A Product You Didn't Know You Needed ... Or, Did You?

I'm a sucker for retail.  When I travel I love to go into stores to see what people are buying.  It's especially interesting to do this in tourist areas, because tourists buy the darnedest things.

Recently we were visiting Hawaii Island and in the souvenir shops - among the standard trinkets and trash - I found a display of ... Spam flavored macadamia nuts.  Bizarre?  Well, yes and no.  I certainly don't think it's a mainstream product.  I certainly wouldn't put it out for guests.  But one thing that visitors are looking for when they buy things on vacation is the offbeat ... the unconventional ... the demonstration that they have been someplace surprising or different.

It so happens that Hawaii probably has the highest per capita consumption of Spam of any state.  The reasons are lost in history, but probably relate to the difficulty of acquiring fresh meat in a set of islands isolated from the rest of the world.  This was probably especially true during WWII when Spam became part of the fabric of Hawaii.  Our kids it Spam musubi (Spam wrapped in rice and nori).  And there's even a spam festival in Waikiki called the "Spam Jam," featuring Spam recipe contests and even Spam carving.

So a visitor to Hawaii that wants to demonstrate that he/she is "in the know" about the islands might buy Spam Mac Nuts as a novelty item.  It's certainly a conversation-starter. 

Think of the other products that you may have seen in tourist shops around the world.

I distinctly remember doing a fueling stop on the island of Biak on the way to Indonesia.  The island is known for primitive tribes that you may have seen in National Geographic magazine.  In the shop at the airport, they were selling penis sheaths.  Yes, penis sheaths.  These are gourds that the native men tie onto the penis for some cultural reason.  I looked at this display in the airport shop and wondered who ever would buy such a thing as a souvenir.  But when I boarded the plane, I saw quite a number being taken home as a remembrance of Biak.  I'm wondering if some of these are hanging over someone's mantel.

Moral of the story:  when selling remembrances, the unusual can be a selling feature.