"If you get up early to go Christmas shopping today,
you can save a ton of money.
Of course, if you roll over and say, 'Screw shopping this year,'
you can save even more.”
~ Maxine
Maxine may be on to something. Black Friday is a day that has become infamous in the annals of consumer shopping, so maybe it's better if everyone just turned off their alarm clocks, went back to sleep and skipped the madness.
“A restaurant is a fantasy--a kind of living fantasy in which diners
are the most important members of the cast.” ~ Warner LeRoy
Mr. LeRoy, the late and flamboyant restaurateur who owned the famed Tavern on the Green and Maxwell’s Plum in Manhattan among other other famous restaurants, and who was the son of Mervyn LeRoy, producer of the beloved 1939 fantasy film, The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, believed rightly so that diners (customers) are the most important cast members (stars) of the restaurant show. He felt strongly that dining out in a restaurant should be a show. And, we know that the show cannot go on without its stars.
Would Macy’s Tell Gimbels?
The time-honored adage above refers to the legendary rivalry between two great New York-based department stores. In the end, Gimbels-- which owned Saks Fifth Avenue, was where Lucy Ricardo shopped, and which started a Thanksgiving Day Parade four years before Macy’s did -- closed its doors. Macy’s, of course, is still around. And, while stores can go out of business because of mergers, acquisitions and poor management, the deciding factor in a department store’s success or failure is its ability to attract, retain and increase the numbers of customers who shop there.
“Anybody who’s ever worked in a grocery store or shopped in a grocery store knows that bagging is the heart and soul, the very lifeblood, of the American food industry.” ~ David Letterman
Knowing how to bag properly is one of the most important skills that anyone who works in a supermarket can possess. And, although the above quote by the illustrious talk show star might be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the supermarket bagger might well be the unsung hero of the industry.
“A person buying ordinary products in a supermarket is in touch with his deepest emotions.” ~ John Kenneth Galbraith, U.S. Economist
The observation that an ordinary task can be an emotional experience is a concept that anyone who works in a supermarket should understand about its customers. Developing empathy for and respecting customers is key to the success of all retail enterprises. But why is this especially so for a supermarket?
Jeanne Nelson 