How about a Fribble instead?

Years ago, I went into a Friendly’s restaurant, hoping for a chocolate shake. The kid behind the counter (and the only employee in the store at that point) had a name badge that said “Joe the Trainee.” No kidding. Figuring this wasn’t too hard, I ordered my shake. And Joe froze. No one had shown him how to make a chocolate shake. He slowly started digging through training manuals and menus, looking for some clue how to fill my order. After some five minutes of floundering, Joe did the only thing he could think to do and asked if I’d take a Fribble instead. I said sure. As it turns out, that’s what Friendly’s calls its chocolate shakes.

I was reminded of Joe the Trainee while out shopping for a birthday gift for my older daughter today. I was looking for a computer game and noticed a merchandising display for the Nintendo Wii, complete with what looked like a packaged system. Given how hard it is to get a Wii, I asked the sales dude if the store actually had one for sale. He scoffed, “No way, man. But you can have all the PS3’s you want.” He pointed at a stack of five or six consoles stacked neatly nearby, untouched.

The obvious difference between Joe’s Fribble and the gamer dude’s PS3 is that the first satisfied my need. Leaving aside the sales tactics in game stores, Sony’s got a real problem on its hands. It’s not making chocolate shakes. And it’s not making Fribbles either.