Wednesday, August 26, 2015

We Live In A World Where An Internet Company Can Charge $14 To Put A Message On A Potato

I am not here to tell you how to spend your money, let’s just get that right out there. But hey, if you’re willing to spend $14 to send someone a message on a potato, I’ve got to hope that that potato can then be mashed/fried/roasted and eaten afterward.

Today’s entry in, “Yeah, This Is A Thing” comes by way of a company called Potato Parcel, which will slap a message on a root vegetable and throw it in the mail for you, reports MarketWatch.

For $7.99 you get a medium-sized potato with a message of up to 100 characters, or for $9.99, the company will package a larger potato with a 140-character limit and send it to your intended recipient for about a $4 shipping fee.

The potato packages result in feelings at first of “surprise and delight” for those on the receiving end, Alex Craig, founder of Potato Parcel told MarketWatch, which turns to confusion when they open the package to find a potato with an anonymous message. Sure, you could include your name, but that goes against the word count.

But… why? Well, because people are trying to back to their pre-Internet roots, and are looking for something real and physical, perhaps.

“I wanted to create a brand new way of sending a message outside of apps and technology by allowing anyone to send an anonymous message…on a potato,” Craig explains.

His company has received 3,500 orders since going into business in May, and it’s not the only food-as-message business out there competing for the novelty factor we consumers so enjoy, if only briefly: A Brooklyn-based company called Mail a Spud has been sending “thousands” of orders since January, with $9.99 potatoes sent directly through the mail, with the stamps and addresses plastered right on them.

“I don’t suggest that you consume them,” founder Sean Din told MarketWatch. “They’ve been through a lot.”

People are spending $14 to send message-bearing potatoes [MarketWatch]


by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

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