Reply #4: Here's the honest truth:

[Pale Blue Dot]

I used to be the General Manager of a Staples store. About two years ago, my district was selected for a test: we were given double the normal amount of payroll hours for our computer department. The thought was that with more service help, sales and profits would increase. The employees, including myself, were 100% behind this idea, so we pushed customer service HARD during the test.

The truth? Averaged over 4 districts across the country, there was about a 2% sales increase vs. a 40% increase in payroll. The numbers didn't add up.

In these stores, 90% of a sales clerk's life is waiting for a customer. The other 10% of the time is when EVERYONE comes in, and of that remaining 10%, 90% of that is spent dealing with 1 customer who has 1,000,000 questions and who then often leaves without buying anything.

ALSO keep in mind the following statistics. Do you know how much, on average, a tech store makes selling a laptop or a printer? Somewhere between -2 and 5% profit. On the other hand, we could sell a USB cable that cost us $1.98 for $24.99.

Please understand that I've left the industry to teach middle-schoolers, so I have no particular ax to grind anymore. I left retail partly because I think that the big-box corporate model is a disaster. I just place a ton of the blame on the average consumer, who will spend an hour with a clerk who gives him great service, and answers all his questions, only to then go across the street to a poor-service store that is selling the same laptop for $50 cheaper.