on 8/31/01 9:30 AM, Gerard Naude at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Again....
> This e-mail is not meant to offend anyone.
No offense taken. I quite agree with you.
IMHO, a big part of this can be laid at the feet of retailers. You have no
idea how many times I've tried to find something at a local store only to be
completely stymied by the "80% of the market" mentality. In other words, if
they think that 80% of the customers that walk through the door might buy a
particular item at one time or another, they'll carry that item, otherwise,
forget it. Even worse, they seem to be a very poor judge of what new items
fall into those categories; making those items unlikely to EVER reach the
market saturation they're after.
I've seen this most frequently in computer stores, but I've also seen it in
other stores. For example, there have been many times when I've needed a
SCSI cable for a customer Right Now and I can't find a single vendor in the
area that stocks them. Or try and find a vendor that stocks DDS3 or DDS4
backup tapes. (They're higher capacity DAT tapes.) I've only ever been able
to find DDS2's in stock even though they're two generations old. Or even try
and find a tape backup unit with enough capacity to handle the
middle-of-the-road machines they have rotting away in the computer isle!
In short, I'm afraid our college MBA (with no real world experience) driven
sales and distribution systems are so thoroughly against taking risks of any
kind that they're drowning in mediocrity. In fact, it seems that the
mediocrity mentality is far too prevalent here in the U.S. among the general
population. Our problems with MD are just the tip of the iceberg.
'Sorry for the rant. I just HAD to get that off my chest. :-}
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ed "What the" Heckman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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| In a single day, Samson slew a thousand Philistines with the |
| jawbone of an ass. Every day, thousands of dreams are killed |
| with the same weapon. |
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