Customers and Management
I worked for MA for almost 12 years and I experienced the 'golden years' and then the slow decay toward internet buying. The company - unfortunately - basked in the glory days with uninformed (appreciative) customers needing our expertise (which he had) and margins that were huge - MA jumped on the Internet bandwagon way too late.. Customers became better informed, more aggressive with price matching and less needful of our service and knowledge. When I left Tottenham Court Rd (4 years ago) it was little better then a show room / meat market. Customers who were obviously buying elsewhere would still spend half and hour milking us for our expertise even saying up front that they'd ordered one on Amazon and just wanted to know more about the product.. That, of course, is business and fair enough but... Customers will soon HAVE to buy everything online as there will be few or no High St tech retailers left and - those that survive - will pay minimum wages and have the expertise levels of a chimp farm. The constant drive for better prices regardless of a retailer needing to make some profit will come home to roost and if people are happy with that.. Good luck..Everyone seems to feel sorry for the founders of the this company. At it's peak MA hired 250 motivated staff many of who had high levels of expertise. They have all lost their jobs while the owners are millionaires - spare a thought when you're next online shopping will you?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
