Detours: Hallmark, Kansas City, and the decline of the greeting card industry
Detours: Hallmark, Kansas City, and the decline of the greeting card industry
2013-09-04
happy birthday he make me feel so no
note I'd say love congratulations on
your new baby thank you God for our own
baby and help us to be worthy of the
trust in those little eyes happy
Valentine's Day love mom and dad
Christmas car like this one moment hugs
and kisses to you seems just have a very
Merry Christmas to a dad who's a package
is you're more than just my dad you're
my very best pal - Merry Christmas
we love xxx oh we love you mommy and
daddy
some breslav lilies pearl white god
fashion lovely skin forgive me nazi
truffle eyes and then formed your baby
chin another flawed next he used a
rosebud taking fair tested to your
dipper cheeks and and made it blossom
mare this world and all within he
created created here for man
but baby was God's masterpiece since
time of life begins congratulations and
best wishes to all of you I'm not
comparing no cars to the internet or
whatever but to me it means a lot more
to have somebody sit down and pick on a
car or even better yet make a car people
really still appreciate things like that
hallmark the fountains the plaza you
know barbecue that's ones can't cities
known for just would be can city without
harm or there's not much to a greeting
card it's just a folded up piece of
paper there's a thoughtful or funny
message inside but behind every single
one of these readings is actually a
multi-billion dollar industry
and at the center of it all is hallmark
the largest greeting card company in the
world and one of Kansas City's largest
employers
your grandmother gave me this nose ring
and now I'm giving it to you start a new
tradition and have a happy birthday so
these are just raw card ideas that have
not yet been finished like this is one
that somebody turned in and it's a
drawing of a tiny little hole punch and
it just says inside I love you a hole
punch which seems really cheesy and
silly but then we get to this finished
idea and then there's the bonus surprise
of the lasered out hearts when you're
talking about asking someone to pay
upwards of you know really starting
around two dollars or more for something
there has to be something that's
connecting it to you so I think we're
just always looking for that kind of
shared common experience that people
have together if if someone gives
someone a funny greeting card I'm out of
that equation by that they're not giving
someone a card that bill gray wrote what
they're doing is they're handing someone
a joke that they made you and I share
this joke together and that's why you
know that's why ho marks golden because
we know we know how to do that for its
first 90 years hallmark was how you said
happy birthday Merry Christmas and sorry
your cat died but then everything
changed
keycards came about in 1994 they were
primitive at first happy 15 but they
quickly grew in popularity
they sang they dance the did things that
paper cards just couldn't do and most
importantly you didn't have to leave
your chair to send them in the
late-1990s
hallmark began laying off hundreds of
employees between 1999 and 2008 the
company let go of more than a quarter of
its workforce shrinking from 20,000
employees to 12,000 today
since then hallmark has been playing
catch-up trying everything from iPhone
and iPad apps robotic toys that move and
bark 3d printers and laser cutters
hallmark is competing with new hybrid
services like apples cards app which
allows users to send physical cards
straight from their iPads and iPhones
over a year after the launch of Apple's
cards hallmark launched its own similar
app go-carts which was greeted with a
lukewarm response in the App Store
Hallmark's struggles aren't just with
new technology that's what the way
technology has changed culture a hundred
years ago when hallmark was founded
people couldn't express themselves
through an email Facebook gifts or emoji
and today young people are sending fewer
greeting cards than ever before despite
all that people still think there will
always be a place for physical greeting
cards maybe I'm too romantic about this
but I think there will always be a need
for some sort of tangible artifact that
can be exchanged between two people a
lot of people want to hold in your hand
and look at it they don't want to buy it
on the Internet
they want to come in someplace and look
at it buy it and take it all I just
think that's never gonna go away you
know you can get a little motor cons and
our little faces and stuff smiley faces
that you want to put on there but it
doesn't take the place of somebody
actually you know sometimes just like
right now if it's hot and I write them
that it might be a little sweat stand or
whatever or if I'm feeling emotional you
might see a couple of Tears fans on
there but 80% of the times the kids are
going to go for the instant right there
I really don't even want to think about
what I would be doing if I wasn't doing
this when I came here I thought I would
hang around here for a couple of years
and
it opened up the first day I was here I
knew that this job was it and this is
what I want to do they're gonna have to
drag me out of here
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