We here at Egan Medical were extremely disappointed, disgusted and dismayed to learn of the Times Picayune's asinine decision to reduce publishing from seven to three days per week. While we do not anticipate the companies that will take over what once was America's best newspaper (in terms of the quality of the journalism itself) will succeed beyond three or four months before the new model implodes, we are experimenting with new features debuted on the paper's affiliate website to see if we can help prevent the seemingly inevitable bankruptcy of the paper that Egan's Executive Director has read every morning of his life since age four.
One interesting feature to recently debut on the site is a Classifieds section that enables people and businesses to create classifieds using an HTML editor as well as the ability to create classified listings of lengths far in excess of those sized for print.
Egan has created three such listings as an experimental trial. Depending upon how things go with these three listings, the company may or may not decide to invest into the program, with the goal of creating pages for some or all of Egan Medical's wide selection of medical equipment, medical supplies, orthopedic supports & braces, nutritional supplements and other healthcare-related products.
Only time will tell. One component of the classifieds system that we here at Egan are less-than-thrilled about is the 30-day nature of the ad. Why set a time limit? If the user is going to go through the trouble associated with creating a good listing, then why not allow the page created by the user to remain online until the item has been sold?
Sure, it can be removed from the top of the listings page as it ages, but leaving it online would do more justice to the person who took the time to create free content for the online division of the Picayune.
As per Egan Medical's experiment, the company's marketing leadership has decided to create listings for three of Egan's more popular items, and three which the competition (to refer to them as such is flattery beyond what is merited, but out of civility we'll overstate their significance as such) is completely and utterly unable to compete with Egan's prices dollar-for-dollar for the same exact items.
The products selected for the trial are as follows:
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| Extended Wiper for Obese People |
- Cervical Traction Device: Select Brand Over-Door Style Cervical Traction Set is a product intended to help people with neck injuries straighten out the spinal alignment near the neck, helping to reduce pain and ideally also help with the healing process of the injury itself.
- Extended-Reach Toilet Wiping Aide: The Long Reach Comfort Wipe is arguable the most high-quality AND cost-effective bathroom/wiping aide available on the medical supply market today. At just $13.50, it is priced at about 1/3 of what Egan's competitors charge for the same product, and features a comfortable, ergonomic design that extends reach by nearly 16 inches, helping the obese, disabled and those with dexterity issues achieve the same degree of cleanliness most everyone else takes for granted.
- Support Harness for Pregnant Women: The Prenatal Cradle is easily among the most popular of all of Egan Medical's numerous, high-quality maternity support products. It comes is a total of nine different sizes, with at least one that's perfect for virtually every woman of every shape and size. Out of thousands of these items sold over the years, Egan has yet to receive one single customer complaint about the quality of the product (and we never receive complaints about the quality of our service).
If the aforementioned product listings at the Times Picayune's new online classified site produce any legitimate leads from real customers and not from the advertisers hoping to convince the merchants that their site is referring customers, Egan may take a good, hard look at making this a staple of the company's local outreach efforts.
Egan already offers free local delivery to residents of Southeast Louisiana and Hancock and Harrison Counties along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Despite the fact that the organization has promoted the free shipping program in a number of different media, as well as via a large banner affixed to the front of the storefront itself, most local customers appear to prefer to pay for shipping fees themselves, for reasons known only to themselves.
In any case, customers seeking to find an exclusive deal not found on at EganMedical.com, this blog or any of Egan's numerous social presences might want to take a look at the online affiliate website of the Times Picayune and see what specials are available from Louisiana's leading online provider of medical supplies and equipment - and one of America's fastest-growing medical equipment/supply firms - Egan Medical, the little store on Tyler Street in Covington with the blue banner stretching across the length of the building.
NOTE: While Egan Medical is based in Covington, Louisiana, the company does business primarily outside the state, with customers placing their orders online from across the USA, Canada, Ireland and the UK.
