I was asked to examine a small business for a client.
There was no other pharmacy for five miles in every
direction and the present one seemed to be more odds
and ends than medication.
What immediately struck me were the odds and ends.
This pharmacy should have had five or six full time
pharmacists and half the floorspace should have been
the RX department.
Instead of magazine and cards and baby things, and books,
and shampoos and lotions and over the counter medication,
and hair dye, gifts and stationery, this should have been
a far busier enterprise.
After all, one can buy many of these items at the
supermarket or one of the haberdasheries.
I entered the premises to see a rather surly cashier at the
front of the store, a lurking security guard, as I made my
way to the rear where the Pharmacy proper was.
There was another surly clerk, and behind her were the
pharmacists to whom she would pass one's prescription.
I busied myself with the novels noticing how the process went
and could see nothing truly offensive although the attitude
of the clerks was not friendly.
One of the customers went to pay by credit card and
was told that the line was "busy".
At this point I pushed myself over with my credit card as if
to buy a book and was given the same response. I made a bit
of a fuss and was told that the owner was on the phone.
"Yes, but I want to pay for this book."
"You'll have to wait."
"Why don't you tell the owner that the line is needed?"
The clerk looked at me as if I had asked her to perform
unspeakable acts with a goat.
I realized the problem with this concern was the owner.
Although I didn't look at pay slips, I had the feeling
the staff felt underpaid. Although I don't know the
owner, the fact that she didn't have a separate line
for the credit card suggested she was rather a Scrooge
type.
That the staff was "afraid" to "disturb" her while she
was on the phone, even when at the cost of a lost sale,
seemed sufficient "proof" to me.
The other credit card customer, emboldened by my remarks,
began to talk loud and go through a litany of how many
times he'd come here and it was the same delay.
I left the Pharmacy, wrote a report for my client, basically
indicating that there was no "good will" in that business.
The price of purchase, by necessity, dropped, and my client
purchased the Pharmacy and whatever he did, within a few
weeks the surly cashier was gone, the sour clerks were
smiling, and another line, dedicated to credit cards, was
installed.
The Pharmacy Section was jammed and he decided to sell off
a lot of the odds and ends to gain a bit more space for that
area.
Sometimes a business isn't doing well because of the person
who owns it.
