In the hay day of Detroit's auto prowess, it wasn't common knowledge, but loyalty customers to a brand could go to a depot lot to select their new cars after their dealer made the appointment. An example of that process went something like this: You are at your dealer. You want to buy or lease the latest of Detroit's hot new car. The dealer says that it will take 12 weeks to order that car and that doesn't include shipping. But if you were a loyal customer to that dealer, he would send you to a depot lot after making your appointment. You go to the depot lot. They ask what color or what model you were looking for and then load you up in a golf cart and drive you "out back". Out back was a lot about the size of the Nebraska Furniture Marts store and distribution center that opened in The Colony, Texas. That's Texas style. That is about 22-football fields in size. So you say you want a blue car with 4 doors. The cart takes you down to row 47B and as far as the eye could see (so-to-speak) all you could see were blue cars with four doors. In short. on a depot lot, you are going to find what you want. Guar-an-teed.
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| It's the white one....oh, wait.... |
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| Or, the red ones..... |
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| Oh, it's blue........ What's it's a KW,no it's a Peterbilt. OH, so many colors, so many makes.....thank goodness I didn't find the Diamond Rio dealer!.They are all winners!! |
It's been a while since I enjoyed the thrills and excitement of such an adventure. Egos ran higher then than they do today. But during the last month going down to the bridge complex to check on the water levels of the Trinity River, that old excitement began to return. Trip after trip I would pass this stretch of roadway. That is where I would slow down, stay out of traffic and just gaze at what I was seeing. It was awesome.
Yesterday, I make that trip again to see the waters finally receding after a month since Mother Nature turned off the taps. That stretch of roadway is Irving Boulevard beyond the renamed part known as Riverside Drive. It's beyond the Market District. It's beyond the Medical District. It's about midway between downtown Dallas and downtown Irving, but oh, it's that "Miracle Mile" of big trucks.
That
miracle mile of logistics inhales and exhales commerce on such a big scale, it virtually goes unnoticed as cars whiz by on this stretch of road. Only old marketing executives could appreciate finding such a gold mine and that creative approach to business stirs again from terrain memory.
