Climb the Tree for a Dollar
First, a little bit of backstory:
At Price.com the group of developers used to have desks right next to a window that looked out on to a pedestrian traffic heavy street. Seeing so many people walk by all the time, we were bound to come up with some ideas, and the first of these ideas was to glue a quarter to the sidewalk to see who would try to pry it off.
This didn't work so well. Most people ignored the quarter; one guy poured his can of soda on the quarter to loosen the glue's grip, and when that didn't work, crushed the can, and, much like a cave man, used it as a primitive tool to successfully pry up the quarter. His economic skills, much like the caveman, obviously weren't that sharp. Watching a man waste a $0.50 soda to get a quarter was worth a chuckle, but it wasn't as much entertainment as we hoped for.
Presuming that the quarter wasn't getting much play because of its low value, we decided that greater rewards were required for our sidewalk victims. The next logical step was obvious: place a dollar bill in the tree that overhung the sidewalk directly in front of our window. Watch someone try to get it down.
This new initiative required that someone place the dollar bill in the tree. We sent Bob up the tree for a couple of reasons:
-He is a big guy, which meant he was likely to break the tree doing it;
high entertainment potential.
-Climbing a tree is tamer than the time he put tennis balls in his shirt, and stood on the hooker frequented street and blew kisses at passing cars.
-Climbing a tree is also tamer than squeezing an entire bottle of Elmer's white glue into his mouth, and chasing a man taking a nap under our Price.com sign in front of our building, letting the white glue ooze from his mouth.
Bob demonstrates his agility while showing the gentler side.Bob used masking tape to place a dollar bill out of a normal person's reach.
We all gathered around, cameras and eyes fixed, waiting for the next person to recognize their good fortune, only to have their dreams dashed away because of the difficulty in actually getting a hold of their new found fortune.
We continued to wait for at least two weeks. Two weeks.
Here was good money, displayed in public view, 24 hours day, for anyone with even the slightest climbing or jumping skills to take.
The lack of interaction from the pedestrians was troubling. Something needed to be done. As developers, we decided that, like the good information architects we are, that the user, err, pedestrian, was not being offered the correct visual cues. We also guessed that perhaps people were looking at the dollar bill, but it was simply not worth the effort to obtain.
We decided to go out on a limb and double the cash prize. We also felt this was a bit risky, because now our entertainment was going to cost more. Entertainment of x quality at n cost becomes less valuable when the cost is doubled. Risky.
In detail, we placed a "Look Up" sign on the tree trunk, and a "Look Up" sign on the southern approach as well as a "Look Up" sign on the northern approach. Directly beneath the $2.00 was a sign that read "There are two dollar bills in the tree. Take them." We thought our instructions were quite clear.
Two weeks later. Still no takers.
Friday, the end of the third week. Four people take interest. All at the same time!
The time had come. We had been waiting for this for a month and half. We weren't even sure if the dollar bills were legal tender anymore. They had lived a life on the streets. They were probably brittle. It didn't matter. We'd been waiting for this.
We quickly figured out what was about to happen. We had two children, a boy and a girl, and two adult females. One of the adult females didn't seem to be of "normal" status. She could have been mentally impaired, or simply moved really slow. We didn't know for sure, but it was a guess based on her expressions and movements and such. Normally, it's not right to make fun at the expense of the mentally impaired, but there were three other individuals who seemed completely normal, so we only made fun at their expense. And really, it didn't cost them anything. It was our two dollars. Either way, they were going for the money!
The "normal" female subject quickly began to try and figure out how to get the money. The kids were acting like it was Christmas morning and they'd just seen Santa. All the times they heard "Money doesn't grow on trees" was utter crap, because here it was, right in front of their cherubic faces.
The "challenged" female immediately began to shed her backpack. This was a moment when backpacks should be shed. Big things were happening, and they certainly didn't require backbacks.
It seemed that the group was ready to make an attempt at the dollar bill. Backpacks had been shed, jackets were hitting the floor. This was serious business.
The team had come up with a plan. A plan that we soon realized was both fantastically entertaining and scary at the same time.
"They're stacking the child." was uttered under the breath of an onlooker. This was serious business. These people weren't messing around. If a dollar is in the tree, stack the child for goodness sake. Get the money out of there. Risk the safety of the child for a dollar! Place the value of the allmighty American dollar above and beyond your child's well being!
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