CUDA wrote:TC wrote:But I DO blame business getting too focused on profits, not the actual business.
Do you even understand what a Business is???
busi·ness
[biz-nis] Show IPA
noun
2.
the purchase and sale of goods in an attempt to make a profit.
the ACTUAL business IS to focus on profit. and there are many ways to do that, cost and sale of the product is just one of them. Walmart is in business because the
CONSUMER wants cheap products and for no other reason. it's no different then choosing McDonalds or Taco bell over a Ruth chris steakhouse.
How about this. Your steakhouse mention made me think of this.
There are a couple of major national grocery stores here in Little Podunk Corvallis. Safeway, Albertsons and Kroger (Fred Meyer), plus a couple of lesser known companies that are spread around town, but mostly in the wealthier north part. Safeway has too many stores (3) in our location for such a small town too, so most of these stores compete on price point to entice the customer in. I think we have at least 8 to 10 grocery stores in this small town. Kind of overkill.
We used to buy our groceries at Safeway, especially steaks and roasts, because their butchers sold good cuts of meat. Even though they tended to be more expensive overall, we liked their product selection and quality. Well, recently, the
sell at the lowest price possible strategy got to them too finally. For the second time in a month and from 2 different Safeways, we've purchased New York steaks that were tough, tasteless and gave us both diarrhea (and we KNOW it was from the steak). After some searching, we found out that many national stores are injecting their meat with water through fine needles to plump up the weight (for more profit) and make them seem juicier. Whether Safeway is doing this or not, the unintended consequence is that we can no longer eat a rare or medium rare steak or roast bought from them, or any national chain for that matter, because their meats are probably now internally contaminated. Meat is supposed to be safe rare if it hasn't been cut into, punctured or somehow internally compromised. But IF this new practice of
injecting the meat with water is a new national practice, ALL meat has to be cooked to 160 F, not just hamburger, because now it's loaded with internal bacteria. Bye, bye nice pink and juicy roasts and medium rare steaks.
The upshot of it is, we will no longer buy any of our meats, or anything else, at any Safeway, and we
will be suspect of any meat from any other national chain too. Whether it's due to corporate practice or just bad luck, they've lost a customer, permanently. Sure, they gave us back the money, but getting sick was definitely NOT worth the hassle.
Why did they lose a customer? Because they went for price point instead of quality. What's sad is there doesn't seem to be any local source of quality meat even if I wanted to buy it, because everybody just buys the cheap stuff, further reenforcing the situation. These stores are only worried about their bottom line now, not whether their customers LIKE their products, or even
survive eating those products. Ugh! Focusing only on profit is not a good way to keep customers loyal. I guess if enough consumer sheep keep buying, they'll stay in business.
Like many of you have said, you can't afford better products if you wanted them. So why is that? If people made better wages, we would be able to buy things of better quality, instead of forcing EVERYONE to follow the curve of diminishing returns. The consumer is now STUCK buying cheap crap because they HAVE too. People are no longer
paid enough to buy better things. Nice way to run an economy.
CUDA, you indicated once that you owned or worked in a body shop? How do you keep a loyal customer base? Does your shop do good work, or do you slap the car back together and hit it with a coat of paint to hide the sins and make the insurance company happy? Being a mechanic myself, if I got my car back from a body shop that did hidden shoddy work, I would make sure a LOT of people would be hearing about it and perhaps putting a dent in your business. But if your shop did good work, I'd be recommending you to as many people as I could. What goes around comes around, profit or no profit.
