Opening Soon Near You (and you and you and you)!!

With the holiday season now wrapped up down at the cafe, I am inclined to pose this question. Why do the people behind the "corporate machine" lack simple understanding in regards to expansion and profit? I would truly like to believe that these men and women got behind these figurative desks because they were a little smart. When does that disappear into the moronic corporate mindset?

Let me explain the particular item I am reflecting on. Back when I was pouring coffee for Starbucks I was shocked when district managers would in one breathe celebrate a new store opening and in the other condemn a store for losing any business to them. We would see 2 stores open on either side of my store and our business would drop. I do not fault expansion, nor do I fail to see how lowering profits can concern owners. However, if you set up your own best competition, you will lose on one side or the other. It seemed like a cruel joke to hear that we were still expected to keep up our numbers. The kind of joke that you would expect after a moment or two to hear the person laugh so hard they drop their crack pipe.

"Cannibalizing ourselves" was the term I started to hear.

Well, working for Starbucks, you couldn't really ignore that they wanted expansion at all costs. Maybe that's why they were just compared to McDonald's in the recent Chicago funny pages. What surprised me a little is that that formula is standard. American Girl used to have just the one full store here in Chicago. Then New York. That did alright. Then LA. That did not do as well. Logically, they just needed to open more stores. They picked the heart of the Chicago store's demographic and set up TWO new stores! Makes sense right? What defies logic is that they then turned around, just like the morons in the coffee empire, and blamed the Chicago store for the dropping numbers. I actually had one crazy manager that said it was all because of bad servers in the cafe (namely my job).

Now, that manager was crazy but he was also doing exactly what he was taught.

I am all for capitalism and love to see success stories. However, there is an ugly bastard of an impersonator out there trying to claim the same victory. I do not have much affinity for American Girl or Starbucks themselves, but I do know a lot of good people that work for them while trying to get a break in their fields. These are the hard working folks that go to work each morning after band practice the night before or work a mid-shift on legs cramped from hours of dance classes. They are the folks that get up before dawn to open the coffee shop because they have rehearsal all night for a show they are hoping will draw an audience. They are the single Moms and Dads trying to take care of their families. These are the people that get stuck with the blame on the corporate model because ,it would seem to me, they just don't have anyone else to slide it down to. That's what pisses me off.

If you are still reading this, I applaud you (and thank you) for hearing me out. It is nothing we don't all seem to know, but I just needed to vent it.