Where In Hell Did We Go Wrong?

[cloudy]

What I remember about Penny's back in the day, was that they had this cool ass little tramway type thingy that ran between the cashiers station on the floor, and the office which was up above on a balcony, and cash and receipts would be shuttled back and forth in that way.

Fascinating stuff to a child.

Back in 1990, I was transferred to a town that had an OLD (as in opened in the 20's) JCP and my task was to shut it down, and open a new anchor store at the mall.

The tubes were long gone by then, of course, but when we were cleaning out the stockroom towards the end, we found a box of those shuttle things. We kept a few of them, just because.

We also had a company come in and take up the glazed tile mosaic sign from the sidewalk, restore it, and put it in a framed case, which we then moved to the new store.

When I worked there, JCP treated their employees extremely well. I only left because we moved where it wasn't feasible for me to drive that far for work every day. From what I've heard since then, though, they've completely reorganized the way they do things, and now are close to how you describe Walmart. When I was there, each department was like a separate little store, and run accordingly. That's why people stayed as long as they did - satisfaction was high.

 

[xssve]

Right, the pneumatic tubes. This would have been back in the late Sixties, my Mom would take me shopping for school clothes or shoes.

It was hugely different back then, these modern management techniques, started creeping in during the corporate raids of the Ninties, middle management was the target, and blamed for the low productivity.

Fact was, productivity mostly stalled due to the limits of technology, it didn't rise as the result of "restructuring", which mostly turned a lot of older people out on the street, their jobs shipped to the Pacific Rim, their pensions funds squandered on speculation, Indonesian and Phillipine Gold mines that weren't there, etc.

Lot of people living in the street, old retired couples living in RV's and flipping burgers etc., it was ugly.

 

[xssve]

Stock market went crazy of course, so it was a "miracle".

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Sam Walton wasnt all that nice. Apparently his wife (where he got the money to go into business) was a harridan, and Old Sam liked to stay gone from home as often as possible. So he'd blow into town aboard one of his delivery trucks, confiscate the manager's car, then vanish until the car was out of gas or seriously in need of repairs (he took them in the woods). Eventually the wife made him buy an airplane so he had no excuses not to be home at night.

Three years ago I worked at a WAL-MART during the holiday period. It was the closest I've ever been to slavery. I hated every minute of it. After six weeks I blew up at the assistant manager, told him I was not his goddamned mule, and clocked out. This particular assistant manager was later fired for stealing HDTVs and blaming the peons for the thefts, but he got caught after security set him up. The other assistant manager was fired after he ordered an employee to do heavy lefting following abdominal surgery. She had a light duty ticket, but he made her hoist some heavy cartons, and her guts spilled out all over the floor.

 

[xssve]

I've always had my suspicions.

 

[cloudy]

Sam Walton wasnt all that nice. Apparently his wife (where he got the money to go into business) was a harridan, and Old Sam liked to stay gone from home as often as possible. So he'd blow into town aboard one of his delivery trucks, confiscate the manager's car, then vanish until the car was out of gas or seriously in need of repairs (he took them in the woods). Eventually the wife made him buy an airplane so he had no excuses not to be home at night.

That's not where he got the money. I've explained it in some detail in a PM to xxsve, but I'll c&p here:

He even got his beginning stake from JCP.

Up through the time I left, you could purchase JCP stock through payroll deductions, and they would match up to 8% of your yearly pay in more stock. Mr. Penney believed in giving associates (his word, not Walton's) a stake in the business, correctly reasoning that they would work harder, have some pride in something they owned part of. Regular associates got a smaller percentage, but managers' percentage was up to 8%.

It added up extremely quickly, as you can imagine, and after ten years or so at JCP, Walton sold his shares, and opened Walmart.

I bought our first house with mine.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

CLOUDY

I've read a variety of books about Walton, so what I know is what I read.

There are a couple of official biographies of his floating around, and there are some biographies written by his business associates.

The business associates say that Sam's father-in-law opened the doors and pulled strings for Sam. And the father-in-law was wealthy.

 

[cloudy]

CLOUDY

I've read a variety of books about Walton, so what I know is what I read.

There are a couple of official biographies of his floating around, and there are some biographies written by his business associates.

I'm sure there are.

This is what I learned long ago, when I worked for JCP. They weren't as likely to give Walton a pass on the truth in favor of making him some kind of marketing icon.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

CLOUDY

I dont mean to steal any of Sam's thunder; he did pretty okay regardless of how it happened, but he wasnt Horatio Alger.

 

[cloudy]

CLOUDY

I dont mean to steal any of Sam's thunder; he did pretty okay regardless of how it happened, but he wasnt Horatio Alger.

Exactly.

He wasn't the "innovator" people claim he was.

 

[xssve]

Theoretically, supply side theory was supposed to address the stagflation that resulted form the Kennedy tax cuts.

These cuts increased consumption dramatically, much faster than he productivity rate, which remained flat - the result was steadily increasing demand against relatively flat supply - inflation.

Supply side theory sought to divert more capital into the investment side in the hopes of increasing capital investment rates (improvements) that would increase productivity and ease inflation.

At this time, the newest technology was lean manufacturing, out of Japan, the Japanese improvement on Henry Ford's mass production.

Computer technology was not quite so far advanced at that time however, and rather than make improvements, corporate raiders seized the reins and simply began selling off entire firms, shipping the old equipment to China, which did, in fact, ease consumer inflation a bit eventually, once the steady stream of cheap Chinese commodities started flooding the market.

This didn't happen until the Nineties, and meanwhile, the rapid commodification of computer technology and the availability of the internet finally started productivity rates rising again.

Unfortunately, we've already sold off the bulk of our manufacturing base, what's left is mostly retail. Once the computer market was saturated and dropped off, Microsoft had locked up the OS market, killing off third party software development, and the Bush administration killed off promising public and private investment in alternative energy and biotech, all that was left was Agribusiness and real estate speculation.

Agribusiness was heavily subsidized, as was the arms trade, and a real estate bubble started to finance the whole operation.

Insofar as we mere cogs are concerned, micro manufacturing holds a certain degree of promise: with the market increasingly flooded with generic Chinese manufactured goods, the demand for unique, hand crafted merchandise has increased, and there is a steadily increasing demand for one of a kind, home manufactured merchandise - the last issue of Wired has an article on it.

This is an application of lean manufacturing that nobody really thought about, as the focus was on mass manufacturing, and the ability of Lean Manufacturing technologies to produce small batch runs of unique goods at low cost is still largely absent, mostly visible in cell phones, which have a very short product cycle.

Meantime, the demand for truly unique, handcrafted merchandise, should remain steady as long as people have money to spend on it.

A woman up in Santa Fe for example, hand beads tennis shoes and such, she actually got started back in the Eighties, and her shoes were going for well over a Grand a pair back then, very popular in Hollywood, etc.

 

[xssve]

He even got his beginning stake from JCP.

Up through the time I left, you could purchase JCP stock through payroll deductions, and they would match up to 8% of your yearly pay in more stock. Mr. Penney believed in giving associates (his word, not Walton's) a stake in the business, correctly reasoning that they would work harder, have some pride in something they owned part of. Regular associates got a smaller percentage, but managers' percentage was up to 8%.

It added up extremely quickly, as you can imagine, and after ten years or so at JCP, Walton sold his shares, and opened Walmart.

I bought our first house with mine.

Modern management calculates inventory "evaporation" rates against employee compensation, and usually, it's more profitable to deal with turnover costs and inventory losses rather than increase employee compensation.

It's the logic of stock profitability.

 

[cloudy]

Modern management calculates inventory "evaporation" rates against employee compensation, and usually, it's more profitable to deal with turnover and inventory losses rather than increase employee compensation.

It's the logic of stock profitability.

I think that'll change soon, if it hasn't already.

Employee turnover is ungodly expensive, even without figuring in the loss of management time.

 

[xssve]

I think that'll change soon, if it hasn't already.

Employee turnover is ungodly expensive, even without figuring in the loss of management time.

Depends on the industry, it's still usually cheaper to hire a steady stream of minimum wage employees than try to retain trained ones in service industries - the increase in minimum wage might change that to some degree, it compensated for the labor market distortions the Fed has created by manipulating the labor supply via monetarist policy to keep wages low, and investors and stockholders happy.

That and kicking out all the Mexicans.

Anyway, the Steampunk mods in 3113's signature is another example of a reasonably lucrative home based, micromanufacturing business.

 

[xssve]

This pair probably went for a couple of Grand.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_bf1mRD9frFs/Rv6L7ZMfWQI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/hyVAXGzDvAo/s640/P1010061%20%282%29.JPG

 

[cloudy]

This pair probably went for a couple of Grand.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_bf1mRD9frFs/Rv6L7ZMfWQI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/hyVAXGzDvAo/s640/P1010061%20%282%29.JPG

If you consider the time that went into them, two grand is damn cheap.

Beading takes an ungodly amount of time.

 

[xssve]

Ah, here's an article, she gave an exhibition at Ft. Lewis, a local college.

Nationally acclaimed Kiowa artist Teri Greeves will show a one-person exhibition of her work at the Fort Lewis College Art Gallery from Nov. 1-18, 2004.

Greeves’ credentials are impressive. Her beadwork has won numerous awards nationally and her work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., the Denver Art Museum, the Heard Museum in Phoenix and the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University in Rhode Island, among other museums and private collections. This exhibition brings together works from several private collections.

While everybody else was making fun of artsy craftsy types while working three jobs and bitching about low pay, she was raking it in. She's one of my hero's.

 

[xssve]

If you consider the time that went into them, two grand is damn cheap.

Beading takes an ungodly amount of time.

Unquestionably, and I might have lowballed it.

 

[xssve]

I've got to learn to sew, I have numerous designs for, uh... leather goods.

One of these days I'm going to put my Boy Scout Leatherworking merit badge to work.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Modern management calculates inventory "evaporation" rates against employee compensation, and usually, it's more profitable to deal with turnover costs and inventory losses rather than increase employee compensation.

It's the logic of stock profitability.

VERY TRUE. THE WAY WAL-MART DOES IT IS LIKE THIS: If a customer gets hurt fleeing the store from security, the medical expense comes out of employee compensation; if an assistant manager breaks a pallet of wine unloading it off the truck, the cost of the wine comes out of employee compensation; if the store does super with little theft, breakage, or injuries...the manager's bonus comes out of employee compensation.

 

[xssve]

There ya go.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

It's true. Thats how they operate. Everything from prosecuting shoplifters to the Christmas Party comes out of employee compensation. The whole amount gives management bragging rights and spares the shareholders earnings.

I mean, management can go to Washington to brag about allocating $1000 for every employee, but $998.98 of it goes for store expenses.

 

[xssve]

Another Native American woman from NM back in the Eighties/Ninties found a supplier of soles in Asia, made Mukluks out of blanket pattern Fleece, hand glued the soles on herself and made a killing up in Alaska.

 

[xssve]

It's true. Thats how they operate. Everything from prosecuting shoplifters to the Christmas Party comes out of employee compensation. The whole amount gives management bragging rights and spares the shareholders earnings.

I mean, management can go to Washington to brag about allocating $1000 for every employee, but $998.98 of it goes for store expenses.

And you guys call it "progress".

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

There is only one good injun...BILLY JACK.