Tom
Charles, some of my first work was in retail, and back in the 70s-80s hiring retail clerks was about as easy as reforming heretics. They paid 3.50 an hour and people willing to work for that and having any product knowledge to speak of, were normally highly critical of products and looking for reasons not to buy stuff. We were the front line workers for the industry and projected our dislike of buying stuff to anyone we met hoping they would trust us, and maybe buy something... I remember one of my mentors passing on the idea that some people actually wanted to spend money and buy stuff, something I though of as a radical idea. As time went by I realized that for many people the activity was the buying of the stuff. Though most people were somewhere between need and shopoholic.

I'm sure it has other origins, but the LV store layout where you don`t run into a clerk until you have made your product selection would have served us well.

My sole experience reviewing something for LV was pretty basic. I emailed the magazine, and outlined my take, I wrote LV and asked for the product, which they (not knowing me from Adam) sent right out for free, only stipulation was that I send a copy of the published article. I did most of the work then the tax treatment on arrows was changed and most people lost interest in making their own and the suppliers stopped selling the stock. The article never came out. I felt like a dishonest schmuck. But I later returned the two generic size dies for the arrow specific ones, without LV saying anything about my turning in dies, years later. I guess there remained enough interest for LV to issue the dies. But my article still did not get published. It`s all pretty low pressure to say the least. Actually today, my 7 year old, got three copies of a kids mag her drawing has appeared in this issue, from 4 years ago, so one never knowns, there is always hope.