Everything Or Less and it's mostly less service in Retail

Everything Or Less, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Retail is funny because on one hand the Customer must be served. On the other hand, production goals, whatever those may be, preclude the customer from getting the best of service. Employees of retail and any customer service related business are forced to meet ever changing "Performance Metrics". To meet these and keep their jobs many employees are forced to cut corners and do low quality work. Management tends to look the other way because production goals will then be met.
If you don't cut corners and try to do a good job both for the store and for the customer, you are deemed "slow" and may not retain that retail job for very long. So instead, you do things on the quick-quick, not taking the time to do the job right, cut off the customer on the phone or in the aisle and hope to see another day and another tiny paycheck.
True, there isn't much profit in retail. Markup on most items for the store is about 5 percent. There is a lot of competition for that small piece of the pie. Managers get a bonus at the end of the year for meeting production goals. This is an incentive to sharp practice. Not all retail is Wal-Mart, where in some stores managers force workers to work off the clock so they can meet those production goals. There have been about 10 lawsuits on that matter in the past 10 years. Nonetheless it's mostly less that the customer gets. It's less service, less information and less quality products. Am I being too unreasonable to want everything and more?

Via Flickr:
Everything Is Less Than Zero.
Hey! Hey, hey!

Walgreens Is Buying Duane Reade!

Invasion Of The Walgreens In Brooklyn, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Apparently the deal is in the works for Wal-Greens to buy up all the Duane Reade stores by summers end. There is little enough competition between these drug store chains as it is now prices will only go higher as a result. I've never cared much for Duane Greed and Walgreens does have competitive prices. However without DG around to match and beat will Walgreens decide to up the ante even further?

Pretty soon the only chains remaining on the Planet will be Walgreens and Wal-Mart. The economy and jobs prospects for the next year or so are dismal enough. Now we will literally have our backs to the wall with these two giants of the "Wal" big box store set to be the only possible retail employers and sources for every day items. Anti-Trust laws seem to have taken a back seat to the powers these giants wield.

Update: Apparently the current Duane Reades are going to remain as Duane Reade stores. I can't imagine that making much sense. How can they even be competitive when they are owned by the same company? That would be like Burger King and McDonalds being on the same block and owned by Wal-Mart. Maybe they are?

Wal-Mart: The Fifth Horseman Of The Apocalypse

Wal-Mart: The Fifth Horseman Of The Apocalypse, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

It's been a year since Jdimytai Damour was killed by Black Friday Shoppers at the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, NY. With the US still in the grip of it's worst recession in decades are the maddening crowds going to be worse or better. What has Wal-Mart done to prevent this from happening again? Who in their right mind would stampede a store for mundane material possesions like a 42 inch plasma screen TV?
The economists don't want to use the D word. Yes, that's right . Depression. If they ever dared to use that one maybe the governments of the world would have to be serious about doing something for the people rather than heaping billions of bailout money on the Corporations. The corporations continue to lay off millions of hard working human beings while lining the pockets of fat, rich executive higher ups. This has got to stop!
Meanwhile we have bread and circus events like Black Friday that turn people into animals because they're so desparate to have what their rich neighbors have for half the price. Wal-Mart encourages this animal behavior. I'll never forget the crazy lines that snaked around and outside of the Pottstown, PA Walmart when I worked there about 5 years ago. Most of those lines were for the Lay-Away windows. Wal-Mart apparently enjoys not only the attention that Black Friday crowds bring to its stores but the substantial boost in profits. They could care less about the welfare and safety of their employees. Wal-Mart goes out of its way to cheat and rob their associates of their dignity and their rights.
Who was the person who dealt the final blow to Mr. Damour? We've never found that out. But in the end it is Wal-Marts responsibility to bring a more civilized atmosphere to their Black Friday events. But I doubt this will happen as it is in the company's best financial interest to keep it crazy and keep people coming in with such hyperbolic expectations.