chewed but instead with the lack of proper gum etiquette with respect to removing said gum from the stride box.
Let me walk you through this. Below is a picture of a Stride gum box as one might see it right after the wrapper is removed.
As you can see this is a wonderfully designed box, with the cover sliding into a slot to ensure that the lid stays closed. However, when you open this box up you can begin to see the brilliance of the design.
What you see here is two separate levels of gum chewing pleasure (this box is obviously empty due to aforementioned gum thief). If full you would see seven sticks of gum across the top and seven across the bottom.
Now here is where the box design and gum etiquette cross. You see this box is designed to split into two. That is correct! The designer of this gum box intended for a chewer to be able to remove the bottom half of the box once it was empty!! You can see in the following picture how the package has been split at the pre-designed point. This would allow the empty bottom half to be disposed while there was still gum left in place on the top row.
This intricate box design leads to one simple conclusion and the point for my entire blog today. It is without doubt, that the makers of this package intended for the bottom gum to be used before the top gum. Let me say that again... DON'T TAKE GUM FROM THE TOP UNTIL THE BOTTOM IS EMPTY. There is no other possible way for Stride gum to be chewed properly.
So (back to my gum) you can imagine my horror when I opened my gum package today at the office and found that whoever had taken my gum had taken the TOP gum before the BOTTOM gum was all chewed. It has been a traumatic day for me since.
Some of you might be asking, "Gary, why don't you just move gum from the bottom to the top?" Silly people. Don't you know that each stick of gum is held in by a mysterious waxy substance and that if you pull it out and put it back in, the stick will not stay in place. They will slide, move or even fall over. That cannot be done!
Please take this message to heart. Chew Stride gum the way it was meant to be chewed. If you see me an want a stick of gum, ask. I will give. But when you take, take from the bottom FIRST and then only after the bottom is empty, you may take from the top.
Listen to me and the world will be a better place..
Gary J.
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