[ottoboney]

There is a CVS near me that feels like a horrible dystopia that you don’t need an MBA to understand why it isn’t performing well.

Everything is locked up, even items below $5 and you need to find an employee to get a key.

There is only 1 employee in the store, when I was there she was also elderly and obese. She has to run around to every isle to unlock items for anyone to buy anything. She also has to run the register, leading to a huge line. This store has 30+ isles and is quite large.

All the lights are off with a sign saying this is for energy savings. This plus the store not being renovated for seemingly decades makes it feel unpleasant and sketchy.

They have a robot voice announcing periodically something along the lines of “the AI theft prevention system knows you are standing in the soap isle right now”.

Overall unpleasant to shop there and I stopped going even though it’s the only convience store in walking distance.

[nine_zeros]

The ultimate MBA problem is that they don't recognize that a lack of footstaff is the root cause of a lot of problems - problems that just never occurred because there was always foot staff dealing with these unrecognized problems.

They trimmed the stores to the bone and now nobody wants to go to the store - it is just too much effort to go to the store to buy anything when there is no staff.

MBA brain, margin management, shareholder return over customers and employees is truly the root cause of why America feels less abundant than a third world country these days.

[placidpanda]

People have been putting their business into spreadsheets and then tweaking one number for so long they've lost the plot completely.

It's like if you sold cheeseburgers and thought "what if we charged the same price, and didn't include cheese?" and then when that worked because some people don't eat cheese, went "what if we charged the same price, and didn't include bread?" and that worked because some people don't eat bread. Eventually there is no lettuce, onion, or tomato and you're serving plain patties in a paper tray, condiments extra. Customers have dwindled, and the idiots left in charge have never made or sold a cheeseburger or did anything other than move numbers around in an already successful business can't think of a better idea than look at COGs on ground beef and suggest they try selling ketchup on a napkin.

[emchammer]

The self-checkout kiosk asking for your loyalty number, and to round up your bill are what I find particularly dystopian.

[nothercastle]

Wait till the ai checkstand stand accuses you of being a thief and forces the attendant to do var on your transaction while you watch the video replay of yourself checking out. With the same red and green boxes you see in the drone combat videos.

Had that happen last week to me at Kroger and it was really unpleasant.

[nine_zeros]

Yep, even the self checkout is no longer worth it. I'd rather not go to the store than go through so many screens.

[nozzlegear]

I don't follow, why is that particularly dystopian?