Business

Company Q sends, what some would consider, a clear message to its consumers. The message Company Q is sending is the message that their company is interested in profitability without risk, distrust in their frontline employees, and catering to the communities with the highest income, a message the American people are used to receiving. By closing stores in lower income communities instead of making an attempt to find out why they are losing money while introducing a higher line of products because of customer demand in the higher income communities sends these messages clearly to those affected by the loss of service or loss of job. By closing these two stores, Company Q is adding to an already critical economic situation within these communities, and they are exacerbating the situation by refusing to contribute product that ends up as waste to the food banks that most likely support these same communities. Company Q refuses to donate their day old food to the food banks citing the potential for employees to steal product that the employees claim they are donating. In addition to the savings they are losing by discarding waste instead of donating which I will explain later, Company Q is sending a message to their employees that they are not trusted which affects employee morale, which affects productivity.

The first area Company Q needs to address is evaluating their stores. There should already be a system in place to evaluate each store’s profitability since these numbers have to be reported in the financial reports. Where they are failing themselves is by not intervening when a store is struggling and letting them get to the point of closing them down. There should be someone responsible for all the stores in that area, and it is this person’s responsibility to make sure each store succeeds. If Company Q would invest a little time and capital in making sure each store is set up to meet the demands of its community and provide direction based on each store’s...