You are the type of person who would rather spend a day at the shopping mall than anything else under the sun. Family and friends always look to you to brighten their days with your cheery smile. Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time looking for the new strip mall out on the highway seeking to buy either arch supports for your shoes or an AC adapter that works with your MPG player. Be on the lookout for bottles of barbeque sauce that act TOO innocent. You should consider shopping at stores or businesses beginning with the letter M, but do not buy any products with a serial number or product code containing the number 312755. Your preferred shopping venue is shopping malls. Your special symbol is the asterisk (*).

As a Yellow Chipperoon, you are happy, happy, happy. You enjoy everything about life and about shopping. You love shopping. You love buying. You love spending. You love to compare products and prices. You love the crowds. You love chatting with the store clerks. You love every bit of the buying process. Nothing dissuades you from having a good time shopping, whether you're buying a box of facial tissues or a new house. Does it get any better than spending an afternoon at the shopping mall? No way!

The notion that utility--the satisfaction of wants and needs achieved through the consumption of goods and services--is measured by a ranking of preferences (first, second, third, etc.) that are only comparable on a relative basis. Ordinal utility does not presume that satisfaction is a measurable characteristic of a person, like height or weight, that can be compared against an established benchmark. The contrasting notion is cardinal utility, which is based on a numerical standard.

Complete Entry | Visit the WEB*pedia

Our pedestrian's jaunt through the economy is not, unfortunately, an unrestrained shopping spree for confectioneries, spark plug tools, and Houston, Texas. We have other important errands to run. At the moment we need to hike over to Shady Valley's exclusive provider of cable television services, the Merciless Monolithic Media Masters Cable Television Company, Inc., to inquire about a mysterious fee that appeared last month's bill.

The good news is that the Merciless Monolithic Media Masters (the 4M people) Cable office is a mere 2 miles (3 kilometers for the metrically inclined) from the Shady Valley Central Town Sprawling Hills Shopping Mall. A hop, skip, and a moderately long jump later, our excursion through the economy takes us to the front door of the 4M Cable Television Company where I hope to discover why last month's cable bill included a $3,569 charge for something called "The Vacation Channel." I didn't even know I had a vacation channel. (But, I'm sure it's a great channel, and if I don't have it, then I will certainly subscribe. Please don't disconnect me.)

Of course, because this an afternoon workday, the doors of the 4M office are locked. I can almost make out, through the expensive stained glass windows, what appears to be several Merciless Monolithic Media Masters Cable Television employees, with champaign bottles in hand, dancing on expensive mahogany desks. Let's not disturb them. As they say in the cable business, an upset worker is a disconnected customer.
Tell me more...

Visit the PEDestrian's Guide

-- Norman Cousins, editor, writer

User Feedback