Dyson Vacuum - BETTER

This is probably the first product I ever truly evangelized. I've owned the standard yellow Dyson vacuum for about 4 years now and it really is the best vacuum I've ever owned. The mere fact that I feel compelled to write about a vacuum should say a lot. If you know anyone else who has one of these Dyson vacuums, I'm sure you heard all about how great it is before.

You could be staring at what seems to be a clean carpet, run your Dyson over it, and be amazed by how much extra dust and dirt ends up in the canister. Amazing stuff.

Well, I'm pleased to tell you that Dyson has amazing customer service as well. About 2 years ago, a piece of the extendable hose ripped. I used it for a while like that, assuming it would be a big hassle to replace it. When I eventually got around to calling Dyson to buy a new hose, I was in for a big surprise. The representative took my name, address and the type of Dyson I owned. He asked what part was broken and then apologized and told me the part was on its way. That's right. I was not charged for the new hose.

This is what it means to have good customer service. By empowering their customer service reps to truly help customers, Dyson has ensured I will be a loyal customer for a long time. On top of that, 2 years later I'm still talking about that experience. How much did the hose cost? Probably $10. That's not much to pay for lifetime customer. How many other companies would pay the $10? Not too many, unfortunately.

James Dyson and the Dyson family of vacuums get another big BETTER from me.

A&P Supermarket - Expired Food on Shelves - BITTER

It is becoming more and more common to find expired food on supermarket shelves these days. At my local A&P, on numerous occassions I've had to bring items to customer service because they were already expired. And these were not perishables. I'm talking about boxes of tea, bottles of mustard and things like that. Seriously, how many people check the expiration date on a box of tea bags?

I've been through the A&P in the middle of the night so I know that they have a whole bunch of people working stock, so I'm surprised I've personally found numerous instances of expired foods. There are tens of thousands of food items in a supermarket of which I would normally shop for less than 100. Imagine how many items are actually expired.

Because I've had to change brands due to my preference being expired, A&P gets a BITTER.

Learning Express - BITTER

I'll start by saying I really like the Learning Express toy store. They have really unique items and, even though they are a chain, they have the feel of a local store. 

That said, I was in one of their stores a few weeks ago and had an experience that left me a bit sour. My wife had waited on line for a while to pay for some gift items and completed our purchase, but I decided I wanted to buy another item. I had commented to my wife that the line seemed to take a very long time. She told me it was because of the way that it was being handled.

Basically, the clerks were offering a gift wrapping service, free of charge, to all customers. Of course, many were making use of it. Unfortunately, the same people ringing up sales were doing the wrapping. This caused an inevitable and highly predictable backup on the line. As a result, I skipped the additional purchase and thought I'd come back another time. I haven't been back and have since decided I can live without that one item.

A much smarter decision would have been for one or two of the clerks to do the register sales and then transition customers to a separate waiting area for the gift wrap, which would be done by an employee not taking sales. This would keep the customers happier who just wanted to pay. I doubt very much that customers who wanted the free gift wrap would have minded waiting just a bit.

Since the lack of organization cost them a sale, I have to give the Learning Express a BITTER.

Natural by Nature Grass Fed Milk - BETTER

Natural by Nature is a provider of grass fed dairy products, based near Lancaster, PA. 

Earlier this year, I read Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" and it really changed the way I thought about food. I already buy a lot of organic foods, but in case you didn't know, the "organic" label on a lot of products means less every day.  Standards are being relaxed and products that are less than 100% organic can still be certified organic. The same goes for the statement, "No Hormones or Antibiotics". It really doesn't mean anything as even animals like cows who are given antibiotics do not typically get milked during this time anyway.

The expression goes, "You are what you eat." Well, apparently we are what we eat ate too. And the basic food fed to most animals these days is completely unnatural. Unless you see, "grass fed", the odds are that the source of the product you are about to buy is eating corn. It is this unnatural diet that typically leads to common illness in animals requiring the use of hormones and antibiotics. Animals that feed on grass are healthy and contain more of the things humans actually need than corn fed ones.

From the Natural by Nature website: "Cows are meant to eat grass, not grain. Pastured cows are healthier and less stressed. At NDP, we strive to make fresh pasture the main diet for our cows. Our farmers own and operate small family farms in Lancaster County, PA. Together they form LOFCO, the Lancaster Organic Farmers Cooperative, which is committed to producing organic, grass-fed milk."

In addition, Natural by Nature milk is not UHT (Ultra High Temperature) Pastuerized. It is pastuerized at a high enough temperature to kill off anything harmful, but not high enough to kill everything good too. Most organic milks by companies like Horizon may seem really good on the shelf but we're still talking about grain fed cows and nutrient deprived milk.

On top of the health benefits, I can honestly say that the Natural by Nature milk (whole) is some of the best tasting milk I've ever had. It makes me feel good to drink it. Maybe its the principle of the thing that makes it taste so good but I really don't care. I'll pay the premium price (about $4.99 for a half gallon) and know that I'm buying the best for me, my family, and the environment.

If you live in Northeast New Jersey and would like to try this milk, visit Farm Fresh Dairy for home delivery. Yes, that right.  You can have the milkman bring it to you.

Natural by Nature gets a very big BETTER.

Softsoap Wastes Soap - BITTER

I bought a container of Softsoap liquid hand soap recently. It comes in a pump which is clear. A nice touch since you can see how much soap is left. Unfortunately, the little hose that sucks up the liquid soap isn't long enough to reach the bottom of the container. This means that with about 10% of the soap left, the pump doesn't work anymore. Not only is it useless at this point, it does nothing but frustrate the person trying to get at that last bit of soap.

You now have two choices: 

1. Take off the pump and start pouring the soap into your hand, which will likely be an annoyingly slow process while the water is running and hands are slippery.
   
2. Get a new soap and throw out the old one with a little soap still in it.

The average person is likely to go with throwing out the old soap, thereby wasting almost 1/2 ounce of soap (in a 7.5 oz. container). If you used a new Softsoap every 2 weeks or so, which is very likely, that's roughly 13 oz. or almost 2 full containers of soap a year.

I'm not going to speculate, but that sounds like a lot of soap waste generated every year, presumably because someone didn't want to make the hose 1/4 inch longer.

Softsoap earns my first BITTER.