Wirick Office Supplies Hits The Century Mark

Wirick Office Supplies was founded in 1908, and this month they celebrate their 100th aniversary of being in business. This is a huge accomplishment for any busniess, especially a small office supply shop. This business survived the Great Depression and many recessions throughout it's last 100 years of business, and things have gotten even tougher for Wirick with the growing number of "big box" retailers. Wirick had to do something to differenciate themselves from the big retailers, and they do it with customer service. "The main reason we're still here today is because of our service to the customer," said co-owner Steve Kosanic.

Wirick Office Supplies and Showroom is currently located in Grand Haven, MI, with most of their customer base coming from Ottowa and Muskegon counties. The store currently employs eight people and to this day is still family owned. Wirick has always prided themselves on being great at customer service and giving their customers exactly what they want and to this day they still go on outside sales calls. Steve Kosanic stressed how much their customers mean to them, becuase without meeting their customers needs and doing everything to make their customers happy, Wirick's would have been drove out of business a long time ago. "We research things for our customers. We may go to the same customer two or three times a week to satisfy their needs," said Kosanic.

This is just a true testimate of what customer service can do for all retailers, reguardless of their size. I think that anyone that is starting a small business really needs to put the customer first, becuase without the loyalty of the customer, you won't last long. Wirick's does a great job in customer service and should be looked at as a model for small businesses. Wirick's has been through a lot over the past 100 years, but I hope the next 100 is just as sucessful. Last weekend a celebration was held in downtown Grand Haven in honor of the companies century of service.

http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008/09/wirick_office_producs_is_100_y.html

Say Goodbye to Beer Runs

Last night I went over to my friends place to relax, enjoy the Friday night, and enjoy a couple cold beverages. Doing what most college kids do on a Friday night, we hung out, played some drinking games and enjoyed, what most likely will be, one of the last few nice nights before Winter. At one point everyone ventured outside to enjoy the weather and play some Frisbee, but something I never thought I would see appeared. While throwing around the Frisbee, a delivery car turned down their street to deliver, what I thought was going to be, a pizza or some Jimmy Johns. The car stopped about three apartments away, the driver got out and went into his back seat. I figured he was going to grab the food, but to my surprise, he appeared out of the back seat with two cases of beer! To be completely honest, I was shocked. I got closer to the car and realized that was I was seeing was true. On top of the car was the lit up tripod that said Campus Party Store delivery. The Campus Party Store, on the corner of Lake Michigan Drive and 48th Avenue, now offers a delivery service. The delivery guy came over to where we were all standing and passed out the business card that had the phone number and everything they delivered. The Campus Party Store, according to their business card, delivers kegs, beer, wine, liquor, chips, pop, and even milk. Not only was this something I never thought I would see, it is a great idea for the store.
Delivering alcohol is not only a great idea for the store to create a competitive advantage with the two competing liquor stores near campus, but it is a great idea to try and keep students to avoid driving under the influence of alcohol. Students can now relax, enjoy the weekend and hang out with their friends without having to worry about who is going to drive to pick up more drinks. I really hope this delivery service helps increase sales for the Campus Party Store. Anything that keeps kids from driving during a night of partying is not only good for them, it's good for everyone else on the road. I can't wait to try out the Campus Party Store's delivery myself!

Meijer's Fast Lanes

Recently Meijer has been making changes to try and give their customers a faster and better experience at the checkout lanes. All Meijer stores have the usual checkout lanes with a cashier that rings up all the groceries and bags them for the customer, and all Meijer stores have USCANS for 12 or less items that allow the customer to ring up their small purchases themselves. Recently though, Meijer stores around the state of Michigan have been seeing some changes around the checkout lanes. The company has decided to add, "fast lanes", a new way for people to checkout. These fast lanes are very similar to USCAN's because the customer still scans and bags their own purchases. The difference is, a customer can take any size order through these lanes. The customer scans their items just like the USCAN, but then instead of placing the item right into the bag, they items slide down a conveyor belt and wait to be bagged after the customer has finished scanning all items and have paid. After paying, the customer bags their own groceries and are on their way. Unfortunately in my opinion, these fast lanes are causing more problems then they are solving.
I worked for Meijer as an intern inside the store this summer and got to hear all the feedback out how people felt about the new check lanes. A good 7 out of 10 people wanted nothing to do with the new lanes, and almost everyone was upset because they thought that these news lanes were taking jobs from cashiers in a state with one of the countries largest unemployment rates. Another thing customers didn't like was the fact that they had to do "all the work" because they had to scan and bag their own groceries. A reoccurring comment was always, "If I'm bagging my own groceries, I should be getting a discount."
I personally don't like the check lanes either because if I had 50 items, I wouldn't want to scan and bag them all either. However, in Meijer's defense, for all the people who feel like cashiers are losing their jobs, you're wrong. Meijer still employs the exact same number of cashiers and still has the same amount on the schedule at all times. The only actual difference is, instead of having 5 cashier lanes and 4 USCAN, there is now 4 cashier lanes, 4 USCAN lanes, and 4 fast lanes, with that one lost cashier working at the fast lanes. So in all reality, there is actually more lanes for customers to choose from. As for all the people wanting a discount for using these lanes, how about thinking about it from Meijer's point of view. The cost of gas is forcing the price of everything up, but for the most part, Meijer has tried to keep their prices fairly low by doing things like opening these fast lanes. This allows for extra lanes to basically be open 24/7 without spending money on any extra labor. So next time instead of complaining about not getting a discount, try thinking about the prices you could be paying for your groceries.

General Motors is Extending Employee Discount Prices

http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2008/09/gm_extends_employee_discounts.html
Due to the weak economy, high gas prices, and the unprecedented drop in demand for large vehicles, GM and other automakers have been facing huge declines in sales. Facing this problem, General Motors has been offering employee discount prices to anyone that buys an '08 vehicle that is in stock. This is the first time the company has offered this incentive to all buyers since 2005. These employee discounts are generally around 10% off of the vehicle of your choice. GM has been offering this deal for the past two weeks, and due to the great success they have seen, they announced today that they will be extending this offer through the month of September. Not only will be extending the length of the offer, they are increasing the types of vehicles that the discount will be valid. Through the month of September all '08 vehicles in stock will be apart of the deal, but now 2009 Silverado pickups, certain Saturn models, more Cadillac models, and Hummer H2 and H3 sport utility vehicle will be included. GM spokesman John McDonald said that this was necessary because the success of the offer through August has left many deal lots with a short supply of '08 vehicles.
General Motors sales are down 18% through August of this year, but due to the incentive program they have afford to their customers, August sales alone have increased 30% from July's sales. Both Ford and Chrysler said Wednesday that they have no plans to offer their employee pricing discounts around the same time. This is great for GM because of what the entire automobile manufacturer companies have been faced with over the past year. As the prices of gas continues to increase, the economy continues to worsen, and automobile sales continue to fall. Hopefully this incentive to buy program continues to work, and automobile sales continue to increase for GM. This would not only be great for General Motors, but it would also be a boost to Michigan's struggling economy.

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