WeatherTech factory store is the Apple store of car floor mats

As the title of this post reads, the WeatherTech factory store is undoubtedly the Apple store of car floor mat retailers and this is why.  Recently I had the pleasure of visiting the WeatherTech factory store in Bolingbrook, IL.  When I walked in I was greeted immediately in front of the front door of the factory store by a WeatherTech employee.  She requested my name and let me know that there was a waiting list, so I gave her my name and she mentioned that I should listen for my name to be called.  Naturally I asked that she call out "Phonepopup" when I was called, she obliged.  She then told me that if interested I could grab free coffee, cookies, scones or any of the other free bakery items I wanted from the cafe.  Yes free coffee and treats while purchasing car floor mats.  I was impressed and I thanked her, walked over and did grab a coffee.  I had been to the WeatherTech factory store once prior, but it was a couple years ago.  Later I had learned that the factory store had been remodeled about a year ago.  The WeatherTech factory store space is now a lot bigger and I was amazed as they have a display set up in the factory store for most of the other products that they have available for sale on their website, http://www.weathertech.com

After grabbing a coffee I walked around and took quick look at the other products they have in store.  Upon walking in and then walking around I noticed that the lighting was very bright, which was nice.  I was impressed with the waiting area that had plush leather couches and there were also multiple seat stool tables with 4 chairs per table.  The chairs basically had a chrome finish that was amazing to me.  The WeatherTech staff was constantly walking around with some type of cleaner spray and was spraying off each unoccupied table making sure that whomever was coming to shop had the ability to take a seat on an extremely clean stool table as well as polishing each chair that was at each table.  On top of each table there was a little double sided sign, a little bigger than the size of a business card, that said "Free Wifi" on each side and of course had logos for Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp.  Message me if I did not correctly remember which social sites were listed on each side of the "Free Wifi" signs.

I thought the whole layout of the store was remarkable and was thinking to myself that if I ever had a car mats retail store, that this was the way things should be done.  Every action the employees at the WeatherTech factory store took while I was there also aligned with that same mantra, "the way things should be done".  Should you ever have the opportunity to visit the store, make sure you do it as it was an unforgettable experience.  On top of having perfected digitally laser fit car floor mats, WeatherTech really nailed it on the retail presentation end of their business and it is admirable for anyone interested in seeing a flourishing establishment doing business at a very high level.  I will be back when I need floor mats and I will make sure I tell everyone I know about the WeatherTech factory store.  I suggest you do the same.  Thanks for reading and be sure to check out my website sometime by clicking the following link below:

http://www.phonepopup.com

Google Reader Alternative

As of November 5, 2013, my website, PhonePOPUP.com has been online for roughly 2 years.  During that time I have submitted a descent amount of product ideas to Google privately in various online methods.  The time has come to start blogging those ideas here and see where they go.  Today I have 2 Google Reader alternative ideas I am proposing for Google to consider within 2 of their existing products (Chrome and Google Plus) that could offer loyal Google Reader users 2 Google Reader alternatives.

Google Reader Alternative 1: Google could combine Chrome bookmarks with rss feeds from websites

Feel free to access your Chrome bookmarks by pressing and holding CTRL and SHIFT keys, then while holding CTRL and SHIFT keys, press and release the letter O.  Pressing those keys as mentioned will bring up your list of Chrome bookmarks.

When viewing your Chrome bookmarks you will notice a similar view to how Google reader looked.  The idea I am proposing would be to combine Chrome bookmarks and rss feeds to work in unison so that when a Chrome user bookmarks one of their favorite websites, Chrome would then prompt the user to select which rss feeds he/she would like to subscribe to.  This would allow Chrome users the ability to quickly access both their bookmarks and rss feeds all within 1 place in Chrome.

Combining Chrome bookmarks with rss feeds from websites could be a pretty sweet Google Reader alternative.


Google Reader Alternative 2: Google could combine Google Plus with rss feeds from websites

The way this could work is when you would follow a page on Google Plus, the drop down menu you usually see with the names of the circles you have to choose from would have an additional row labeled "rss".  Clicking the blank checkbox to the left of the rss row would then drop down an additional menu that could prompt a user to select specific rss feeds of his/her choice.

Google Plus users could access the rss feeds they subscribed to through their Google Plus feed.  The Google Plus feed is really the best place to view all rss feeds you had subscribed to.

Another UI enhancement that goes right along with my 2nd Google Reader alternative here would be to add 3 toggle buttons within the left sidebar in Google Plus that is currently labeled "Home".  The 3 buttons could also be added within an additional tab labeled "rss" on the top of Google Plus as well. The 3 buttons could be labeled as follows:

Button 1: G+ only
Button 2: rss only
Button 3: G+ and rss

The 3 view toggle buttons would change a Google Plus user's view of their feed to whichever of the 3 buttons they selected.  Of course, no more than 1 button could be pressed at the same time.  This 3 button UI enhancement could provide a quick way to change the view of a user's Google Plus feed.

The current Google Plus feed is only a view of Google Plus posts made by each page.  My idea would combine posts from Google Plus with rss feeds and would give Google Plus users the ability to keep and combine 2 of their favorite components of news consumption: Google Plus posts and rss feeds into 1 feed with 3 different viewing options to choose from: G+ only, rss only and both G+ and rss.

For now Google themselves have offered the following alternatives to Google Reader.

Thank you for reading, please share this post if you liked it and visit my website http://www.phonepopup.com