Supermarket or Superwarehouse?

I’m walking through a Loblaws Supermarket in Toronto yesterday and started thinking; “This is not an efficient way to sell stuff”. And this led me to thinking that 20 years or less from now, we’ll look back at how people used to shop for weekly sustenance. This Loblaws store is huge with; high ceilings, wide isles, fresh fish, a pharmacy, a bakery and was one of the first to offer self check out.  All of this costs a lot of money to install and maintain and I have not as yet mentioned stock evaporation (aka shoplifting; one chain in T&T I know budgets 1 % of gross sales, so it has become a planned item)  In spite of all of this at

Loblaws, the experience is pretty blah.  You have thousands of choices but the experience is ordinary.  It could be that I caught them on their recovery day after the weekend crowds.  But I don’t think that’s the problem.  (more…)

In a world in which more and more average work can be done by a computer, robot or talented foreigner faster, cheaper “and just as well,” vanilla does not cut it anymore. It’s all about what chocolate sauce, whipped cream and cherry you can put on top.
- Daniel Pink, the author of  A Whole New Mind

When the boss and her hr manager and CFO are sitting late on a Friday afternoon trying to figure our who to keep and who to let go, what side of the pink slip divide would you be on? Are you an untouchable? And when the promotions and raises start coming again, will your name be called? (more…)