Big Box Stores Loyalty to Performance Only

The Big Box retail plan is not self-sustaining and it is time we accepted that we are just pawns in the Chief Financial Officers’ board game of economics.

Wal-Mart: Retail Chain to Close 269 Stores, Eliminating 16,000 Jobs

The decision to close the stores is "necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future," Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon said in an announcement Friday.

There is really only one measure that the CFO’s use to determine if a store stays in operation and that is simply profitability. It is largely why most of the goods sold in these operations are manufactured off shore and mostly in China now, I would think. So, in our efforts to get a “good deal” we sacrifice local jobs (manufacturing and ultimately retail) to support their board games.

I truly believe it is time for the sales and marketing focus of business to return to North America (assuming you live in North America) which is a more probable way to employ folks locally. So I look more carefully at labels for where it is manufactured and try to buy things that are not made in China and buy North American production, if I can find it. I also don’t shop at big box stores much anymore. I do occasionally buy from their online locations for items I can’t get in my local neighbourhood which is not very often now at my stage of life—retired.

So if you see a Big Box store with a closed/for sale/available sign on it. Just remember that it did not meet the minimum performance scale of the CFO and all former employees are out of a job. Maybe you should go back to your local retailer but it too has probably closed its doors a long time ago when you switched your loyalty to the “good deal”.

Sadly, that is the way of retail sales in today’s world. Soon it will be mostly online so maybe get a job with a courier service since they will still have to deliver it to your door. But I am sure the CFO there is pushing for more and more automation since it is cheaper in the long run, on paper.

Who the #$%& ever let those dumb-asses get in charge?! The CEO’s in this world only have themselves to blame but I guess they don’t really get too concerned since they get a rather large salary to make those dumb decisions.

I wonder what will become of all those big box buildings that close down. Maybe this is just another electronic board game for the CFO to play with the CEO.