Friday Fives

1. What is a filthy business tactic you know that everyone should be aware of?

Union busting and the assault on the American labor force. There are so many myths about union labor that aren’t true at all and created by greedy Chamber of Commerce folks to make it easier to line their pockets. Union labor built the middle class of this nation. That and never pay extra for sprinkles on ice cream – that’s a filthy business tactic.

2. What is unethical as fuck, but is extremely common practice in the business world?
Tacking on lots and lots and lots of extra business fees. (This question is an awful lot like the one above.)

3. What has been the best corporate Darwin Award? A decision made by a company that basically killed the business.
The Walmart/Vlassic pickle affair wherein Walmart put so many requirements on to Vlassic to supply them pickles that they ran the company into bankruptcy trying to compete.

4. What companies make you wonder ‘how are they still in business’?
Sears/Kmart. It’s a mystery. Maybe more of a regional thing but in the Denver neck of the woods, I don’t know anyone who goes to those stores.

5. What company has forever won your business?
Amazon. They are huge, yes and attacked for ruining brick and mortar stores – perhaps. But their customer service is amazing, simply amazing and reliable.

3 Replies to “Friday Fives”

  1. 1) Corporate America pushing out long-term over-50 employees under the guise of layoffs. Ageism is a noticeable downturn of the business world.

    2) Request for proposal or bids – There is almost always a guarantee of business to one specific company behind the veil of open competition. Governments are required to do open bidding, but it is for show, not to get the best company or price.

    3) I worked for Sports Authority in the last two months of its existence and saw first hand the dysfunction and inability of big retail chains to change to fit the retail landscape. They decided to ride their failing direction right into the scrap heap.

    4) Safeway, but again that is a regional thing. In California Safeway and Albertsons are the main stores, not many Kroger (King Soopers parent company) stores there.

    5) There is not a big business company that has won my loyalty forever. But any old-school barber anywhere, now they have my business forever. There is nothing like a true barber hair cut.

  2. 1) Putting monies into different pots of the same organization. Oh I know we’re building several million dollars of new facilities but that comes from the capital funds bucket not the wages bucket. The wages bucket is leaking so we are going to have to freeze your wages cuz we’re losing so much money. Fucking bull shit!

    2) Using catastrophic fear scenarios to justify the means despite those scenarios happening once ever 200 years.

    3) The big music stores. Through my dad I saw this one well. Tower records, musicland, they both failed to adapt to the way music was delivered and they died because of it.

    4) K mart. I can’t recall the last time I went in one or saw one operating.

    5) technical design. I bough my sound bars from them and have had unbelievable customer service. To the point of me questioning if that was real. Great stuff. Great customer relations, I’m sold.

    1. Sorry I was pooping and remembered the name wrong it should have been Definitive Technologies for the sound bar speakers I have. I just woke up lemme alone.

Leave a Reply to Greg Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *