Wella--
I can't speak for Scott's friend (and have no personal knowledge of him whatsoever). He was probably a great guy who was caught in a tough situation. (This is the only sincere and straightforward paragraph in this entire post.)
What I can say, theoretically, is that at some hypothetical stores, the people who may have been given severance packagess might possibly have been those that
A) sold a heck of a lot of stuff
B) promised customers things that couldn't possibly happen to enusre A)
C) had more returns than anyone else, while leaving many others to clean up their messes
D) insured that those customers never came back
E) all the while making life hellish for their coworkers, by stealing any customer close to buying
F) knew a great deal more about how to close a sale than about the merchandise
Some crazy folks might even believe that a person who doesn't have a vested interest in the customer buying the most expensive equipment as quickly as possible might improve repeat business substantially. Of course, those people would clearly be delusional, since they would clearly subscribe to the just-plain-silly notions that
A) Customers often figure out when they've been hoodwinked
B) Stores like Walmart, where the "sales force" is less well trained than Twinkies {tm}, do very well at repeat business and profit margins (well, total profits, anyway
)
C) Some customers appreciate being given space when making a buying decision
D) Some customers would rather have unbiased advice from a cretin than listen to a shark tell them why they won't survive another minute without the latest in Bose goodness.
E) Repeat business is basically bunk anyway. 90% of consumers will switch stores in a heart beat if they think they'll get a better deal (yeah, I made that number up out of thin air). It's hard to blame those consumers, either-- given the treatment they consistently get from corporate America.
It's possible that some people (who would clearly be in need of immediate hospitalization) might feel that way, but YMMV,
Me
Disclaimer-- this late in the evening on this little sleep, I have no idea if I even speak for myself, let alone any other person, entity, or organization. If anything I say offends, please understand that it was meant as humor, even if I rarely actually manage to ascend to the point of inducing a feeble grin.
Disclaimer^2-- Folks, please don't assume you know my actual opinions from this piece of hyperbole. I'm not even sure what those are yet, other than that we live in a crazy world where people often do things that make it even crazier than it has to be.
