Street Walking: Mr. Krabs Was Right

Today’s post really proves that you never know where your next great idea may come from, and that you should always be on the lookout for it.

This past weekend, I took two of my kids for their routine dental checkup. Thankfully, our dentist has a very modernized office with flat screen TVs in each room to help distract their patients. Since it was a Saturday morning, they had Nickelodeon on for the kids.

While my son was being examined, SpongeBob Squarepants came on. I wasn’t paying close attention to the show until I heard Mr. Krabs asking SpongeBob to spy on Plankton to see what he was up to at The Chum Bucket to lure away customers from The Krusty Krab.

As Mr. Krabs was grilling SpongeBob as to what was going on over at The Chum Bucket, SpongeBob gets distracted by a large statue and starts to climb it with a bunch of kids. That’s when Mr. Krabs figures it out – cater to the kids and the parents will follow. It didn’t matter if the food tasted better, if the prices were lower or if service was better. The kids wanted to go climb the statue, and the parents had to take them to The Chum Bucket to do so. And while there, they might as well buy them lunch.

Now, not every business has a product or service that is appropriate for children, but there are a ton of businesses that could and should start marketing towards them. There are also plenty of examples out there to look to for inspiration such as McDonald’s, Disney and Chuck E. Cheese, to name a few.

So, what are you doing to cater to the kids to get their parents to spend their money with you?

Image credit: jerrroen

Picture of Chaz Michaels

Chaz Michaels

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

beehiiv’s 2026 benchmark data shows a median newsletter converts well under one percent of free subscribers into paying ones, while Substack still discloses no comparable conversion figures of its own, a transparency gap that creators researching where to launch a new paid newsletter are only now starting to take seriously

beehiiv’s 2026 benchmark data shows a median newsletter converts well under one percent of free subscribers into paying ones, while Substack still discloses no comparable conversion figures of its own, a transparency gap that creators researching where to launch a new paid newsletter are only now starting to take seriously

The Blog Herald

Greif and Gleason’s 1980 research on how children learn politeness routines found that young children almost never say “please” or “thank you” spontaneously, they say it because a parent prompts them with “what do you say?” dozens of times a week, meaning the reflex adults later display without thinking twice was built through years of someone else’s prompting long before it became automatic.

Greif and Gleason’s 1980 research on how children learn politeness routines found that young children almost never say “please” or “thank you” spontaneously, they say it because a parent prompts them with “what do you say?” dozens of times a week, meaning the reflex adults later display without thinking twice was built through years of someone else’s prompting long before it became automatic.

Global English Editing

AI answer boxes are reportedly wiping out a majority of organic search traffic for some blog categories in 2026 — while others have barely lost a visitor, and the split comes down to one thing

AI answer boxes are reportedly wiping out a majority of organic search traffic for some blog categories in 2026 — while others have barely lost a visitor, and the split comes down to one thing

The Blog Herald

Many adult children remember watching a father work sixty-hour weeks for decades so the family could have what he never did, then watched him die in his sixties without ever prioritizing his own happiness, and now see that same pattern quietly repeating in their own lives, under a different name.

Many adult children remember watching a father work sixty-hour weeks for decades so the family could have what he never did, then watched him die in his sixties without ever prioritizing his own happiness, and now see that same pattern quietly repeating in their own lives, under a different name.

Global English Editing

Eye tracking research on how people actually read web pages found that most visitors scan in a rough F shaped pattern down the left side of the screen, which is why professional editors front load the real information instead of slowly building up to it

Eye tracking research on how people actually read web pages found that most visitors scan in a rough F shaped pattern down the left side of the screen, which is why professional editors front load the real information instead of slowly building up to it

The Blog Herald

Harvard researchers had 166 undergraduates rate their own pets on qualities like thoughtful, considerate and sympathetic, and the students who felt most chronically disconnected from other people scored their pets meaningfully higher on exactly those three traits, and no others.

Harvard researchers had 166 undergraduates rate their own pets on qualities like thoughtful, considerate and sympathetic, and the students who felt most chronically disconnected from other people scored their pets meaningfully higher on exactly those three traits, and no others.

Global English Editing

Subscribe to receive our latest articles!

Get updates on the latest posts and more from Small Business Bonfire straight to your inbox.