One of the lessons I learned many years ago was a phenomenon I call "New McDonald's Syndrome". It applies to so many new ventures when they come into town.
Mom & Pop Shops musing 5195I'm so tired of hearing about small shops that are being run out of business because of the big box stores or the chains. Customers are free to go wherever they want to...
They'll win you over when they are brand spanking new and the management and staff actually cares. But slowly over time they start to fade, as the management becomes complacent, and the staff gets disgruntled. McDonalds was particularly prone to this phenomenon as a franchise operation. Once the owner got his $100,000 investment out (it was that little years ago), he would lose interest and the operation would slide... pretty fast in some cases.
I've been to some pretty bad McDonald's in my lifetime. What I can say is the menu is consistent. Beyond that, all bets are off. I've seen horrendous food, filthy restrooms, surly service. It really is hit or miss.
At one time I was impressed by Walmart, but soon found out it really fell into the same pattern as McDonalds. A new Walmart is great. But it doesn't take all that long before they look like the dreaded K-Marts. Then the newcomer Target came to town. Same thing. Beautiful clean store, fully stocked shelves, helpful staff. In the end, they all seem the same. They all go down the same path. Unfortunately by the time people figure this out, the local stores have all been decimated. With the local stores there was some hope of getting through to the owners and getting problems corrected. Fat chance getting this corrected with a large out of town corporate owner. They really don't give a damn.
Mom & Pop Shops musing 5197Re-reading my response, I see that it became a RANT. I do a lot of internet shopping. I don't know how this impacts on the ruin-ers of 'mom & pops' and the chains...
-- ( #wffng7# at #verizon# period #net# )
