I was paying my Kohl’s bill today – you know the place: coupons of 10, 20,30% off that constantly appear in your mail, a perpetual massive sale, and “Kohl’s cash,” the purpose of which is to bring you back to redeem it a week later.
Well.
As I paid my bill it occurred to me how much commerce has changed over the years.
When most of us were children, retail was just grateful that you crossed their thresholds and bought something.
Now, everyone is offering you either a store card or a credit card originating from that establishment. The goal is no longer to exchange goods for money. Now most companies’ real agenda isn’t just to sell you something.
What they’re banking on is that you’ll forget/be unable to pay on time. They are now raking in the added income of all those hapless souls who are willing to pay interest in order to extend the payment period.
Related Thought –
I wonder if the catalogue company known as The Company Store (a perfectly fine bedding company, by the way) ever considered the connotations in history of their name.
As it says on Wikipedia:
“Company stores have had a reputation as monopolistic institutions, funnelling workers' incomes back to the wealthy owners of the company. Company stores often faced little or no competition and prices were therefore not competitive. Allowing purchases on credit enforced a kind of debt slavery, obligating employees to remain with the company until the debt was cleared.”
0 Yorumlar