Chapter: Smart Savers
Japanese grocery stores have a problem. They are often small and therefore don’t have a lot of space to waste. Watermelons, being big and round, waste a lot of space. While most people would simply claim that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it, some Japanese farmers took a different approach to the problem. If the grocery stores wanted more space, they asked themselves: “How can we provide it?”.
It wasn’t long before farmers in the southern Japanese town of Zentsuji found the solution: Make the watermelons square shaped. They found out that if you put a watermelon in a square box while it’s growing, it will take on the shape of the box and grow into a square fruit. The result made the owners of the grocery stores happy since they could now stack the melons on top of each other like boxes. Another benefit was that it was much easier and cost effective to ship the watermelons. Consumers loved them because they took less space in their refrigerators, which are also much smaller in most homes. This also meant that the growers could charge a premium price for them.
Possible Moral
Always look for a better solution. Creating square watermelons was simply a better and more convenient solution. The stores brought attention to a problem they were having and asked if a solution was possible. Remember, however, that it’s impossible to find a better way if you are never asking the question in the first place. Get into the habit of asking yourself: “Is there a better way I could be doing this?” and you will find that there often is.
Story from We All Need Heroes: Stories of the Brave and Foolish.
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