Why it is good to be a big fish in a small pond

In my job I am one deep. There is only one business manager. There are very few people locally who can do what I do or want to for that matter. Too bad for employees at Circuit City. They just laid off everyone making over a certain wage. Now, that just sucks.

Retail, especially regular stores and those dealing with technology in particular, are facing special pressure. In technology it is not only difficult to keep up with all of the changes, it is hard to hire good employees at any rate of pay. These people were making too much money, as little as $11.50 per hour and up in come cases, hardly enough to pay bills, yet it was too much to pay.

When I go in to look at technology I expect people in the store know the difference between different brands, technology solutions, etc. For $10 an hour you will not get the brightest bulbs in the box, nor will you keep them. No mention was made of the amount of benefits paid to these employees.

Just another sign of how things are changing. Oh, and most sources say it costs about one year's wages every time you change an employee. It really is hard to see how this will pay off.