PUBLISHER'S VIEWPOINT
November 2001
When the Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary

It is a beautiful fall morning in Evanston, Ill. Earlier I walked over to the convenience store for the papers and a gallon of milk. I made pancakes and bacon for the kids and Jan. I took a shower. Later, because it is Columbus Day and because I’ll be gone to Germany next week, we’ll take the crew and friends to Kiddieland, a children’s amusement park. It’s pretty much an ordinary day.

Except we went to war yesterday.

We travel for a living. Patricia Elliott and Brian went to Southern California two weeks ago. Last week Rich Chrampanis and I went to Atlanta so we could tell Equipment Distributors and their suppliers what we think will happen in this market in these extraordinary times. Then we headed north to see customers in Greenville, S.C., and Huntersville, Salisbury and Winston-Salem, N.C. You get used to it, the routine of airports and rental cars and Fairfield Inns. For me, it’s fun. I never get tired of it.

Part of the fun is going out to eat. When we are on the road, we do “chain crawls.” We’ll have a beer in the Tony Roma’s, an appetizer at Macaroni Grill, an entrée at Don Pablo’s. We talk to the waitstaff and the managers and the bartenders. A lot of the restaurants were half full last week. Everyone kept repeating how grateful they were we had come. They kept bringing us things we hadn’t ordered.

I had to wait four hours for my plane home to Chicago. I sat in a T.G.I. Friday’s. Three different travelers had dinner with me. It was crowded. We talked about terrorism and safety. We talked about how great the people had been in restaurants and hotels since Sept. 11. I find they are great nearly always. It made me realize how wonderful this business is, how what you all do—provide food and hospitality—is really a sacred activity. Even in an airport restaurant.

On Saturday, I fly to Zurich, Switzerland. It will be interesting—particularly in these times—to see the United States from the outside. I’m visiting people I know: Alice Arnold at FCSI Europe, friends at leading German equipment manufacturers. We’ll talk about products and markets and how we do global business in the midst of a war.

In all my discussions last week, we all kept saying how none of us knew what was going to happen, that we had never witnessed anything like this. But what it made me realize again is that in the United States and some other places, what we consider ordinary is really quite extraordinary. We have so much to be thankful for.

Cheers,

Robin Ashton
Publisher