Businesses making a living selling people stuff they don’t need

Editor:

“The customer is always right.” The mantra, of a bygone era.

Less than a single lifetime ago people in America visualized a balanced relationship between the customer and the businessman.

Without a customer, a businessman could stand on the corner and hawk his wares until the cows come home. If nobody needed what he had to sell, there was no sale, no business.

Somewhere deep in a businessman\’s consciousness, he understands this basic truth.

Between the businessman and the customer has grown a new and nefarious activity. Most salesmen are aware of Napoleon

Hill and his theorists who promote it- ”Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” Known in the trade as selling the need.

When TV was introduced to the American public, it was sold as a great educational tool.

It could have been, until the advertising media got on board. Before TV ,the Hudson’s Bay, Eaton’s, and Sears sold guarantees. The customer had to be satisfied with the product, or you could take it back for refund. Today - you paid for it, and it’s your problem. There is little of what used to be called after-market service. Once you’re out the door the businessman doesn’t care if you have problems with the product.

Recent news tells us that even if a mechanic who services your vehicle sees some potential problem, extra to what you came to him to fix, he has no obligation to even tell you about it. This is a dangerous lack of service.

In some people’s minds the market is more important than the customer.

The use of terms like ‘economy,’ ‘the market, ‘ and ‘public policy’ have confused the basic relationship between the maker of a product and the customer.

We have eliminated the manufacturer’s tax, which implied there was a social responsibility that the businessman filled.

Have we swung too far to the right in business?

Is protecting and subsidizing business more important than the needs of customers?

The government income from taxes used to be balanced 50 per cent from business and 50 per cent from personal income. Today it is 10 per cent or less business, 90 per cent income tax.

Is business getting a free ride? Corporations have no responsibility; they are only money-makers.

Things are out of balance and one of the biggest businesses is in storage for stuff we don’t need.

Don Ryane

Lethbridge