Johns Hopkins Magazine -- April 1999
Johns 
     Hopkins Magazine Home

APRIL 1999
CONTENTS

RETURN TO
BREADTH OF A SALESMAN

AUTHOR'S NOTEBOOK

P U B L I C    P O L I C Y    A N D    I N T E R N A T I O N A L
A F F A I R S

"Breadth of a Salesman"
Author's Notebook
By Joanne P. Cavanaugh


You think Wal-Mart is overwhelming . . . try the New Products Showcase & Learning Center. Bob McMath, chronicler of commercial culture, reigns in this kingdom of Mennen arm deodorant and Kibbles & Bits dog food. The day I spent in Ithaca, N.Y. was intense: McMath himself is truly a walking museum of product trivia, and a classic self promoter. And even the 10-plus hours spent perusing the shelves and hearing the stories was only a glimpse of the maelstrom that he and Jean occupy nearly 365 days a year. The two create a one-of-a-kind team that has found one of those occupational niches that you always wonder how people stumbled into. Obsession usually has something to do with it.

For McMath, his father's history-John McMath's jousting in the world of mass product marketing in the early, heady days-was clearly the prelude and the cornerstone. Today, walking through McMath's warehouse full of items that seem so entirely random-"Pasta, Potato, Rice, Stuffing-Total 1259" you realize that our paths are not so random afterall.


RETURN TO APRIL 1999 TABLE OF CONTENTS.