Purpose of Business

Black Friday is approaching and already the stories are out about toys that are hard to find. I don't have a child who could be disappointed, but I am so incredibly sick of this whole scenario. Every year it's always something. There aren't enough of whatever.

I hate being played by the manufacturers who want to create artificial demand for their product so they don't make enough. It's so idiotic. Most retailers make half of their income during the holiday season. People want to buy products from the retailer. Manufacturers won't make the products for the people to buy.

I cannot figure out what, exactly, people are trying to accomplish sometimes. It would seem that if you're in business, you want to sell products, but there is considerable evidence to the contrary.

I went to buy prescriptions the other day and found that one was 90 days, as I had asked for, and the other was 60 days. I say, "this isn't right." They say, "oh, we will have to call to get a refill on that." I'm looking at them wondering why they haven't. They start explaining how it's my fault for not getting the same number of pills last time. I just looked at the woman and said, "At some point today, you knew there were only 60 pills. Why didn't you call then, instead of waiting until I come in to pick them up and then tell you to call? Please put a note in my file to just call when the situation arises."

The next day I go in to pick up the other pills. They have not called, they're not ready, they've done nothing. Anticipating this, *I* had called the doctor's office to have them call it in.

But the question remains - are you not engaged in the business of selling me drugs? Is that not your primary business? Why, then, are you making it so difficult for me to purchase drugs from you? I'm wanting to buy more drugs. Isn't this good for business?

It's the same mentality of the printing company I use that doesn't keep a particular paper in stock so everytime I'm doing a newsletter I have to call in advance and make sure they have the paper. Their reason for not having it in stock? They sell a lot of it. OK. If you sell a lot of it, then why wouldn't you order more of it so you have it in stock for people to buy? Are you not in the business of selling things printed on paper? Then why do you not keep the paper that is so popular on hand so people can buy things printed on it?

I'm no business genius, but this seems pretty straight forward to me.

It's the same reason I can't buy my favorite pop a large part of the time. It's almost always just empty shelving. So, why would you not devote more shelf space to the thing that is always empty, instead of having 24 extra cartons of something else that no one is buying? They're not buying it because it's still on the shelf.

The true purpose of business is obviously something other than selling products. Because if selling products were the purpose I would be able to purchase them much more readily. It would not be necessary for me to call for refills, to remind people to order their supplies, and make 3-4 trips before I can find pop on the shelves. The mystery is that I can't determine what the purpose is.