Made with Love

Today, I bought a scarf. On sale, at a chain store. With a coupon. Plus an added discount. A genuine bargain.

The store clerk carefully matched up each edge, smoothing it down into a neat square, before sheathing it in a sheet of tissue paper into which he'd folded a smart pleat down the center.

"Thank you for wrapping that so nicely!" I said, as he slipped it into the mini shopping bag.

"Well, it's silk, it deserves a little love," he replied.

Don't a lot of things?

In France, I'd marveled at the array of packets and parcels into which the store clerks arranged my purchases--both large and small. There was value in taking care.

Aren't most work-related tasks worth doing with at least a little love?

Over lunch one day, a friend looked down at his sandwich ruefully, the smoked turkey flapping half-outside the whole grain bread, more lettuce scattered on the tray than on the bread.

"Some days, they're made with love, some days they aren't," he summed up.

This from a guy who readily admitted that most days, food was little more than fuel for his high-octane workouts.

But people do notice these things. And it all goes into what makes a shopping or eating experience worthwhile.

Care is what sets great companies--and star workers--apart from the rest.

I Heart Sweet Leaf Tea

I admit, it was the Granny cartoon mascot that drew me in one day while at a gourmet market, looking for something to drink with my overpriced lunch.

But one sip of this stuff, and its cane sugar sweetness, and you'll never go back to high-fructose corn syrup sweetened Snapple.

(Digression: I once met a guy who traveled on business with a full case of Snapple Lemon Tea in his luggage - his assistant confirmed that every day he glugged down two bottles of the stuff before his first 8 a.m. meeting and simply could not operate without it.)

Anyway, Sweet Leaf Tea has become my obsession, and while their Lemonade Tea is pretty good, and they have the obligatory Peach and Green Tea versions, their original Sweet Leaf Tea is just spectacular.

Go out and try it!