THE VIEW FROM THE BOTTOM |
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The blog for those just a lottery win away from wealth 
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Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Visit "The Independent Writer" and have a good laugh on Jim Ippolito RETAILERS WAIL AT NO SALES Here we go again, another holiday season gone bust for retailers. How many consecutive years is this now? Who or what is being blamed for this year's flop? How many more years of this will we have? OK, I didn't attend Harvard Business School, probably because I never applied, but here's my take on this now annual situation. Sales figures suck because people don't have enough money. There, I said it. Now that should qualify me for an honorary degree from Harvard. I mean, no one else seems to be able to figure it out. Not the retailers, not the high priced consultants they employ, not the manufacturers, no one, but me. The next question is obvious, "Why don't people have enough money for a good old-fashioned holiday splurge?" Answer: People don't have jobs, and those who do aren't paid enough. OK, now I'm up for an honorary Masters Degree. Why not? It seems that none of the think tanks charged with figuring out this dilema have realized what I just said. Or, have they and no one wants to admit it? Corporate America listen up! You can't have it both ways. You can't ship jobs overseas whether by outsourcing, or by relocating your factories to take advantage of your beloved "cheap foreign labor," and still expect the dollars that go to these countries to be spent in stores in America, that sell 90% foreign made goods, that you also own under another corporation. Have I now earned an honorary PhD? Free advice to Corporate America: 1) Take a few hundred billion from your grossly overpaid CEOs and the rest of the alphabet soup crowd and spend it in your own stores on items for orphaned kids and the truly needy. This will probably qualify as a tax deduction too. 2) Call your offshore employees and invite them to America to spend some of the dollars they've earned. This should at least make your greedy shareholders happy; some of whom might even reside in America. HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Monday, December 15, 2003
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