Profiteers turn Y2K hype into a golden sales opportunity

Survivalists, publishers and artists all vying for a piece of the action

Thursday, April 15, 1999 LARRY McSHANE The Associated Press New York -- The end of the world coming with Y2K. Or maybe it's not coming; perhaps the year 2000 will be one long, Bacchanalian blast. Either way, all major credit cards will be accepted. Before the calendars turn from 1999 to 2000, countless cash registers will ring in the new year. Who's getting the action? Survivalists: The "apocalypse soon" crowd have a wide variety of products to sample. Everything from generators, to water purifiers, to TVP (textured vegetable protein) meals are being offered. Entrepreneurs: The words "Year 2000" have been trademarked, along with the numbers "01-01-00." Expect plenty of items festooned with both logos. The market is already filling with items from $6 (U.S.) key rings to $24.95 countdown clocks and $99 millennial champagne flutes. Publishers and producers: There are enough Y2K books to fill a small library, with a similar number of videotapes. Among the millennium's stars on tape are televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. Artists (or at least the artist formerly known as Prince): Peeved that his former label would reap the financial benefits of his prescient 1999, the Artist has redone the tune for his own label. "There's a lot of hype, and hype sells," says David Wachspress, head of the school of management at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. "People can make money, and people will capitalize." But even the most ardent investors acknowledge that the opportunity will stretch, at best, through to December, 2000. That, they hope, should be long enough. "This is going to be the single largest event in our lives," promises businessman Bob Guberman, who spent a small fortune purchasing the worldwide trademark for "Year 2000." "We will never go through anything like this again." Thanks to Mr. Guberman, we will not go through it without "Year 2000" lapel pins, baseball caps, playing cards and prepaid phone cards. His "Year 2000" casino chips will soon be arriving in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. He has more than 3.6 million pieces of product now ready for sale. He would rather not discuss sales figures. But if he doesn't turn a profit, he says, "have me committed." The folks who brought you Monica's Story are grabbing a piece of the action, too. America's publishers have provided endless riffs on the impact of the approaching century. There's Mongo's Y2K Survival Plan for the Complete Idiot!, Y2K: It's Already Too Late, The Y2K Citizen's Action Guide and the understated Panic Now! The Y2K Millennium Bug Will Affect You! The panic mode is higher than you might think. Ace Hardware Corp., with 5,100 stores in the United States, can't fill any more orders for gas-powered generators, according to a spokeswoman. Much of the Y2K trade comes from those who opt to act, not count. A Montana-based company, Supplies4Y2K, offers 12-month food packages ($1,119 includes the book Cookin' With Home Storage);water purifiers ($345 for the PureFlow 2000); non-hybrid seeds ($60 for 26 proven vegetable varieties); even a "Solar Hand-Cranked Radio-Flashlight" (currently available as part of a special $1,595 survivalist package). Folks are lining up around the block for a shot at this stuff, says Supplies4Y2K president Bo Mauiri, who was working as a headhunter when he decided to open his Internet business last April. Within four months, he quit his job to peddle Y2K products. Initially, he received "three or four calls a week," he recalls. "Now it's hundreds every day." The Web site went from no more than 10 hits daily, to thousands. How much money is Mr. Mauiri making? "My goal is just to make enough to have my own food supply after Y2K," he says with a laugh.

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), April 16, 1999

Answers

THE OPTIMIST......Unknown

The optimist fell ten stories.

At each window bar

He shouted to his friends:

"All right so far!"

-- Poetry Lover (Verse@Poems.com), April 16, 1999.

The Associated Press. Now there's a surprise.

-- Vic (Roadrunner@compliant.com), April 16, 1999.

...yup, fellow paranoids=start buying those supplies now for the year 10,000 rollover..., meanwhile, my basement's all set. Save a few cans from the current sales for the prezident, yuk yuk

-- churchorganist (musicswede@webtv.net), April 16, 1999.

Poetry Lover,

Y2K Amateur, Kid and Prole will be lying face down on the deck.....

Yelling everything looks OK so far!!

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), April 16, 1999.

We should all be grateful to Y2K Pro. Even though he realizes that us Y2K gloom-n-doomers are pathetically stupid, still he tries to help elevate us to his level.

THANK-YOU Y2K Pro!!! I can only dream about having the in-depth knowledge of the world that you have!!!

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), April 16, 1999.

I should add that the real suckers are those who blithely accept the pap they're spoonfed by the AP and its ilk.

-- Vic (Roadrunner@compliant.com), April 16, 1999.

Interesting article. It's nice to know that more people are getting ready, even if they are called "suckers" by the pollys.

I was a little confused by the juxtaposition of Y2K survival preps with "$99 millennial champagne flutes". I don't believe that is on anybody's prep list. Or, did I miss something? Could it be some DGIs are planning a VERY expensive New Year's party? Why lump them in with the doomers, then?

Even for a polly article, this one is a bit disjointed.

-- Margaret (janssm@aol.com), April 16, 1999.

*****Y2K CULTISTS AND CON ARTISTS MAKE ALL THE Y2K HYPE!*****

-- PT (or4t@06d.dyl), April 16, 1999.

Real people, committed to preparing for any kind of disaster ahead of time will not buy from hucksters, and they will not buy things they do not need. Want and need are not the same. I live in Earthquake Central. Only 1-2% of the population say they have preparations for even three days of disruption due to major earthquake. I think, without research, mind you, that this probably will continue to translate into wide-scale population non-preparation, despite what the media's so-called expert journalists write about being duped. The posting of this is as non sequitor as any other media article about people who prepare to survive disasters.

Is it you, Y2K Pro who asks why preparers tell others to prepare? What the motivation is? What is your motive for insisting that people not prepare for any eventuality? My grandparents, adults during the Great Depression, would not have agreed with you. Can you really justify telling people that trouble will not happen, and that they should just live like village idiots, with ignorance as their bliss? It's really okay with me if YOU don't prepare. What bothers me is your telling other people not to prepare...it is dishonest, no matter what the motivation for your dishonesty.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), April 16, 1999.

Link

8.)Who are the most despised and respected persons on this forum?

Despised: currently maybe Y2K Pro

8. Y2K Pro

Despised: Y2K Pro.

I despise the Y2K Pro

The biggest asshole is a tie between Y2K Prozac and Mutha Natcha.

Despised: Y2K Prole.

Despised, Y2K Pro.

Y2kPro and Norm are the most despised

people like Y2Kpro and Norm

diETeR DEspISEs aLL FOoLS

-- Wiseguy (got@it.gov), April 16, 1999.

Ah, don't lump diETeR with the rest of them...he is no fool...just plays one here... :-)

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), April 16, 1999.

And that sucker would be????? ding ding... answer in the form of a question now..... Who would be Y2K Pro? ...... Correct!!!!! We have a winner!

-- (guess@who.com), April 16, 1999.

When I choose my friends that I associate with, I make sure they are people who think like me. Y2K Pro associates with people on the internet who do not think like him and in fact hate his guts!

This Y2K Pro must be a real idiot who does not know how to choose his friends! I'm betteing that his wife deep down also hates his guts! His kids also must think he's a jerk!

In fact the thousands of people who read his crap think he's a complete fool!

-- smitty (smitty@sandiego.com), April 16, 1999.

I HATE YOU CRAZY BASTARDS AND I HOPE YOU ALL DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH. YOU CRAZY MOTHER F***ERS ARE GOING TO BRING THE ECONOMY DOWN ON YOUR OWN. I HATE YOU SON OF A BITCHES LIKE THE CLAP. I HATE YOU !!!!!!!!

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), April 17, 1999.

THat'S My LinE YoU PRIck!!!!!!! FInd yOUr oWn, yOu loSEr buTTpLug Y2K PRo faKEr JAckASS!!!!!!!

-- Dieter (questions@toask.com), April 17, 1999.

*Out of lurk mode*

Is that you JERRY?

*Return to lurk mode*

-- c (c@c.c), April 17, 1999.

Doc Paulie

-- aware (and@then.theres), April 17, 1999.

y2kpro---- Did you run out of Pozac? I always thought you were the kind and understanding type.

-- SCOTTY (BLehman202@aol.com), April 17, 1999.

Hang on, what makes you so sure Y2K Pro is a guy?

-- Just wondering (JW@?.com), April 17, 1999.

He's not a guy he's a Prairie Dog!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), April 17, 1999.

ROFLMAO!!!!

Andy, Phil G's software picked up on your prarie dog comment and may have given us our first ever webcam view of the y2k kid...check it out for yourself:

http://photo.net/photo/pcd2359/dog-water-2.tcl

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), April 17, 1999.

Scotty!

What the hell is "pozac"?

1.) Something GIs ingest before they bug-out

2.) What Andy puts on his rash

3.) Something INVARiably stupid smokes before he makes death threats.

Pick just one...

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), April 17, 1999.

Pozac is the new sewer bacteria.
Mr. K

-- Mr. Kennedy (here@home.tonight), April 17, 1999.

Arlin,

ROFLMAO!!!!

Cute isn't he...

BUT he is not the Prairie Dog that y2k IS...

y2k Prairie Dog resembles a gopher, a little pesky critter that lives in wasteland in the USA, lives in a hole and pops up every now and then for a sniff.

That's y2k Prairie Dog :)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), April 18, 1999.

Ya know Y2K Pro, I have tried to ignore the results of the despised thread, since you and I have been known to, well, disagree on the Y2K issue. But now, I must ask you, how does this make you feel? Why are you still here, spurting your know-it-all attitude, being a "Y2K project manager, for the aviation industry", but when asked many times to show us that you have at least a clue, you blow it off, come back with the Gary North view of the world, and keep on truckin'. What are you trying to do here? The entire forum knows that you are a bad joke. Why do you continue to piss us off? There are hundreds of other forums on the internet, where you could, maybe, find some poeple that like you. What is your motive??? <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), April 18, 1999.

Sysman,

Regarding your question about Y2K Pro's motive.

Common answer: Glutton for punishment.

Clinical answer: deep seated subconscious masochistic imperatives.

And let us not forget that old observation: If I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all.

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), April 18, 1999.

Hey, we're going to bring the economy down! Wow. A perfectly sound economy, not a thing wrong with it, nothing inherently precarious about fractional-reserve banking or anything - and yet we're going to crash it, huh? Start the stampede, groundlessly?

Panic cannot start if people are successful in doing what they set out to do. Rumors are instantly quashed by first-hand experience: "Well, I ran down to the bank/store/gas station and I didn't have any problem..." If/when they are unable to complete transactions or purchases, then the word will spread.
Cause, then effect.

-- Grrr (grrr@grrr.net), April 19, 1999.