It would appear that the irrepressible Mr.Wynne does not have the affection of our adoring public as last weeks challenge to get 500 people signed up to our newsletter has not gone well. It looks as if my £500 is safe, but Gerry's continuing employment is not.

Not only have the vast majority of you decided simply not to sign up for the newsletter, some have even gone to the extra length of emailing to tell us why Gerry should be sacked ! And most of those people have never even met Gerry. What is it about people that work in IT that seem to engender such irrational rage in others that they will call for the sacking of someone that they've never met simply because he works in IT ?

This irrationality does not simply apply to Gerry, although he does seem to attract more than his fair share. Whenever we get a call here atBrix Workwear , Monaghan's fourth largest workwear store, asking about work trousers , of which we stock 26 different styles, we are always asked if they have kneepad pockets. This seems to be the deciding factor for a lot of people. If they don't have kneepad pockets they are not percieved to be as good or "worky" as those that have knee pad pockets.

The classic knee pad style has, as the name suggests , two pockets, one on each knee for the insertion of the knee pads, illustrated below :

Dassy knee pad pocket trouser grey Lee Cooper red knee pads

This makes sense on one level as inserting the knee pads into the trousers does obviously make them much more comfortable when kneeling down as you work away on your widgets and what not.

But the bizarre aspect is that for every 100 pairs of knee pad pocket work trousers that we sell we sell one, yes that's right, ONE set of knee pads. Now , unless there is a magic shop on the web that is selling oodles and oodles of theses knee pads and nothing else , or people are folding up old Cornflake packets instead, it would appear that the vast majority of people that buy knee pad paocket work trousers never , ever put a darn knee pad in them. So the only extra protection that they are getting is another thin layer of poly cotton. Go figure...

Do you have examples of paying extra for a product feature that you never use ?

I have a garden shed that's full of such items , but that's down to sheer laziness !

Anyway, keep an eye out for Thursday's competition and an update on ewhether gerry is still here.....or I'm £500 poorer.

Cheers,

Paul

P.S. Today I'm listening to the Super Furry Animals Something for the Weekend