Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 14, 1992 TAG: 9201140336
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ARE RETAILERS DRIVING PEOPLE'S BUSINESS AWAY?
HARDLY a day passes that you do not hear something about the rough shape of the economy. Woes of the retailer are abundant on the radio, in the newspaper and nightly on television news. It seems that all retail business is suffering from "consumeritis" - the lack of consumers with dollars.The other evening, my wife asked me to accompany her to return a pair of shoes she had purchased four weeks ago from a local name-brand discount shoe chain. She paid $50 for the shoes and had worn them eight to 10 times during the period. The leather on the heels had worn off, so much in some places that the plastic showed through.
Now in this day of living within a budget, this might be acceptable with a $10 to $12 pair of shoes, but when you spend $50, you expect them to last longer than four weeks. I will spare you all of the rhetoric and simply say that in the end we still possess the defective shoes, and needless to say I have a very upset wife.
Retailers beware! How this story will end is still undecided, but we just finished adding up the sales receipts from this store from the last 4 1/2 years. The total with tax is slightly more than $950, and that is assuming we have not lost any of the receipts.
My question to all the retailers who are crying from the lack of business is: How much is true recession, and how much is being run off by inexperienced sales personnel and management who have forgotten what repeat business means, or who simply don't care?
I am sure there are still some businesses that would like to have our next four years' business and the word-of-mouth advertising that can't be bought.
JAMES M. SNIDOW JR.
ROANOKE