Flicker by cjc4454
This morning I had to run by Best Buy and purchase a printer for a colleague of mine. I knew they opened at 10:00 a.m., but as luck would have it, I arrived about 9:50. Over the next ten minutes, I watched the crowd outside the front door build, as Best Buy employees reported to work using their key to slide in the side door. By 9:57 I got out of my car and joined the fray. By then I counted 18 people in line and another 7 waiting in their car watching. Now I have to admit, having 25 people waiting outside the door of my business, just dying to get in – what business wouldn’t love that?? But I stood there knowing exactly how this would play out. People outside growing more and more impatient as the clock neared 10. Lots of foot shifting and shuffling. And, just as I predicted, at 10:01.40 the doors finally opened.
I’m guessing somewhere in the Best Buy rulebook, it says, “Our store opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday – Friday”. So I guess by that standard, opening only a minute and forty seconds late would be considered pretty good. But what if an employee, seeing the growing crowd of impatient people outside the door, had taken the initiative to open at 9:55 a.m., greeting people by saying, “I can see you are all anxious to come in and buy something, so I thought I’d open a few minutes early just for you!”
But I guess that qualifies as some crazy, out-of-the-box thinking when what businesses really value (far too often) are employees who play by the rules. Does anyone else see a business opportunity here?