Store brand beef products are being marked down 80% and Garret suggests that customers should consider why a store would do something like that. He’s suggesting something may be wrong with the product, and perhaps the store knows more about the quality of the meat than the customers do.
Category: Microeconomics
Categories
Dina is Bad at Gifts
Dina tries to impress her coworkers by giving them gifts, but she breaks into their lockers to give them their gifts. Some of the gifts are mildly offensive, but she thinks they are appropriate. The deadweight loss typically associated with gift giving is that people who give the gifts spend more money on the items than the recipient is likely to spend for the same item.
During the strike, additional Cloud 9 employees from the Kirkwood Branch show up, but they’re only there to replace the striking workers, not to join the strike. Jeff shares that he will welcome back any employees who come inside and apologize, and that is when the other employees realize they are easily replaceable. These employees do not possess any particular skills that other workers aren’t capable of doing. This labor market would be rather competitive since the workers are essentially homogenous.
Categories
Differences in Detergents
Mateo helps a customer find laundry detergent and goes through the process of naming some of the different options available. Product differentiation allows companies to offer similar, substitutable products based on customer preferences. Each focuses on a niche market or defining characteristic but are generally substitutes.
Categories
Interviewing Management Candidates
While interviewing candidates for the assistant manager position, Amy and Glenn try to learn more about the potential candidates’ ability to move into this new role. They are surprised by the applicants, namely that the pharmacist is interested in switching roles or by Marcus’s accidental admission of stolen property. The interviewing process can be costly because it takes time and effort to find a good “match” for the company. Interviewing candidates from the pool of current employees helps reduce the cost of finding a worker, but it still requires Glenn and Amy to take time away from the floor to interview people.
Categories
Paid Maternity Leave
The employees almost start a debate on the merits of public healthcare in the US when Cheyenne almost goes into labor in the store. She would like to take time off for herself, but she feels she needs to keep working in order to save as much money as possible for when she has to take time off after the baby is born. In other countries, this decision isn’t usually necessary since maternity leave is provided by the government.
Categories
Looking for a Doctor
It’s time for Cheyenne to deliver her baby, but there are no doctor in the store. Even though Sandra is a trained midwife, the other employees ignore her in exchange for a pharmacist, an employee who has delivered a calf, and another employee who has played a doctor in a theatre show. Each of the substitutes don’t have the actual training to deliver a baby, and the skills they possess likely don’t transfer to skill needed to deliver a baby. Only Sandra is actually qualified, but she doesn’t speak up.
Categories
Glenn Works Two Jobs
Glenn hasn’t been able to find a replacement for his assistant manager, so he takes on the both roles for the day. Glenn struggles to get everything done in one day and suggests that he may have to stop sleeping. Even though he’s doubled his effort, his output hasn’t doubled; it has diminished. At a certain point in the production function, additional workers are not as productive as the ones before them. For Glenn, this would be represented by the additional hours that he’s worked in the day. Specialization allows workers to focus their time on tasks that they are good at, like setting schedules or ordering products. Just because a worker can do all of the functions, doesn’t mean they should do them all.
Categories
Dina Doesn’t Know Makeup
Dina has stepped down as the assistant manager and is spending the day at the makeup counter with Cheyenne. When Cheyenne tries to make a joke about being the boss, Dina reverts to her naturally authoritative tendency. Given Dina’s background, her comparative advantage is in authoritative roles and we come to see that see is ill-suited to work in cosmetics. She will eventually return to her management role.
Categories
Amy Weighs a Promotion
After Dina stepped down as assistant manager, the store manager needs to find her replacement. Amy knows she is the likely candidate but declines the offer before Glenn can offer her the position. Her rationale conforms to the income-leisure tradeoff model. Since there is no increase in earnings from the assistant manager position, Amy doesn’t want to spend more of her time away from leisure. The scarcity of time available in her day means she must make tradeoffs on how to spend her time and she would rather spend it on her college classes.
Teaching with Superstore 