Why Are Umbrellas Sold with Covers?

...bLOg fRoM tHE crYPt...

Published on June 8, 2004 By blogic In Philosophy

In the dark past, I kept a blog at another web site, which will not be named. Well, I went to Brazil, and amazingly blog worthy experiences, and forgot to keep blogging. In the meantime, my old blog site started charging lots of the green stuff.

So, I've washed up on the shores of JoeUser.

But giving my inherent laziness, and my current battle against caffeine deprivation (see my previous post), it was in the cards for me to recycle my old blog material. Furthermore, my wife is quite insistent that we go out for a walk. The weather in New York City is wonderful, and the Brooklyn Bridge beckons: "Please walk across me, Adam. My restaurants are calling for you."

Actually, the call from the restaurants is probably for Jennifer; I'm happy with McDonald's, and maybe even Roll-n-Roaster.

Anyway, my caffeine starved brains is in serious payback mode, so without further ado, here's a Blog from the Crypt...

...fRom tHE CrYPt!...

Why Are Umbrellas Sold with Covers?

Seriously, I've been wondering this for years. Recently, I went to the zoo with my brother, and I bought an umbrella on the way, because it looked like it might rain.

On a side note, this year in Washington DC, it always looks like it might rain. Damn I miss the drought. I wish global warming would fucking hurry up.

Anyway, I bought the umbrella, which like every other umbrella I've ever bought, came with a cover. Why the hell does it have a cover? Are there people out there who are worried about exposing their umbrellas? I mean, are we trying to keep our umbrellas dry? Should they sell umbrellas for umbrellas?

I can't imagine the purpose of the cover is to keep the umbrella dry, so maybe it's to keep the umbrella clean; but doesn't the water take care of that? Everything else in my room stinks, even me, but not my umbrella. After all, it's constantly getting rinsed.

My brother suggested that maybe the cover served some packaging/shipping purpose, but then why isn't anything else sold with similar covers? Maybe some things are, but I'm pretty damn sure my television didn't come with a pull-off snappable cover, nor did my blender.

Someone, please tell me why umbrellas are sold with covers?

Adam

Comments

MasonM

on Jun 08, 2004

a very good question, and quite elementary, my dear Adam.

While being measured for a suit alteration a few years ago, I asked my tailor (at the time) that very same question. He had chastized me for carrying my umbrella without it's cover. You see, I had purchased said umbrella from his shop just a few weeks prior.

He insisted that I should always keep the cover on the umbrella when I carried it around and wasn't actually deploying it. When I asked him why, he said that it keeps the umrella's fragile edges protected from snags that could bend and/or break the supports rendering the umbrella lopsided or unusable.

Seems the cover binds the umrella together and makes it less likely to snag on something.

Who knew?

MasonM

on Jun 08, 2004

Just realized I mis-spelled umbrella a couple of times. Sorry about that. Pretty inattentive of me.

Floozie

on Jun 10, 2004

I was told that the cover is there for your convenience. I think by 'your' they mean women. Women who carry small umbrellas and want to put them in their bags directly after use. So you pop the cover on and keep you bag dry. Don't know how effective that would be, however.
And what Mason said. Umbrellas do tend to bend and break easily.
Solution? Buy crappy umbrellas. Replace as often as necessary. And don't have a problem with carrying a wet umbrella around.

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