When a customer is on the fence about buying a car the dealerships might insist they take the car home for the night. This is called "puppy-dogging". The idea is that once customers show it to their friends and neighbours, they will make such afuss over it - just as they would a new puppy - that they'll have to buy it. Moving the cars around on the lot is another strategy - it creates a busy vibe and while there's no evidence to support it, an unspoken rule is that balloons somehow sell cars. On slow days, salespeople go nuts with them. "I worked at a dealership where you had to put 150 balloons out every day," one salesperson tells Mental Floss.com. "By the time you were done, you were exhausted. You didn't have any energy left to sell a car."
Spidermen versus litterbugs
With millions of Chinese visiting the country's sacred mountains every year, keeping them rubbish-free has become the job of so-called Spider-Man cleaners. These workers abseil down steep cliffs to reach plastic bottles and bags thrown there by uncivilised tourists. Photos released in the media show them dangling high above ground, on the side of steep mountain cliffs to highlight the danger of their work and make tourists think twice before littering. Some of the cleaners actually wear Spider-Man costumes, which has of course made them a hit with visitors who watch them descend into the abyss and cheer when they successfully retrieve the rubbish.
"I loved the term pearl-clutcher, it pretty much describes my Mum when I was growing up in the 60s/70s," writes a reader. "Although I was allowed to wear a choker (a black ribbon with a brooch) she banned T-shirts with motifs (bikers' clothing) and bright colours (tarts). I wasn't allowed pierced ears until I paid for them myself yet she had no problem with hair dye and mini-skirts. These days I have a sister who freaked out at her 15-year-old son's new haircut, yet allowed him to get a Holden tattoo!"
We do gas analysis. What shall we call our company? Photo / Supplied
Going postal in Takapuna
Sue writes: "My father lived in Waitemata County, Takapuna, Glenfield and Totara Vale without moving. Not as exotic as the St Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad mix but a lot more peaceful!"
