It sometimes happens that a store's founder will die old, leaving the store in control of someone hell-bent to squeeze every penny of profit from it. Service declines, and eventually people quit shopping there. One can look at the example of Sears to illustrate.Sears began as a watch repairman, then a catalog merchant, then expanded to retail stores. After the second World War, Sears was the dominant retailer in America until the middle 1980's. Co-founder Sears was no longer around, and management thought it wise to replace the well-paid salespaople working there with low-paid "seasonal" workers, then stock the stores with shoddy merchandise. When consumers turned up their noses at the wares they were selling, mangement blamed the sales staff. Sears' market share tumbled to third, behind Wal-Mart and K-mart. Fortunes have turned around for Sears this decade, but they are still in the unenviable position of second to Wal-Mart.
If you've shopped at Wal-Mart lately, you'll agree that the shelves are stocked with CRAP! Since Sam Walton's death, the corporation is run by a man named David Glass, who built new stores at an even swifter pace than before. Without Walton's ability to make workers believe that Wal-Mart is a big, caring family, morale has plummetted. Turnover is 45% annually, even worse than the fast-feeders who employed me. Now, if no one wants to work there, and no one wants to shop there, it's only a matter of time before unprofitable stores are culled and even some entire regions are abandoned. It happened to Sears and K-Mart before; it's just a matter of time before the bell tolls for Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart Sux,
Hugh Morris
