Our economy is built on a solid foundation
of shifting sand
In our society today there is a great
shift in emphasis as to what makes our economic wheel spin.
When I went to school during WWII they taught us about primary
industries. They were oil and gas, mining, forestry, agriculture,
fishing and to a lessor extent fur trapping. In the minds
of our teachers and leaders the secondary industries like
manufacturing (except for war effort), construction and
home building were a product of need satisfaction and certainly
not wealth or export industries.
Once the war came to a close the world
started focusing on consumer needs and some of the primary
industries began taking second place to secondary industry
and even to tertiary and luxury wants. There was a great
land stampede a slight delay in food production driving
many commodities up to an unprecedented height to fall again
as needs were filled.
The Ontario Auto Pact with the US car
manufacturers shifted much focus from primary to major manufacturing.
We began seeing lots of small secondary manufacturing in
food products too. For example, local dairies, bakeries,
small packing plants and canneries, even regional coffee
blenders and roasters. There were two small vegetable canners
in Taber, Broders Canning Co., and Alberta Canners. If we
had a new store opening, I would phone up Mr. Broder and
tell him we were opening a new store and he would offer
us a store opening special of one case free with every two
cases we bought. His plant canned cream corn, kernel corn,
peas, and pork and beans. It was a great way to give our
customers a break on pricing with good Alberta product and
Broder always appreciated our business. Then one day we
phoned for an order and no one answered, the plant was sold
to Safeway. Fortunately for us, Alberta Canners was still
there and we made a deal not as good as Broders but better
than regular pricing. Shortly after a couple of deals Alberta
Canners sold out to Canadian Canners whose products are
the Aylmer brands. After that, there were no more deals
no more access to manufacturers. Pride of Okanagan canners
were also sold. We still had a good supplier in Nabob Foods.
They sold the coffee our customers liked. They sold Squirrel
Peanut Butter, Lemon butter, Sungold orange crystals, Nabob
jelly powders, Nabob Jam and Nabob spices. They had a great
franchise in our towns, at least I thought so. They were
one of my favorite suppliers. Then one day a Swiss coffee
giant bought Nabob. They proceeded to rid themselves of
everything but the coffee. They did such a good job that
they even sold their coffee division to General Foods whose
coffee brand was Maxwell House, who our customers wouldn't
in those days take on a bet. Today it seems people will
buy any coffee for their home, they only discriminate when
it comes to Tim Hortons and Starbucks.
From our first experiences with Broders,
there has been a great rush to merge, consolidate and change.
In the grocery business there were dozens of wholesalers.
Even in Peace River we had Horne and Pitfield, Royal Fruit,
Brown Fruit and Scott National. They shipped product all
the way up the MacKenzie Delta and the Arctic circle. They
had to make up barge loads and the delivery was once a year.
How things have changed.
So I suppose this long litany of prose was just to set you
up for what is happening now. There are very few small manufacturers.
There are fewer small wholesalers. The primary industries
excepting oil and gas are so are so efficient that their
trading partners are putting arbitrary embargos or tariffs
on their exports making primary manufacturing vulnerable
to political interference. Free trade seems to be great
only if it benefits the big guy.
Which leads us to the engine that we've
tied our train to. It is local service business. We provide
goods and services to the communities we live in. We don't
work in a vacuum. Our basic operational standards are built
around fair pricing, quality, cleanliness, freshness with
personal service and concern for our customers and team
members. All this is bundled as a value package to our consumer.
That's who we are, that's who we want to be. Sometimes though,
we make a mistake or overlook a problem. When this happens,
use this 3-step program.
1. Fix the person.
2. Fix the problem.
3. Fix the system.
The steps are:
a. apologize to the person
b. listen and empathize
c. fix the problem fairly and quickly
d. offer some atonement
e. keep your promise
f. follow up and make certain it happens
The future is still bright for organizations
that know their business and are customer focused and have
owner managers who are more concerned with business than
they are with stock options and golf games. Someone once
said it's not the size of the dog in the fight, rather it
is the size of the fight in the dog that really counts.
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