The sorry state of American business practices

[M_Six]

I'm not one who usually pines for "the way things used to be", but one thing I feel has really degraded over time is the role of the small business in the community. It used to be that small businesses cared about the customers they served. During the depression many small business owners carried families who couldn't pay right away. Even in my own past this has been true. My father broke his leg once and was unable to work for many weeks. The milkman who came to our house twice per week allowed my folks to run up a tab over $200, which in those days was two weeks' salary for my Dad. He knew my father to be an honorable man and was concerned about our family. My father made good on his debt, of course, and my family was forever indebted to this kind and generous man.

Fast forward to today. The local phone company here has started offering a "great deal" on DSL internet access. They've drastically slashed their prices for 384k service IF you sign an 18 month contract. Knowing that there is no such thing as a free lunch, I called the local cable TV company to find out if they're going to start offering cable internet soon. Sure enough, it's coming here in three months. The weasels at the phone company are luring people into 18 month contracts with drastic early termination penalties knowing full well that 1.5MB cable internet service is right around the corner. "Screw the customer" seems to have replaced "the customer is always right".

You're right. It's money first in today's society and thats they way it is. Sad part of living in the second half of the last century and now. Don't think it will get better.

[SickPup404]

Yeah, pine away....

I contacted Comcast to see if it was going to be available in my area soon. The reply I got was "Congratulations! You qualify for cable internet access that will be available in your area soon!" This was an improvement over the old stock reply "We're sorry, but..." Needless to say, I got all excited!

Then reading the paper yesterday, there was a BIG announcement that Comcast was making a HUGE infrastructure investment in our county to provide all these types of services and the project should be completed - by LATE 2004!

I held off ordering ISDN 2 months ago because I thought it was going to be cable that I got! Sheesh!!

[jman01pa]

I believe that part of the blame for the attitude of small businesses is because of larger businesses like Walmart and other Superstores.

Because these larger companies buy at large volumes and sell stuff as cheap as what the smaller companies can buy stuff for, it dont leave any room for profit. Or not enough to float credit for people or to pay their employees more than $6.95 an hour.

Good Service comes at a price and we are too cheap to pay for it...

It is true - You get what you pay for!


J

[Graham]

Old fashiond business practices do still exist, I went to but 4000 shotgun cartridges, and they didnt take credit cards. I left with the cartridges after they said I could post them a cheque and "you wouldnt ruin your reputation for £400 (570) would you sir"

Needless to say I never go anywhere else.

G

[osprey4]

Originally posted by Graham
I left with the cartridges after they said I could post them a cheque...Needless to say I never go anywhere else.

I think stores in the US will start that practice when pigs can fly.

John

[crazyray]

Speaking of Walled-Mart...

Their approach to pharmacy services has been brutal. Buying huge quantities of the most commonly prescribed drugs, they offer incredible bargains to those willing to transfer their RX's to Walled-Mart. Smaller drugstores are unable to come close. They watch their business move to the Superstore. After the independents go out of business, WM raises their prices to compensate. And so it goes.

[korgul]

AHHHHHH WalMart. That place really su$$s.

Last year my wife bought a compound bow for my son. It was bought 3 months in advance because it was on sale. The original price was $225 marked down to $150 then marked down to $75. She paid the $75 and was happy. Well when we finally gave it to him it was too big, when he pulled the string back it was 2 inches past his ear and still not at full draw. I took it back to either get a diff one or my money back. We had lost the receipt but had the original packaging with WalMart stickers on it. The lady at the courtesy desk looked it up in the computer and said we will give $7.95, yes that is 7 dollars. I was in shock thinking that it had to be a mistake I asked her to check again. She looked and came back with the same figure. I asked to speak to a manager and showed him the WalMart price tag with $75.00 on it. He looks it up in the computer and says $7.95 is what we will give you for it. After some more discussion I asked him to call me the next time they have a sale on compound bows that were marked down to $7.95. He looked at me and said that he does not think that they will ever sell a bow for $7.95. I then tried again, thinking that maybe i had finally gotten thru to him . I was mistaken. I left the store wiith the bow and went across town to another WalMart, I left 15 min later with $75.

Then that store did the same thing as the other one except it was for a diff of only $20. The thing is the thig we tried to return was an X-mas preset that did not work.

I agree the customer is no longer right. It is now more like give me your money and get the **** out of my store.

[vass0922]

I've run across a *few* stores that are still good to the customer, but again that is *few*
Yes the conglomerates are pushing out the little guy.. been happening for a long time. I remember in my hometown we had a GL Perry was a great place for kids, or just small things you needed around the house..
Then Wal Mart opened.. and it was over...
Closed
They just didn't have the selection and prices as Wal Mart so people stop going.. however, Wal mart buys in such psycho volumes they get the discounts .. they were a small business once.. they made it bigger.. now they're trying to wipe out the small business ..

[ironforge]

I think bad marketing is the #1 problem with the consumer's economy today..
instead of making rock solid products and standing behind them.. they try to suck out every last $$ possible and retain large profit margins..

what do we get? inferior products at inflated prices... no wonder we import so much stuff from japan