Mr Eman said "Not enough people understand the economics of retail, and understandably so, not everyone has experience in the retail sector.
Store "A" is a franchised business, meaning it's part of a chain of stores, each owned independently of the franchise, but still adhering to the corporate structure.
Store "A" has an owner who manages profit and loss, and does it by instituting a system that monitors heavy traffic flow and register speed and efficency, and then schedules around those factors to maximize income through sales, but also minimizes expenses by eliminating staff down times.The problem with this is that it's not an exact science, and doesn't take other things into consideration that can affect customer counts. Also, doesn't factor in owner operators who just want more money. Can't blame them, we all do it, and would also do the same as them. I can prove this by stating that I have never ever once heard someone say they don't want a raise or that they make to much money.
That's just human nature, and we all suck, period
Store "A" also has to deal with economic change. Minimum starting wage eats into expenses, and for a store that is designed to sell product for less, that's a huge profit loss based on sales. We also have to factor in thefts, which hits profit hard, and margins really get tight to manage.
Factor all of these reasons into it, and there's no real surprise that the store the OP is frustrated about is in the situation that it is in.
However, they are not actually solving the issue by choosing to not shop there now for the minor inconvenience of a 10 minute wait (was it really 10 minutes? Doubtful. Everyone says 5 minutes or 10 minutes, but it's really just a few. We exaggerate to exacerbate the issue. Again, human nature).
So, by reducing the sales by one person, that store has less income, and therefore, the owner will choose to reduce staff even more, and everything snowballs info even worse situations.
Sure ,we could say that the owner needs to hire more people, but really, that's a job, not a career store. People work and quit all the time. Training and hiring all the time cuts into expenses even more in a HUGE way. Eventually, there is a limit to training and hiring expenses, and many store hit that wall quite early in the year.
There's never a solution anymore. We are a greedy, fast paced, want-it-all-now society, without patience for the purchases.
To me, this is like the complaints against self checkouts. I hate those complaints more than anything. Our great grandparents fought through two wars, a great depression and more. They still bagged their own groceries, and they waited in lineups. They survived, and we can too.
Edited by Mr Eman, 2024-10-02 12:58:31"
You've laid it out well.
This video explains the dollar store business model really well. It talks about Dollar General specifically in the US, but it gives you insight into how they operate, staff, and sometimes devastate a community. I had always found it funny that we had some many dollar stores here, but after seeing this I understood why.
https://youtu.be/vQpUV-2Jao?si=56tKZjIWEuJ9MQwi