It’s the holiday season and Cloud 9 needs more help. Labor is a derived demand, which means when customers demand more products, the firm needs more inputs. This temporary employment will also affect the unemployment rate in the local economy. After the holidays are over, many of the new hires will be released.
Glenn is interviewing different candidates for the store’s open Santa position. One of candidates was trained by a legend who worked at the Chicago Macy’s and feels he has amassed enough human capital to be perfect for the Cloud 9 position. The interviewing process takes time and includes costs that aren’t monetary. Glenn could spend his day managing his employees, but he’s spending his time searching for a good match.
Glenn announces a winner of the search for the store’s new Santa position. When the winner asks about the salary, Glenn tells him that he will be paid in smiles and wonder and so many other things. The winner quits, along with almost everyone else. There is one person who stays: an employee of the store.
Jonah is happy that he won the betting pool over which temporary employee would quit first, but it turns out that a lot of these temporary employees are part of a program at Glenn’s church that works with people who have trouble getting jobs. Many of the employees have criminal records or are former drug addicts, and that makes them less likely to be hired without assistance.
The employees are in a betting pool to see which temporary employee will quit first. For each temporary employee, the original employees are trying to make the work experience less enjoyable than the alternative option of quitting. By doing this, they are increasing the opportunity cost of continuing to work. Their tactics range from emotional stress, manual labor, sexual harassment, and increasing the risk of injury.
Dina and Glenn accidentally ruined some ballots by spilling a pot of coffee. They are worried they will be accused of tampering with ballots and face jail time. If they both stay quiet, then nothing will likely happen to either of them. There’s an incentive to confess and try to get the other in trouble, but they both know who would responsible. Since they do not trust each other, they try to set each other up by pretending to be each other and recording their voices. This serves as a credible threat in the case that one of them rats the other out.
Cheyenne and Bo have decided to move their wedding date forward in an effort to end their constant bickering, and Glenn is there to help. He calls his church to see if there’s an open date in the near future. It turns out his church acts just like other monopolistically competitive firms by offering differentiated services, like the option to select either a white or black choir. They practice price discrimination by rewarding Glenn with referral points to the gift store and offering a nuptials package that entitles Bo and Cheyenne to 50% off a baptism.
Cheyenne is showing her coworkers a bunch of baby pictures and videos, but Garrett is unhappy. He and Sandra both agree that there should be a social contract that you only have to look at one picture. The diminishing returns to looking at baby pictures kicks in very quickly when the kids aren’t your own. Cheyenne, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have started exhibiting diminishing returns.
Garrett announces that there will be a 40% reduction in the price of exercise gear because the store is closing that section due to a lack of interest. If people aren’t buying the products on the shelves, Cloud 9’s opportunity cost may be high enough to encourage them to remove that section and replace it with a more profitable item. The price reduction should increase the quantity demanded for the exercise gear.
In an effort to achieve the perfect day with no mistakes, Amy assigns employees to store areas where they are most competent. After realizing the normal deli workers aren’t at the store today, Amy and Marcus start working in the deli. Amy asks Marcus to work the meat slicer, assuming that’s his comparative advantage. It turns out he’s not very good at that.
Teaching with Superstore