Yeah, you’re right about that. Small businesses turn big and somehow along the way, they turn damned ugly. Here in Canada, it seems, the bigger corporations (read: not WalMart)are becoming more socially friendly with better work environments, so I tend to slice down the middle between crap and quality. And then slice that down the middle again for large and small.

It makes a pizza for four. Wanna slice?

James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..Wind: The Way of Writing – Part 5 of 6

Of course, a company like Wal-Mart started off as a small “mom-and-pop” store, didn’t it?

Somehow, along its path to “behemothism”, it lost its connection to its more humble beginnings, I wager probably not long after it went public.

My moral/ethic comment actually came from thinking about how a company like Microsoft sells the XBox (or is it the XBox 360) at a loss, to try to gain market share.

I thought I was also being clever with “whateverly”

James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..Wind: The Way of Writing – Part 5 of 6

@James: The only time I can think of to have really low prices (that makes sense morally, ethically, and whatever-ly) is when you’re totally starting out, without any portfolio, book, etc. In which case, though, you’re better off doing a few gigs for free.

@Barbara: Well, I guess that’s why our government (rightly) worries about monopolies. Competition is a good incentive to improve (usually).

@Hunter: Don’t get me started about my run-in with AT&T and Dish Network — well, hmm…maybe that would make a good post…

Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..Treading Water Only Delays Drowning

That is correct that one disgruntled customer will be replaced with an unsuspecting one in many cases. The sad part is that these companies prey on those unsuspecting ones, knowing “there’s always more where they came from”.

It’s sad as the customer becomes the victim. Personally, I don’t know how those that treat their customers badly, or don’t follow through on their promises can sleep at night, let alone look at themselves in the mirror.

And we’re suppose to feel sorry for them when they go belly up. Not!

What goes around, comes around. Personally, I would hate to always be looking over my shoulder.

Barbara’s last blog post..Me And The Blog – Till Death Do Us Part

For those places that sell cheaply priced goods, how much of that profit goes into employee salaries, product exchanges and returns and replacements, employee educational programs, and advancement opportunities and other incentives?

I never thought of that, and that’s absolutely true. If someone is selling cheap, then cutbacks have to happen. The first area of cutbacks is going to be the quality – and that’s across the board. Quality of product, of service, of training, of processes.

Companies that focus on this cheap mindset don’t care a damn about the people who buy from them or the people who work for them. No wonder service sucks.

James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..Don’t Be Efficient if You Want a Successful Business

And this why it’s important never to put your business in a position where you’re competing on price only.

I would much rather pay more for better customer service everytime.

CatherineL’s last blog post..Entrepreneurs Who Ignore Emails and Middleborn Children