Category: Principles

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Health Labor Principles

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.

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Labor Principles

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.

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Principles

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.

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Consumer Choice & Behavioral Principles

A Demotion for Love

Dina has had a crush on Jonah for a while, but Jonah was always able to avoid the situation because he said he wasn’t comfortable dating a supervisor. He shares this news with his friend, shortly before the store manager announces that Dina has decided to step down as assistant manager so that she can focus on personal matters. Either-or decisions of this matter require people to weigh the costs and benefits of actions. Some of the costs for Dina include not being able to criticize Glenn, a reduction of her authority, and likely a pay reduction. She must believe that the benefits of dating Jonah outweigh those costs.

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Market Structures Principles

Discount for Damaged Goods

Cloud 9 won’t sell products that have been damaged, which seems like a good policy. Unfortunately, this means that if an employee wanted to take something, they just have to accidentally damage it. Glenn is frustrated with Cloud 9 and destroys some of the alcohol by marking the bottles with a marker. He declares it party time, sponsored by his family’s old store (Sturgis and Sons) which had been driven out of business when Cloud 9 entered the market.

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Consumer Choice & Behavioral Principles Supply & Demand

Consumption vs. Savings

Bo and Cheyenne are shopping for wedding supplies in the store. Bo really wants to buy some laptops so they can smash them during the wedding as a form of entertainment. Amy is shocked because she knows how expensive it is to raise a child and believes that the couple should be saving the money instead of spending it on one day. Amy tricks Bo into playing a game with a price gun so that Bo and Cheyenne can see how expensive a child can be. People struggle to recognize the opportunity costs in their decisions, but Amy has made the cost more salient.

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Labor Principles

Shirking at a Gun Range

On the hunt for a runaway friend, Amy and Dina take some time to hang out and get to know each other better. Right as they’re deciding to head back to work, Amy suggests they treat themselves a bit. Even though the store manager believes they’re away from the store searching for a friend, Dina and Amy are actually shirking

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Labor Principles

Pizza Party as an Incentive

Each year the store participates in a competition that divides the employees between two teams to see which team can sell the most during the day. Glenn announces that the winning team will receive a pizza party. While the employees aren’t overly happy about either the competition or the pizza party, incentives can usually be a way to induce higher levels of productivity. It turns out that each team member on the winning team also receives $100, but Glenn was saving it as a surprise incentive. Amy has to explain to Glenn that incentives need to be announced at the beginning in order for them to actually work.

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Principles

Dying to Get a Couch

A man died on an expensive couch in the store, but both Cheyenne and Mateo want the couch. It’s not clear who deserves the couch, so they determine the best way to allocate the couch should be based on who sits on the couch the longest. Rather than having them pay for the couch in an auction, they will pay for the couch with their time.

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Labor Principles

Determining Shift Assignments

Amy asks Garett to finish the shift assignments, but he’d rather finish eating his lunch. Mateo jumps at the opportunity to make shift assignments and provide retribution for wrongs that have been done.