Some businesses forget basic rule

It?s hard for me to understand how some folks stay in business, let alone make enough money to put them into an upper tax bracket.

I find myself scratching my head all the time after I leave a business, wondering what in the world they are thinking. You?d think a goal in owning or running a business would be to make money, but some businesses around here seem to have missed the mark.

For instance, there?s a certain store (I?m not allowed to give the name but most of you will know which one I?m talking about) where you can go in and look endlessly, eye to your heart?s content, and examine the merchandise until the cows come home. However, when it comes time to check out, forget about it. There?s no one in sight.

You can stand there until moss grows on your feet. There?s no bell to ring, no nothing. Unless there?s an employee who just happens to be in the same zip code with you or if you feel like playing hide and go seek to find an employee, you are going to waste a good amount of time.

I?ve been there to see countless people walk off, laying their potential purchases down on the counter on many, and I mean many, occasions. Do these folks not realize that while they are sitting in an office or off in another part of the store, thousands of dollars are walking off? And that?s not just in lost purchases, seeing as this place would also be easy pickings for shoplifters since no one is around the door.

If I owned a business, my top priority would be having an employee to take money from customers since that?s the main point of business. I?d pay someone just to sit at the register all day because, judging from the lost business I see, it?d be more profitable to hire someone for the front than let money walk out the door in the pockets of mad customers. Before you can have customer service, you?ve got to have a customer.

While this business continues to stay afloat, there was another several years ago that wasn?t so lucky and this business still doesn?t get why they couldn?t make it here.

The business that is closed is Kmart, a business which is still trying to blame Wal-Mart for its problems when in fact it was slow service which caused me and pretty well everyone I know to avoid the store like the plague unless we had an hour or two to blow waiting to be checked out or helped.

It wasn?t really the prices which spelled the end of Kmart here. The prices were actually competitive and they had stuff you couldn?t find at other places.

However, when it came time to leave, you were flocked into the lone register line of like 20 people waiting to be checked out. Now I don?t mind waiting for a bit, but Kmart was a crazy wait. I could order food at J?s, run down to Kmart for something, and my food already be cold by the time I got checked out. It was ridiculous.

And, what?s even more ridiculous is that the Kmart corporation blamed its demise on everything but poor customer service, the very thing which killed them here in McMinnville.

What we basically have here is people in charge who have no idea how to make money. They believe if they simply open their doors and put stuff out there at a decent price, they can make a fortune. The idea is all well and good, provided you don?t forget the basic of business: Having someone there to take the money from willing customers.

Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].