Total Quality Management

Decades ago the modern grocery with wide aisles and shoppers pushing carts about did not exist. 

The shopper faced the grocer who was behind a counter. The grocer requested an item and the grocer went to the shelf and retrieved it.  This gave way to the multitude of items in stores todays with shoppers making their own decisions. No doubt studies revealed people would buy more on impulse, and well we can stand the pilfering. 

Today's point, in many cases the original method may have had it right. I had one of those

'some assembly required projects' which nearly always requires a trip for more fasteners. 

These days there are SAE and Metric as well as both coarse and machine threads. Open bin containers at the Big Box Hardware coupled with unsupervised children are a disastrous formula. As you may have noticed most children in stores have roughly the same supervision as wild hyenas descending on a hapless wounded zebra.  (Editor, Prof Elam please keep such editorial comments to yourself, they hardly add to the pedagogy..) (Elam, been to a store lately?)

At any rate the helpful store clerk bemoaned that children and shoppers would of course mix the sized all up so it was impossible to tell what was what in which bin. And then when the shopper got home with the wrong a mis match, the clerks got blamed. 

The better idea here would be the original. Put all the nuts bolts screws, nails behind a counter. Position two knowledge able store clerks behind the counter. The result would be satisfied shoppers and much much better inventory control as well as fewer mis matches.   

The problem with TQM is that we can explain it to management but as you noted in your essays, they ignore the better idea and go cheap anyway. What good does it do to leave with the mis matched bolts?

Comments

[Blair W.]

I remember when I was a child, my dad would take my sister & I to the hardware store almost every weekend, because there was always a project to do on the house. Before walking into the big ware house of tools and supplies my dad would tell us “keep your hands in your pockets and no touching”. We would walk through the isles looking at all the different nails, and what knots with our hands in our pockets….. When my dad finally found an item that he needed it was like digging for gold to find the right screw or nail. Surely no adult had mixed screws and nails up. Of course after digging for a while, my dad would become frustrated and let it out on a clerk. The point to all this is that yes, hyenas .. I mean children are messy, however, adults aren’t perfect either, especially if they are in a hurry. If the parents had more control over there children and not allow them to act like animals, then the mixing of fasteners would be more uncommon and the clerks wouldn’t be blamed. Allowing the management to go the cheaper way.

[Tina C]

"Position two knowledge able store clerks behind the counter."

The experiences I've had lately make me wonder if there really are at least two knowledgeable clerks in the stores - or at least the ones I've been to....

and I do keep my hyenas in check in the stores...

[Josefina Castillo]

I completely see your point in this blog, but I also feel that upper management is just thinking about the bottom line, not customer satisfaction. If things would go back to the way they use to be, then people would reduce their spending and payroll expenses would go up, therefore, reducing the bottom line. Since this country is based on capitalism, we will all do what we have to do to make a buck, even if it means leaving our morals behind. Personally, I believe if I get crappy service, I will more than likely not return to the place of business…well maybe just not to that store itself. So the profit would still be going to the top executives bonuses.

[Tammy Salinas]

Upper management hopes that you lose those mix matched bolts and screws and never return them to go back for the right ones. As I watched in a documentary last night about banks and overdraft fees; a previous Bank of America employee stated that the banks allow themselves to give you money you don't have in order to incur overdraft fees which make them money. I too, have been in many stores where there is not 1 knowledgeable clerk to help me. Two words "cheap-labor". These retail chains hire in most cases kids who don't mind getting paid minimum wage,don't care about their job or the 'stuff' that is on the shelf; just about getting a check. I have many a times gone into places like autozone or o'rileys since I cant afford dealership, and the employees there seem to know less about the 'stuff' on the shelf than I do. I'm not saying this is in all cases; yes, there are places like the dealerships who DO have respectable employees that know what they are doing.

[LeAnna M Nesbitt]

The grocery business has gone thru modifications over the past 100 years. It began with the open air market, with vendors offering every food product available and then on to saw dust floors and tables enclosed by a roof and walls. Later modern ideas with wide aisles and polished floors like today. However there has been quite a move to reserve some marketing consent to include once again exhibits of individual items similar to the original open air vending. In terms now can include "Central Market", and whole foods, also health food specialization and "Fresh vegetables”. Sometimes the ultimate convenience will boomerang back to ideas that were used "in the good ole times" like fresh baked bread in ovens where the service staff hands the bread to the customer.