(The title is a reference to a now defunct website that was big back in 2004/8 for the Presidential Elections in the US - it's now part of Daily Kos which is still probably the best clearinghouse for American politics)
Today I'm leaving Connecticut after 4 days and heading to the Midwestern state of Ohio - a classic bellweather swing-state in American politics. I'm excited to be heading into one of the centres of political action in America but also really sad to leave Connecticut. It's an incredibly beautiful state and one that I feel I've barely scraped the surface of. As outlined in my post the other day, part of it are essentially commuter-belt for New York but where I was staying in Glastonbury, near Hartford, it's lush and verdant and felt like a place I could easily live.
I headed off early this morning to get to Providence airport and was very glad to hand back the enormo-car that I've been driving the last four days. Given I hadn't planned to do that much driving on this trip I'm a bit frustrated that I've covered 700 miles in those four days. Some of that was necessary trips to and from the airport, but I also made an unplanned trip back to NYC (necessitating a drive to New Haven to catch the commuter train) and then a 6 hours round-trip to New Jersey (more on that below). Still, at least I've seen some of the country!
I've been staying the last few days with Michele and her husband Gary via Servas. Gary works as lawyer and Michele is part of an organisation fighting for access to healthcare for all residents of Connecticut. It was fascinating to hear about the challenges of healthcare for Americans first-hand. For example, Michele and Gary's family pay around $800 a month for healthcare insurance but even that hasn't saved them from around $12,000 in un-insured costs so far this year. It puts any gripes we might have the NHS into real perspective. Michele and Gary and their two children (Garrison and Vivian) were excellent hosts and I really felt lucky to be able to spend some time with them in their home. I'm only sorry that I had two very early starts and finishes when I was there so didn't get to spend much time with them.
The trip to New Jersey was set up for me by the Boots USA to meet one of the Regional Managers for the products that we have in Target stores here in the US. Rachel was a great host and very tolerant of me being over an hour late for our meeting. (The journey should have taken two hours and took four and quarter in the end thanks to an accident and then roadworks. Not fun). We took in a couple of Target stores and also visited Ulta and a CVS pharmacy. It was odd to see such familiar brands as No7 and Botanics on the shelves in a country thousands of miles away from their home but it was heartening to see women responding to the brands in much the same way as they do in the UK (see my thoughts here on that). It was also great to spend some time getting to know Target as a retail organisation. I hadn't realised that they also sold normal groceries and were also branching out into some high-end electronics and other equipment.
Some photos of one of the Targets - some ideas for the Baby team back in D90 I hope.
The thing I found hardest to enjoy was the physical layout and transport we had to navigate. As discussed here, I think that transport defines a place for its residents and the way that the transport options (or lack of) defined this part of New Jersey wasn't to my taste. Two things that really resonated for me;
- There's no defined centre of anywhere - it's strip mall followed by strip mall with a short drive to the next strip-mall. One of the places we went was actually called, 'Bergen Town Centre' but is obviously wasn't the centre of anything - a very dislocating experience.
- People too the driving to ludicrous extremes - we got into the car at one point to go to the next store and I thought we were going up the road for a while. Nope - we drove a total of 300 metres to the next shop and parked up again. It look longer than walking would have done! Insane. And don't get me started on the drive-through cash-machines and off-licenses!
So I was glad to get back in the car (I appreciate the irony) and return to rural Connecticut. I'm writing this in Providence airport waiting for my flight to Cincinnati where I'm looking forward to experiencing an American Oktoberfest, taking in a baseball game and also meeting with colleagues from P&G who are a major employment presence in the city.
When I was in Norwalk, CT with the Boots team this week the people I were speaking to all kept referring to 'the City'. I was confused by what they meant so in the end I asked. Turns out they were referring to New York. Geographically I guess that makes sense as it's only 50miles and an hour by train to get there but I hadn't really clocked that residents/workers in this area would look to New York as their major city. It makes loads more sense when you look at it on the map. I mentioned this at another meeting I was in today and this then led to a discussion of the 'Tri-State Area' - ie NY, CT and NJ - and how most of these areas look to New York as their centre. An interesting summary of this here. Again, makes loads of sense when you think about it but it reminded me of my blog on the boundaries of Nottingham and how boundaries influence policy and peoples' perceptions of where they live. I guess I'm grasping at something close to a 'travel-to-work' area which is used a fair bit in the UK.
This all became very relevent for me today (Friday) as I needed to go back into New York from where I am staying in rural Connecticut for a meeting. This involved a pretty early start and a drive to New Haven, CT (45mins) to catch the train (90mins+) into New York's Grand Central Terminal. From the people I've spoken to this isn't an unusual commute and the fact that the Dunkin' Donuts (love!) concession was open from 4am at New Haven station probably confirms this!
Somewhat bleary eyed I made it to Vanderbilt Avenue, just next to Grand Central for a meeting at the New York offices of British America Business. This is a non-profit organisation designed to foster positive business relations for UK companies operating in the US (and vice-versa for the UK offices on Brook Street in London). The meeting was really interesting - it's an organisation I've not heard of before but they were able to engage with me about the sort of challenges that UK businesses face when setting up in the US and also had some interesting context on what New York in particular is doing to attract start-up technology companies (trying to lure them away from Silicon Valley is a big challenge!).
A good discussion but then I had to get back on the train back to New Haven and then drive back to where I'm staying. Tiring - don't think I could do that every day!
The saving grace was again the hugely warm welcome from my Servas hosts and the view below from the balcony of their very comfortable house.
I've spent the day with the Boots USA team - these are the guys that are charged with distributing and marketing certain Boots branded products in the US - products like No7, Botanics, Expert and Extracts. They're based in Norwalk, CT so I jumped into my enormous minivan hire-car this morning just before 8am to do the 90 minute drive down.
I stayed last night with a great family in South Glastonbury in rural Connecticut. I found this place to stay through
Servas (you can read a bit more about this at my previous post - A Place To Lay My Head). Lisa and Wayne are my hosts along with their teenage son, Noah. They are so warm and welcoming, I couldn't have asked for more from them. A great chat over dinner and bottle of wine about the latest political happenings in the Presidential race (Romney's "47% comment" is getting a lot of play here - I wonder if it is in the UK?).
Anyway, the day with the US Boots team was incredibly inspiring. I met pretty much the whole team (which is only perhaps a dozen strong) and I was really impressed with the way that they represent the Boots brand so passionately and clearly when they're based thousands of miles away from Nottingham and the home of the brand. A few randoms thoughts that I jotted down during the day;
- If you've got a brand that is truly customer-centric then it can easily cross borders - womens' beauty needs are pretty universal
- The passion that I saw came from experiencing the using the products - none of the people I spoke to knew about Boots before they started working here but could all talk from the heart about how great the products were and how important the trust and heritage that the Boots brand represents are.
- Someone said to me before I came on this trip that the American people are generally, 'hard-wired to help' and I really experienced that today - a whole fay of meetings and interactions set up for someone they'd never met before and who they had no expectation of anything back in return.
The US focused website is here - gives a good flavour of the way that the UK marketing materials are translated to a similar but different audience.
The driving to get to and from Norwalk was OK - the minivan I'm driving hasn't got a blind-spot so much as a blind-entire-side: you have to crane your neck into the most ridiculous contortions to make sure you're not about to side-swipe someone when changing lanes. That aside and some brief slightly sticky traffic it was pretty smooth.
I'm back to NYC tomorrow for a meeting with The British-American Business Council which should be interesting. If I've got time I will pop into the New York Public Library which was closed at the weekend when I was in the city.
