It's not some grand conspiracy, but if you lack competitive pressure, all of the sudden price competitiveness and service become less important.
I grew up in a rural area. When Wal-Mart came at first, it was amazing. Clean stores, low prices, excellent service. They managed to put Ames, Jamesway and a few other marginal discount chains out of business. The convenience of driving to Wal-Mart and buying anything is more convenient that the closer speciality retailer, and thathelped kill of the specialty small retailers (hardware stores, etc). They mortally wounded K-Mart. They did this with ruthless efficiency and great service.
Now, Wal-Mart owns the rural market. Guess what? The lines are like DMV, the stores are filthy and poorly merchandised (in the grocery section, they don't even unpack boxes), and the prices are often not so good. I hope that Amazon doesn't go that way, but history suggests otherwise.
It seems like an enevitably? Almost a Law? I once heard a Restuant Entrepreneur state that every resturant should
fire their staff every 6 months--it got rid of any theft,
an dead attitudes--supposedly?
I think the only company I haven't seen go down this route is UPS? Their workers seem pretty happy?
It sucks that people get rewarded in the marketplace for being assholes like that. Theft is a part of the background noise in a cash business like a bar or restaurant -- a business owner is delusional if they think theft goes away when one set of people do.
My grandfather owned bars for many years. I remember him saying that he got more worried about bartenders who "weren't" stealing from him (either money, booze or pilferage) -- he assumed that if he didn't know about it, the guy was too smart and could do real damage.
UPS treats their people well and works them hard, and they have a strong union. The net result is that they make money, and they have a motivated workforce that performs and gets treated relatively fairly.
I grew up in a rural area. When Wal-Mart came at first, it was amazing. Clean stores, low prices, excellent service. They managed to put Ames, Jamesway and a few other marginal discount chains out of business. The convenience of driving to Wal-Mart and buying anything is more convenient that the closer speciality retailer, and thathelped kill of the specialty small retailers (hardware stores, etc). They mortally wounded K-Mart. They did this with ruthless efficiency and great service.
Now, Wal-Mart owns the rural market. Guess what? The lines are like DMV, the stores are filthy and poorly merchandised (in the grocery section, they don't even unpack boxes), and the prices are often not so good. I hope that Amazon doesn't go that way, but history suggests otherwise.