Almost everything has price
Philadelphia, USA, 11 July 1838. John Wanamaker is born, an entrepreneur who will then have a great influence on the marketing world. He started working in the commercial area with his brother-in-law at the age of 22. They both opened a store and the business gradually grew.
In 1910 he opened the big Wanamaker’s business in his city, where he started very common practices today: he organized sales at certain times of the year, organized Christmas shows to attract clients, installed restaurants within the establishment and started offering the possibility of returning after testing the product purchased. He was also a pioneer in advertising, and his is the well-known phrase: “Half of the money spent on advertising is useless. The problem is, I don't know what half it is."
One of its greatest achievements was to fix the prices of goods and label them. Wanamaker was a fervent Christian and faith led him to make this decision: for God all human beings are equal, so he considered it absolutely unfair that the customer had to try to buy any product. So, with the same price for everyone, there would be no difference. However, he did not take into account that there were huge vicissitudes in his purchasing power, so he thought God’s roads were insatiable.
Although the treatment was more common than today, many products already had a fixed price before, and surely many will have labeled it for customers to see. Wanamaker's merit was to systematize the price labels and, above all, to sell well. Pioneering marketing, great publicity was made: their articles were always high quality, their workers had better working conditions than anyone, never lied in advertising…
However, in his brilliant resume, he was stained, especially in his political performance. During the First World War, the obsession with pricing everything led him to put forward a curious proposal to the American Congressmen. By then Germany had already occupied Belgium and Wanameker proposed that the US buy from Germany the whole occupied country. So I thought the conflict would definitely end. The price proposed was one hundred billion dollars, as round as the congressional refusal.
Rudolf Botha hizkuntzalari hegoafrikarrak hipotesi bat bota berri du Homo erectus-i buruz: espezieak ahozko komunikazio moduren bat garatu zuen duela milioi bat urte baino gehiago. Homo sapiens-a da, dakigunez, hitz egiteko gai den espezie bakarra eta, beraz, hortik... [+]
Böblingen, Holy Roman Empire, 12 May 1525. Georg Truchsess von Waldburg overthrew the Württemberg insurgent peasants. Three days later, on 15 May, Philip of Hesse and the Duke of Saxony joined forces to crush the Thuringian rebels in Frankenhausen, killing some 5,000 peasants... [+]
Washington, D.C., June 17, 1930. The U.S. Congress passed the Tariff Act. It is also known as the Smoot-Hawley Act because it was promoted by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis Hawley.
The law raised import tax limits for about 900 products by 40% to 60% in order to... [+]
During the renovation of a sports field in the Simmering district of Vienna, a mass grave with 150 bodies was discovered in October 2024. They conclude that they were Roman legionnaires and A.D. They died around 100 years ago. Or rather, they were killed.
The bodies were buried... [+]
Until now we have believed that those in charge of copying books during the Middle Ages and before the printing press was opened were men, specifically monks of monasteries.
But a group of researchers from the University of Bergen, Norway, concludes that women also worked as... [+]
Florentzia, 1886. Carlo Collodi Le avventure de Pinocchio eleberri ezagunaren egileak zera idatzi zuen pizzari buruz: “Labean txigortutako ogi orea, gainean eskura dagoen edozer gauzaz egindako saltsa duena”. Pizza hark “zikinkeria konplexu tankera” zuela... [+]
Linear A is a Minoan script used 4,800-4,500 years ago. Recently, in the famous Knossos Palace in Crete, a special ivory object has been discovered, which was probably used as a ceremonial scepter. The object has two inscriptions; one on the handle is shorter and, like most of... [+]
Londres, 1944. Dorothy izeneko emakume bati argazkiak atera zizkioten Waterloo zubian soldatze lanak egiten ari zela. Dorothyri buruz izena beste daturik ez daukagu, baina duela hamar urte arte hori ere ez genekien. Argazki sorta 2015ean topatu zuen Christine Wall... [+]
Bilbo, 1954. Hiriko Alfer eta Gaizkileen Auzitegia homosexualen aurka jazartzen hasi zen, erregimen frankistak izen bereko legea (Ley de Vagos y Maleantes, 1933) espresuki horretarako egokitu ondoren. Frankismoak homosexualen aurka egiten zuen lehenago ere, eta 1970ean legea... [+]
Japonia, XV. mendea. Espioitzan eta hilketa ezkutuetan espezializatutako eliteko talde militarra sortu zen. Edo horixe uste du behintzat Stephen Turnbull historialari britainiarrak. Beste aditu batzuen ustez, askoz lehenago sortu ziren ninjak, duela 2.300-2.500 urte inguru. Eta... [+]
Eskultura grekoerromatarrek bere garaian zuten itxurak ez du zerikusirik gaurkoarekin. Erabilitako materiala ez zuten bistan uzten. Orain badakigu kolore biziz margotzen zituztela eta jantziak eta apaingarriak ere eransten zizkietela. Bada, Cecilie Brøns Harvard... [+]
Chão de Lamas-eko zilarrezko objektu sorta 1913an topatu zuten Coimbran (Portugal). Objektu horien artean zeltiar jatorriko zilarrezko bi ilargi zeuden. Bi ilargiak apaingarri hutsak zirela uste izan dute orain arte. Baina, berriki, adituek ilargietan egin zituzten motibo... [+]
Hertfordshire (Ingalaterra), 1543. Henrike VIII.a erregearen eta Ana Bolenaren alaba Elisabet hil omen zen Hatfield jauregian, 10 urte besterik ez zituela, sukarrak jota hainbat aste eman ondoren. Kat Ashley eta Thomas Parry zaintzaileek, izututa, irtenbide bitxia topatu omen... [+]
Luxorren, Erregeen Haranetik gertu, hilobi garrantzitsu baten sarrera eta pasabide nagusia aurkitu zituzten 2022an. Orain, alabastrozko objektu batean Tutmosis II.aren kartutxoa topatu dute (irudian). Horrek esan nahi du hilobi hori XVIII. dinastiako faraoiarena... [+]
AEB, 1900eko azaroaren 6a. William McKinley (1843-1901) bigarrenez aukeratu zuten AEBetako presidente. Berriki, Donald Trump ere bigarrenez presidente aukeratu ondoren, McKinleyrekiko miresmen garbia agertu du.
Horregatik, AEBetako mendirik altuenari ofizialki berriro... [+]