SOMEBODY HAS TO FIX IT

Getting off the political trail for a change, there's something ominous happening in the retail sector.  Macy's is closing 100 stores; Sports Authority is going out of business; Sears is shutting down 68 K-Marts and 10 Sears locations; Penny's has closed 80 stores; Kohl's is laying off 1,500 employees and the list goes on and on.  What's happening? 

Well, the simple answer according to a recent article in Newsmax,  is that more and more people are buying more and more goods on the Internet.  But, is that really the end of the story?  Why aren't we asking the question: Why are more and people buying online?  

I relate back to a story early in my career in the Las Vegas gaming business.  I was working in what was then a huge hotel property, the Flamingo with 750 rooms, when the MGM came along and built where Bally's is now located, just up the street.  Originally 1,500 rooms, it would quickly expand to 2,000 rooms and many of the people around town were afraid it was going to suck up all of the customers.  And old-timer at the Flamingo told me, "Son, if you just take care of business, nobody can steal it from you."      

When small, local retail stores were faced with the advent of the big-box stores, they all grumbled in the same way and, sure enough, the big box stores drove countless thousands of retailers out of business around the country.  But... some survived and even thrived.  Why?  Because they took care of business.  

Successful store owners get to know their customers and they treat them almost like family.  They are cheerful, helpful, friendly... and when something goes wrong, they bend over backwards to get it fixed.  Those who didn't blamed the big-box stores.  But, if you're not going to be treated with respect and courtesy as a customer, why not go shop where the prices are lower?  

Which leads is to the decline in business and the bottom-line profits of the bib-box stores while buyers pick themselves up and go elsewhere... this time to the Internet.  Show me a big box store that takes care of its customers and I'll show you a pig in a poke.  So, why shouldn't I go where the prices are lower and I can still get my merchandise within a day?  What's the difference between ordering something on a sterile computer and dealing with an employee in a store where you are simply just another walking statistic with a wallet-full of credit cards?  

And that is the very crux of the problem, which ultimately leads us back to politics.  Nobody cares about anybody anymore.   Customer service departments are merely a front for a careless and cavalier management.  Management hides in the stock rooms and when it comes time to fix a problem, everyone in authority disappears into the woodwork.  

Just like government.