Of course, plenty of times we’ve seen ideas like this in comic strips that actually do already exist.
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One of Martha Grimes’ books has a character who does this . . . I thought it a good idea at that time. Luckily, my service dog’s vest gets her into almost every where I go, except dr. and dentist office.
Andréa, I’d read both strips, but somehow the synchronicity went right by me.
Dog walking services . . .
It might be the cartoonist thinks its a bad idea as the customers will feel guilt pressured into taking the snooty service they ddon’t want.
Still a pretty good idea.
This panel reminded me of a short story by Heinlein called “We Also Walk Dogs, about a large company that also advertised its “small” services.
There are department stores in Scotland who provide this service for women to drop off their husbands. Not so much for a walk, just down to the guy lounge where the football game is on.
My Idea of the Day: set up a secure place in the lobby of movie theatres for people to leave their phones for charging.
Now to train the dog to save it for the valet to get. Make him earn his keep.
@ Bill – Not where you need it, but I’ve recently run into two completely different solutions at German airports (both for free):
1) High-tech: A little stand with about a dozen compartments. You open one of the doors, and plug the phone into one of the four or five charging plugs provided, then enter a PIN and close the door. When you need to leave, you enter the PIN again, and retrieve the phone.
2) The second solution was a series of open slot receptacles placed at about ten foot intervals along a fifty foot wall. The slots were marked with a little mobile phone icon, but there were no wires. At first glance, I wondered whether this was some sort of ultimate high-tech contact-free charging device, but it turned out to be extremely low-tech: each slot was positioned two feet above a pair of existing wall sockets. The airport was simply making sure people would not leave their phones lying on the floor when they plugged them in.
Kilby, I’ve seen both of these Stateside as well, and not only in airports. The first, I saw in a Walgreen’s in Chicago (though I can’t imagine how much you can charge your phone in the time you’re in a Walgreen’s).
The advantage of the movie theatre idea specifically is that it incentivises people not to use their phone in the theatre.
“. . . customers will feel guilt pressured into taking the snooty service they don’t want.” Isn’t that a marketing tactic?
padraig – sure, if the husbands are not rushing the wives, they shop more and the store makes more money.
Bill – if they leave their phones in the lobby, how will they keep checking them during the movie?
That’s the point: offer a full charge as an incentive for them to part with their phones for 2 hours.
Comics I Don't Understand 
One of Martha Grimes’ books has a character who does this . . . I thought it a good idea at that time. Luckily, my service dog’s vest gets her into almost every where I go, except dr. and dentist office.
https://www.gocomics.com/lio/2018/10/24
Andréa, I’d read both strips, but somehow the synchronicity went right by me.
Dog walking services . . .
It might be the cartoonist thinks its a bad idea as the customers will feel guilt pressured into taking the snooty service they ddon’t want.
Still a pretty good idea.
This panel reminded me of a short story by Heinlein called “We Also Walk Dogs, about a large company that also advertised its “small” services.
There are department stores in Scotland who provide this service for women to drop off their husbands. Not so much for a walk, just down to the guy lounge where the football game is on.
My Idea of the Day: set up a secure place in the lobby of movie theatres for people to leave their phones for charging.
Now to train the dog to save it for the valet to get. Make him earn his keep.
@ Bill – Not where you need it, but I’ve recently run into two completely different solutions at German airports (both for free):
1) High-tech: A little stand with about a dozen compartments. You open one of the doors, and plug the phone into one of the four or five charging plugs provided, then enter a PIN and close the door. When you need to leave, you enter the PIN again, and retrieve the phone.
2) The second solution was a series of open slot receptacles placed at about ten foot intervals along a fifty foot wall. The slots were marked with a little mobile phone icon, but there were no wires. At first glance, I wondered whether this was some sort of ultimate high-tech contact-free charging device, but it turned out to be extremely low-tech: each slot was positioned two feet above a pair of existing wall sockets. The airport was simply making sure people would not leave their phones lying on the floor when they plugged them in.
Kilby, I’ve seen both of these Stateside as well, and not only in airports. The first, I saw in a Walgreen’s in Chicago (though I can’t imagine how much you can charge your phone in the time you’re in a Walgreen’s).
The advantage of the movie theatre idea specifically is that it incentivises people not to use their phone in the theatre.
“. . . customers will feel guilt pressured into taking the snooty service they don’t want.” Isn’t that a marketing tactic?
padraig – sure, if the husbands are not rushing the wives, they shop more and the store makes more money.
Bill – if they leave their phones in the lobby, how will they keep checking them during the movie?
That’s the point: offer a full charge as an incentive for them to part with their phones for 2 hours.