On 2/4/2010 11:01 AM, Bob Sullivan wrote:
Bill,
You got me on the milk example. I wouldn't pay them extra and would
stop shopping with them. Does this mean I will stop shopping at B&H
because somebody complained? Not until I see higher prices or
experience bad service.
On the Pareto rule (80/20), McD's gets 76% or their business from 26%
of the population who visit the stores once per week or more often.
Keeping these people happy and coming back is really important. The
rest - not so much.
Vegans? Not a very big part of the customer base. Vegetarian food?
Not enough interest for McD's to offer it. 74% of the population
doesn't visit McD's in a week and your not interested in them? You're
damned right! (Nobody says this but if I was running the railroad...)
The product and services offered do not appeal strongly to these
folks or fit into their lifestyles. And offering products and
services that do is too damned expensive. (I'm a dirty capitalist
stockholder now and insist McD's make a profit on it's enterprise.)
You can't be all things to all people. Focus, focus, focus on the
part of the customer population that you can serve profitably.
(And I can see that I'll have to teach you about profit in a fast food
restaurant. The meat sandwiches have the lowest profit margins and
the highest cost. For drinks, the cup probably costs as much as the
liquid inside of it. Great margins on drinks! I enjoy going to
Burger King and buying a 99 cent double cheeseburger - just the
sandwich, no drink or fries. It's my guerilla effort to help them go
out of business!)
Regards, Bob S.
That's what I do at McD's. Not necessary to make them go out of
business, but then my Cousin owns, (last I knew), 8 Burger Kings, (or
rather the bank owns >50% of those stores, she runs them and takes a
share of the profits), and I'd rather buy a loss leader from the
competition, (plus McD's double cheese tastes more like a cheeseburger
is /supposed/ to taste).
On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 8:48 AM, William Robb<war...@gmail.com> wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Sullivan"
Subject: Re: Myopic Bulls**t Artists
Bill R, after your retail experiences, I can't believe you want to
keep that last 10% of the asshole customers who cause you all those
problems.
First, the number of "problem customers" is nowhere near that high, i would
say less than 1/10 of 1%, and no, you encourage them to shop elsewhere. If
you have a good business model, customers who want to cause problems don't
get to do so.
If you refuse to serve 10% of the people who walk in your door, you will
very quickly find yourself in a position where no one comes in any longer.
I mean really Bob, you retailed hamburgers for at least some your working
career, did you see 10% of your customers as undesirable? Did wanting to
look after their health and refusing the high profit "Supersize" option
cause you to want to kick their sorry asses out the door for having anti
corporate thoughts?
Did you refuse to serve the people who just stopped in for a coffee because
they were a low profit maker for you?
What if they didn't want an order of fries with the Filet O Fish? Kick them
out because they stole your profit margin on the meal?
Lets get real here for just a moment. You serve who comes in your door. It's
what you take on when you open a store, whether you are flogging hamburgers
ar cameras.
And when a customer brings a mis marked item to the till, you sell it to him
for the price it is marked at, you don't villify him because you fucked up.
I asked Paul this, though it went unanswered, I suspect because it would
have gone against the cheerleading he was doing for Robin Hood Photo, so
I'll ask you as well.
You take a quart of milk up to the cash register and are told that the price
marked is actually per pint even though it clearly indicates per quart on
the price tag.
Do you happily pay double?
And
Do you think that the store has a right to brand you as a "problem" if you
object?
I am interested to read your thoughts on this.
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