Who remembers Michael Douglas’s infamous line in Wall Street where he goes “Greed is good.” ? I am sure most hard-core movie buffs remember that line. Often at times art imitates life. No matter how hard we say movies are fantasy escapism, they mirror something in reality. The movie Wall Street dealt with a lot of corporate espionage, the love of the almighty dollar, which of course leads to greed. We often associate that with the 80s, The Me Decade.
Fast forward to some twenty-six years later. Are we still seeing greed? The answer is quite simply yes. Greed is everywhere. We see people in our families that want more and more from us. It is like our children. We take them to store, tell them they can get one toy or one candy, yet they want more. They want a DVD, some new shoes. One thing is never enough. We give loved ones and friends help and money when they need it, yet they always want more. Often times at the end of the day, it is never, never enough.
Businesses are not exempt from being greedy. Today, I found out that a very famous amusement park was raising their prices once again charging hard-working citizens of this country and citizens of other countries who come to visit a mind-boggling $92 in lieu of their already expensive $86. When I found that out earlier, it blew my mind and instantly made me angry. I could not fathom how a company so big on family fun, love of people, and dream creations could be comfortable charging families such an expensive fare. It is hard to consider when you are already paying for parking, paying for the expensive food and merchandise that you have to pay even more in admission (which by the way does not get you anything but just entry into the park). I went to the Internet to see what was behind this rising price increase expecting to see something such as rising expenses, budget constraints, etc. What I found was it was just “market research” that showed that this was a reasonable fare. Seriously?? Reasonable?? If you ask me, it sounds like plain on greed. The company already racks millions upon millions of dollars in sales from admission cost, concessions, merchandise, and parking. Why justify another pay increase when so many are struggling in this economy?
Now I understand parents who say its worth it just to see their kids smiling faces and the joy that it brings to their children. Perhaps if I were a parent I would feel differently. But that should be the very reason that the prices should come down. There are a lot of parents who would love to see their children light up and go to the park. What parent would not want to take their child. My parents took us (of course it was the 80s and everything was considerably cheaper). However there are a lot of parents who simply cannot afford that especially if you have more than two children. A price deduction would be nice.
A few months back I went to a hospital and saw something extremely disturbing. Some hospitals now charge visitors of patients and in some situations potential patients going to the emergency rooms a parking fee. You have got to be kidding me. You are charging people to come see their loved ones? Again, people are struggling in this economy and sometimes even $5 is a lot to come by. I again went to the Internet to research the reasoning and the answer was quite simple, “To generate revenue” which to me equals greed. Hospitals already make huge profits from their patients by nickel and dimeing them on every little thing while they stay there. How can you in good conscious justify charging patients to park. Kudos to those hospitals and medical buildings that have not gave in to this method. There are other obvious ways to generate revenue.
Grocery stores and retail are not exempt from dealing with greed. How many times have you walked into a store and seen lines that mirror the Department of Motor Vehicles on the last day of the month? One store (who shall remain nameless) often times has only four lanes (out of 24) open. The shelves look as if customers just bum rushed the store due to a threat of a natural disaster. Now the merchandise is there ready to have a home just like the Island of Misfit Toys but to no avail, the corporate Santa refuses to pay or hire new elves to stock or check the people out at the store because they do not want to take from their billions of profits. If this is not greed, I challenge you to find me a better example or definition.
Deceptive Advertising & Extra Fees
How many times have you walked into a grocery store and seen a sign in big black bold letters, “FREE”? You get super excited, you go over to the item, then you see at the bottom words in tiny, tiny writing that would require you to have Superman type vision to decipher and make out. You take the item over to the checkout to claim as free then you find out what the verbiage at the bottom says is “When you by two or more at original price.”
Now I love me some bacon, laundry detergent, soda, and chicken as much as the next guy, but what exactly would I be saving by buying two or more of the same item when all I really needed was one in the first place? Other false or misleading advertising includes things like on two-liter soda. Often times, when I walk in to a certain store, I see that that my favorite Ginger Ale, or other soda is on sale for .88 cents. The first time I fell for this, I went to the checkout stand with my bottle of soda and it rang up regular price. I politely corrected the cashier and said that it was on sale. The cashier then tells me that it is only .88 cents when you buy 10. Okay, why would I want to buy $10 worth of soda? Am I preparing for the apocalypse? And even then would I really be worried about consuming ginger ale or cola? How many times do you see some ad on television that advertises some new item that “you simply cannot live without for only $19.95. If you act now, you can get two for $19.95 (but you pay shipping and handling for both items). Do you see how this works? So I really do not get the second item free because I am paying double for the shipping and handling which sometimes cost more then the original item itself.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for increasing revenue and making money. You cannot be a successful business any other way, but when does increasing revenue give way to greed? This economy is tough on everyone and can companies can do their part to help people out. No, this is not an article about wanting “free stuff” or a “handout” but about not giving way to the greed monster. We are all guilty of being greedy at times, but it is nothing to be brag and be comfortable about. The opposite of greed is sharing. Sharing is caring. We can all afford to be a little more generous with our increases. If companies like those big amusement park chains decreased their admission cost by 3 to 10% just imagine how much more their revenue would increase. If certain retail stores hired more employees, the customers would come back to their stores and shop thus increasing the revenue. You have to look at the bigger picture. It goes back to that old adage, “You have to spend money, to make money.” This would seem to fit perfectly here.
Greed is not good. No not at all.
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