Thursday 27 August 2009

What IS a Shammock?

Wikipedia is sometimes a decent reference for aggregated "information" about a particular subject. However, my expertise runs contrary to a particular entry - the word "hammock."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammock

Wiki-definition:

The
hammock is a fabric sling used for sleeping or resting while suspended above ground. It normally consists of one or more cloth panels, or a woven network of twine or thin rope stretched with ropes between two firm points such as trees or posts.


That's not bad as a general definition.

But the photo specimen is a common rope hammock
captioned:
"Garden Hammock"

This is the classic Shammock!


The rope shammock is the mongrel of the genre, a complete sham of a product, the ultimate anti-innovation of comfort.

And yet, by featuring this inbred species as a "Garden Hammock," the Wiki folks have thrown their weight behind an industrial sham that erodes the comfort standard.

Next to that photo is another: "a couple in a hammock on the beach" - 2 people at a nice beach, perched on the horrid rope shammock.

A shammock is a hammock in sheeps clothing. A shammock is a slick piece of propaganda that spreads when people succeed in marketing and selling shoddy products that have no intrinsic value.

A shammock is what a hammock is not: an empty image, an imposter of comfort.


"Wiki-experts," re-classified the rope hammock as a "Garden Hammock," and then proceeded to equivocate profusely about the different styles and uses of hammocks.

Not surprisingly, references to" comfort" are slim: Buried in the middle of the entry, along with Mayan hammocks, the word "comfort" and "comfortable" appear twice. In the same paragraph, but in a completely erroneous context.

The Wikipedia "hammock" entry is a dangerous piece of misinformation. It's un-American. It enures to the benefit of of corporations who perpetrate the sham.

For someone who may choose this as a starting point before looking to buy a hammock, Wikipedia sends the wrong message entirely.

Wikipedia hammock entry is 10% accurate, 90% misleading, and 3% relevant. Like a Shammock.

The title of the entry would be more accurate labled "SHAMMOCK."


It is a predictable result of the industrial shammock scam perpetrated over 100 years in the United States. Mass retailers love the 10x markup they get selling shammocks as hammocks.

We sympathize with all the people who have purchased a shammock, or a shammock stand. They are made in every conceivable shape and size, and material.

Most of the time the material isn't to blame . . . it's just poorly configured.

The folks who make shammocks don't make them for comfort, they make them for sale. That pads their wallet, not your comfort level. You get the shaft, they get your money, and you don't even know what you missed.

We deal with customers every week at our showroom in Lubbock, who complain about the shammock they got at Wal-Mart, or Sams, or Target, or Lowes, or Home Depot, or Brookstone, or hammocks.com, or any number of big box retailers and online stores.

Employees of these retailers send people straight to US!

They know there is a real hammock store in Lubbock, and we serve their customers properly.

Our customers feel the difference
once they try our hammocks.

They test our state-of-the-art hammock stands and hammock chair stands, and the shammock game is over.