Uploaded July 2023 | Updated September 2026, 13 hours ago
"We Thank You!... Our appreciation for your business the other day is something we want you to know about. We are sincere!"
Uh, yes. I'm sure you are. Tell me more.
"We want you to feel welcome to come in anytime. Our pleasure is the pleasure and satisfaction you get out of your car! If there is ever any question about the treatment you have received or the work performed, we hope you will bring it to our attention immediately. We're here to serve you with real service. Thanks again. Drop in next time your car needs any attention."
Our pleasure is your pleasure. That sounds very... symbiotic. Very nice indeed. And I like the line "We're here to serve you with real service." I guess even back then they had to explain what it actually meant to 'serve' a customer. Most places I go today don't even try to 'serve' with ANY kind of service. Everything is increasingly self-service, these days, in case you didn't notice. What I call the "KMart model." I call it that just as a reminder to businesses who embrace that model.. of just where that strategy can wind up.
But the folks at Kramer-Eberts will show you real service. And you know, I bet they did too.
This postcard has a little symbol on it that printers call a "union bug." It is a kind of Union Label, indicating the card was printed in a union print shop. The presence of this symbol was very important when sending out these cards in a union town like Detroit. These cards would have been printed by Pennzoil at a union print shop and would have been sent out to dealers like Kramer-Eberts with that symbol on them, and with the area at the bottom left blank. The local dealer would take those pre-printed cards to a local printer of his choice for what's known as "overprinting" of the dealer's name, address, and whatnot. Now the overprinting on this card might well have been done at the Detroit print shop my father worked at. He overprinted countless cards like this for various businesses, setting the type and hand-feeding the cards into a letterpress press. Here's a photo of THAT print shop, as it stood in 2008,.. empty. You can still make out the sign letters, spelling out "Printing." After its life as a print shop, the building housed a furniture store, then the "Better Deals Flea Market," then a church. It wasn't the KMart model that killed that print shop. Or, maybe it was. Their office supply business was hurt by self-serve outfits like Staples and Office Depot, and much of their printing work would have gone over to self-serve photocopying. So yeah. And what happened to Kramer-Eberts? Here's the address on Jefferson where they used to be. Now it may just look like nothing to you, but to me it looks like the ghost of a car dealership. The brand offered at this ghost dealership, Pontiac, is also a ghost, having been laid to rest by General Motors in 2010.
"We Thank You!... Our appreciation for your business the other day is something we want you to know about. We are sincere!"
Uh, yes. I'm sure you are. Tell me more.
"We want you to feel welcome to come in anytime. Our pleasure is the pleasure and satisfaction you get out of your car! If there is ever any question about the treatment you have received or the work performed, we hope you will bring it to our attention immediately. We're here to serve you with real service. Thanks again. Drop in next time your car needs any attention."
Our pleasure is your pleasure. That sounds very... symbiotic. Very nice indeed. And I like the line "We're here to serve you with real service." I guess even back then they had to explain what it actually meant to 'serve' a customer. Most places I go today don't even try to 'serve' with ANY kind of service. Everything is increasingly self-service, these days, in case you didn't notice. What I call the "KMart model." I call it that just as a reminder to businesses who embrace that model.. of just where that strategy can wind up.
But the folks at Kramer-Eberts will show you real service. And you know, I bet they did too.
This postcard has a little symbol on it that printers call a "union bug." It is a kind of Union Label, indicating the card was printed in a union print shop. The presence of this symbol was very important when sending out these cards in a union town like Detroit. These cards would have been printed by Pennzoil at a union print shop and would have been sent out to dealers like Kramer-Eberts with that symbol on them, and with the area at the bottom left blank. The local dealer would take those pre-printed cards to a local printer of his choice for what's known as "overprinting" of the dealer's name, address, and whatnot. Now the overprinting on this card might well have been done at the Detroit print shop my father worked at. He overprinted countless cards like this for various businesses, setting the type and hand-feeding the cards into a letterpress press. Here's a photo of THAT print shop, as it stood in 2008,.. empty. You can still make out the sign letters, spelling out "Printing." After its life as a print shop, the building housed a furniture store, then the "Better Deals Flea Market," then a church. It wasn't the KMart model that killed that print shop. Or, maybe it was. Their office supply business was hurt by self-serve outfits like Staples and Office Depot, and much of their printing work would have gone over to self-serve photocopying. So yeah. And what happened to Kramer-Eberts? Here's the address on Jefferson where they used to be. Now it may just look like nothing to you, but to me it looks like the ghost of a car dealership. The brand offered at this ghost dealership, Pontiac, is also a ghost, having been laid to rest by General Motors in 2010.
