Word: instants
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Americans may value such business virtues as courtesy, reliability, economy and all that, but in the end, what really dazzles them is speed. How else to explain such an affinity for one-hour photo developing, instant replay, touch- tone phones and suntanning parlors? America's entrepreneurs have responded to that imperative with some of the world's fastest products and services, ranging from frozen food to instant bank loans. Like Domino's Pizza, many U.S. corporate empires were built for people in a hurry: McDonald's, Federal Express, Polaroid and Southland Corp., the operator of 7-Eleven stores. "America values...
...culture of quickness has inspired smaller operators to accelerate their pace as well. In Los Angeles, for example, time-conscious consumers can flip through the telephone book to find Speedy Attorney Service, Fast Glass & Screens, Rapid Brake Service, Instant Wedding Chapel and Swift Secretarial Service. The dry-cleaning listings of any phone directory look like a thesaurus entry for the word fast, including the omnipresent 1-Hour Martinizing shops and archrivals with such names as Prompt Cleaners, Presto Cleaners and One-Hour Lusterizing...
America's love of instantaneousness probably stemmed from its rush to conquer great distances, at first with the pony express and clipper ships, later with microwaves and satellites. In the consumer marketplace, speediness became an ever stronger selling point. The first mass-marketed instant coffee, the G. Washington brand, appeared in 1909. The next year Florist's Transworld Delivery started sending flowers by wire. The spirit of hustle permeated pop culture, from the World War II-era song lyric, "Arthur Murray taught me dancing in a hurry," to the Road Runner cartoon character who always leaves Wile E. Coyote...
While there is no shortage of commercial satellites in space--off which signals for TV, telephone and even printing plants can be bounced for instant arrival at distant points--the cost of launching replacements is rising because of the U.S.'s launch failures. A few U.S. companies have shifted from the shuttle to Europe's Ariane system, operated by the French from launch pads in French Guiana. Arianespace has raised its prices by nearly one-third, to $35 million a launch, and has at least 29 orders on its books, worth some $1.2 billion. But the consortium has only eight...
Kelly, one of the masterminds behind the cagers' "Ivy League Shuffle" rap video and an instant spark off the bench, helped Harvard to a share of its first-ever Ivy League basketball title this past season...