- Businesses need to exercise common sense

Businesses need to exercise common sense

Written by Wilfred Ling

Sunday, 15 February 2009

I was at a shopper center looking for a place to eat my lunch. At the basement of the shopper center was many eateries. The price looks competitive and the food looks good. But there is one major problem – there was no space to sit and eat! Everyone who buys from these stores must take away their food. As a result, these stores have no business despite the lunch crowd. Other stores have a bigger space and thus could offer dine-in. Those stores were very crowded and businesses were good.

I decided to go to the food court. To my surprised, the entire food court was under renovation (again). It must be the new operator taking over. Whenever a new operator takes over, the food court would be renovated.

I found myself being a ready customer but unable to purchase lunch due to these problems. What an irony.

Businesses must look at their business model and consider what are the necessary things they must provide in order to make sensible sales. In the shopper center I was in, there is virtually no where else to eat accept with those dine-in. Thus, those eateries that could not provide a space for its customers to eat, will always find themselves significantly limited to a very specific market – which is those whom intend to buy the food and take away to another place outside the shopper center.

As for the food court operator that renovates the food court. I think it is a waste of resources. The previous food court was nicely renovated. There is no need to re-do the entire place again. The additional cost of renovation will either have to be absorbed by the operator (which is unlikely), by the store owners (might be likely) or the cost pass on to the customers (most likely). In this economy cycle when consumers are reluctant to spend, the last thing anyone wants to see is an increase in prices.

The two observations I have above are just simple common sense. Businesses need to exercise some common sense to get their business going. Without common sense, businesses will definitely fail.

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