Fred Craven, Editor
A long time ago, in a gallaxy far far away from Texas. I started college. There, trying to survive the colege life, I discovered the joys of coffee.
Up to that point I had only been exposed to "regular" coffee and it didn't do much for me, and $5.00 a cup coffee wasn't even a marketing dream.
We had the choice of five different types of coffee: regular, decaff, espresso, cappuccino, and caffe-latte. I think it cost about $1.50 for a cappuccino.
Over the years "everyone" has wanted to join me and coffee has become way too trendy. Sure, the rivers of Washington state may flow with milk and espresso, and one may be able to find a (sometimes two or three) "major national coffee chain" in every mall and on every street corner, but it's just not as fun.
My taste buds are no longer so arrogant as to need the steam pressed grounds. I am quite content with simple good coffee made the old fashioned way. Its quicker, easier, and often just as nice. I prefer beans from Africa: Tanzanian Pea-berry, Zimbabwe, and Kenya AA. But my favorite bean comes from the USA—100% Pure Kona.
It's not the most expensive bean—that would be Jamaica Blue Mountain—but it's very smooth, and very rich. The best thing about it is that my in-laws (who, although they have lived in northern California for fifty years, are from Minnesota) will drink it. It simply tastes like very good normal coffee. Kona also has this strange quality where you can "nuke" it later and it will still taste good. It will set you back about $30.00 a pound, roughly twice that of other good coffees. And I get all my good coffee from Valentine Coffee Company—which is not a national chain. They are at 111 S. Cedar Ridge, Suite 113 in Duncanville TX. Their phone number is 972-709-9540. In addition to coffee they have teas, pastries, gourmet sandwiches, and lots of coffee accessories.
So how does this relate to Prairie Trail Software? Well, one of the things we do is the development of loyalty card solutions for our clients. In my real life the one loyalty card that I really like is for the Valentine Coffee Club. For every 15 lbs of coffee I buy I get a free pound (OK, for kona, they might only give me 1/2 pound).
The point is that simple solutions often work better than complex ones. We at Prairie Trail Software do not force our clients to fit our concepts of what their system should be, Instead we fit each need around their need.
By the way, Valintine's loyalty card works great for them. It's simple. I get rewarded with something I want (coffee), and the store gets what they want (a return customer) Also, for the store, it is an inexpensive solution: "Software" is easily updated, "servers" have low system requirements, and the "terminals" never fail—
It's a punch card. ♦