Perception
Gents,
Just a quick word to request you please be careful. As a daily reader for many years, the fact that all but 2 items on the list are carried at the store gave me pause. I say that as a repeat store customer. I love everything you do, but this isn't a good idea.
In today's media climate, this will be used against you by your competitors/detractors. Honestly, your lists should contain more items that aren't available in the store than are for perception, even if you have to expand the categories to low, mid and high-end or to categories you don't carry.
As an Air Force Officer/Pilot, I have to be incredibly careful of perception. To the masses (or at least gotcha-media), perception is reality. I've had several compatriots get in extremely hot water (of the permanent-record paperwork type that hurts their careers forever) for doing tiny things that weren't in any way wrong, but could have caused a negative perception. For example, we do weekend training sometimes - not a great deal as you work all week, then all weekend, then all the next week. It doesn't matter where you go as long as you fly x amount of hours and do x amount of landings at unfamiliar fields. This crew went to some cities to watch baseball games. They got exactly the same training as they would have if they went to cities and didn't watch games, they didn't waste any money and absolutely nothing was improper, but their leadership was so fearful of the "60 Minutes Effect" that could occur due to an honest or willful misinterpretation of the facts that the crew was severely punished. We honestly assess almost every decision we make by how 60 Minutes would portray it. It has some good aspects, but on average, it is quite a negative factor in keeping us overly cautious.
Like it or not, that's the way the world is. It concerns me that if you don't play by the rules (regardless of whether you agree with them), that you may become a casualty as well.
