People-centric New Years post

I saw a headline from the Grand Rapids Press last week which has been sitting on my floor. The headline read "Store Return Policies Tightening". While this does not surprise me, it does make me want to think about the implications. Whie I was thinking about how I felt, I also surfed across a Yahoo article about new airline screening technolgies like MIND READING which are being developed t insure "safe travel".

It seems like instead of working together to make a better world, we are more concerned with hoarding our way of life or catching and punishing "bad people". I will admit this, I am no terrorist, but I have probably brought back a kids toy to Meijers which was received at Christmas, but not originally bought at Meijer. These things seems very different, but are closely connected.

How many millions of people go through the Detroit airport per year? But we are really worried that one person might get through with evil intentions. So soon we will all submit to a brain scan or underwear search to weed out anyone who might try and fail to light his underwear on fire. Folks, there are well funded people using your fears to control you. Yes, if we are not careful the terrorists might blow up an airplane. Why are we not trying to bring these people to realize how horrific this is? Why do these people think that lighting their underwear on fire and blowing up a plane is honorable? We don't need better security, we need better understanding.

Now can I connect it back??? Meijer and other retailers will tell you that returns need to be controlled to control theft in stores. The theory is that people steal stuff and return it for cash...
-Probably true as there are many less people working as cashiers to stop theft these days (later I will write about how annoying self checkouts are for me). But in truth a big store with a good prevention process in place only loses 2% per year at most from admin errors, shrinkage, internal theft and all the other categories. I will say that 2% of 35 million is significant, but the stores are set up to be big and automated and this system is how it is... (For history, I was a home improvement store manager in one of my other job lives).

So here it is, the real deal, stores are tightening up returns, because they just don't want to deal with you.... WHAT .. REALLY?
Yes, here it is, the single biggest controllable expense for a store manager is labor. Looser return policies mean that more are people needed to deal with what you bring back. The truth is, if there is a mountain of returns, it takes staff time to inspect them and return them to shelves, or get credit from the manufacturer or ship them back, or write them off and destroy them.

The biggest bummer is that as we dedicate ourselves to cheaper imports, we will see more returns needed, more service for defects, and less ability from stores to take items back. Over Christmas my laptop power supply went bad. I Googled the item number and found an online retailer to replace it. The part showed up with a power cord which did not fit the power supply. For two weeks I have been battling with a service person with little or no Engrish skills to just get the cord switched. Six months ago, I swore to hell online I would never ever visit a Best Buy again after my wifes Canon Camera needed service 17 after purchase, and Best Buy would do nothing for me and treated me like dirt. ( For the record, Canon stepped in and fixed it, Best Buy never satisfied me at all).

We pay for convenience, we pay for cheap imports, we pay for convenient fast travel... Meijers, Best Buy, the Uxcell online retailer, and Al Queda all know this. For every rule there is a way to take advantage. Since 9/11, we have lost our innocence. We did not realize ( and still don't) how good we had it in the 50's, through the 1990's. And there is whole class of people who exist only to get themselves re-elected and give their buddies free turns at the feeding trough. My gut tells me that rather than trying to preserve our hallowed traditions, we should be working to see how we can lead the way toward a better tomorrow, because right now people don't see how they will get the positive future that they desire. We would be better off tripling the peace corp, and laying off airline security. Let's show the world how we can just be good people, not cynical self serving a-holes all the time.

-My rant for New Years

P.S. My vows for a New Year are as follows:
1. Do more good than evil
2. Love more fully and chill out with my family
3. Do at least five concerts, soundguy three for Dave, and produce at least three by year-end.
4. Get further out of debt and closer to being okay with my finances. (they aren't bad, but I can't afford a layoff certainly)...
5. Finish the master degree and devote more time to my family (see #2 above).
6. Did I say more love, and less stress???

-Peace to the world