Card Categories
3Aug2007
I found myself shopping for a greetings card the other day. This is not something I would normally take a lot of time over. But on this occasion I started noticing the different categories that the cards are divided into. That meant an additional 30 minutes added to the card-buying process as I began looking through them all and typing them into my blackberry.
Of course, you have the usual suspects, which did not surprise me at all:
- Birthday
- Anniversary
- Congratulations
Linked to those you have the “religious” versions for those more pious card-buyers or recipients:
- Birthday (Religious)
- Friend (Religious)
- Sympathy (Religious)
Then I started seeing some particular categories which really made me stop and think – these are actual categories:
- Loss of Dog
- Baby with the Lord
- Minister Appreciation
- Potty Trained Kids
- Missionary Encouragement
- Thinking of You – Miscarriage
In this era of Hallmark-happiness, I guess I should not be surprised at the scope the categories now cover.
This got me thinking about which categories I think there should be for greetings cards. Here are a few:
- Congratulations – First Fight at School
- Comiseration – Ugly Girlfriend
- Congratulations – AIDS Test
- Sympathy – Wife left you for another Woman
Yes. We are living in a era of increasing specialization, whether we speak of IT work, TV reality shows, or greeting cards.
But really shouldn’t there be two – distinctly different – card categories for the AIDS test?
They do seem to have quite a lot of Baby with the Lord cards here on the island. I too was surprised when I saw the sheer number of those at the store.