Cultural Loss

One of my mentors, Ed Chinn, recently sent me an email chronicaling the woes of our airline industry. It centered on the fact that airlines seemed to be looking to push customers to the brink of hating air travel. They charge for bags, charge to change a ticket, charge to use flyer miles, etc. It made me recall some other industries that have lost something over the past couple decades and I wrote this reply:

Back in the late 80’s, early 90’s I remember Nordstrom running a focus group. It was reported that they found people were more price conscious than service oriented. Nordstrom decided to get rid of seasoned professionals and instead hire lower wage entry level folks who would essentially run the checkout and stock the shelves. No more shopper help or real sales help would be offered. Lots of retail outlets followed suit and now if you have a question, nobody in these stores knows the answer. Customer service was deemed to be too expensive and not highly valued in our culture, so they stopped paying for it. I think the result is that there’s really no difference now between Nordstrom and Target. The perceived value of buying at Nordstrom is pretty well gone.

Home Depot used to be a place that hired people who knew how to do home repairs. There were specialists in the plumbing department to make sure you could get everything you needed for a repair in one trip. Lowes had lower prices because they hired 18 year old shelf stockers. They could tell you which aisle to go to but that was it. I remember the last trip I made to a smaller chain in FL. I was looking for a soldering gun and nobody knew what I was talking about. After describing it to one “helpful” person he pointed me to the electric drills. I left and never returned to that store.

Remember when you had to go talk to a teller in order to get your money from the bank? Then they decided they could have shorter lines by putting in an ATM. Now you pay for the privilege of NOT talking to a teller to get your money. Does the ATM actually cost the bank money? Is that cost actually higher than a teller’s salary?

Remember when you could go to a bakery in your neighborhood and buy fresh bread? Remember when there was a neighborhood butcher with fresh meat? Are there any bakeries in your neighborhood anymore? Any butchers?

The American way seems to have transformed our country into a homogenous mega store where convenience and low prices reign supreme. Trouble is, those prices aren’t very low anymore and we’ve lost something of our culture. And how is it convenient for me to park a mile from the mega store only to find that when I get to the entrance I have another mile to walk to get to the section I want? Is it really important for me to be able to purchase my bananas, home theatre system and jeans all in the same store? I don’t travel that much but I’ll bet that I could travel to the 30 largest cities in America and eat at the same restaurant each time (fast food or high end), shop at the same store and of course I’d see the same entertainment, same souvenirs etc.

Why travel anymore? There’s nothing new to see.