The Downgrade Apocalypse

Customer reward programs have been around a long time: in fact, the earliest example may well be Betty Crocker, which, in 1929, introduced the idea of using box-tops as coupons to encourage repeat purchases. Since then, just about every major company—and a great deal of small ones to boot—have made…
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Quality, Competence, and Consistency

Do customers trust your business? Can they be confident that when they purchase something from you, they’re going to get what they expect every time? Do they know that your employees are going to do their jobs well to facilitate that experience? Every business owner wants to believe the answers…
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The Antidote for Inflation

Whether the United States is now in a recession has been the subject of much political posturing and debate. Regardless of how any of us feels about labels or technical definitions, the U.S. economy has shrunk two consecutive quarters amid soaring inflation and higher interest rates. A silver lining is…
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Mystery Shopping to Beat Inflation

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a dollar from January 2020 has the same buying power as a $1.12 today. While twelve cents doesn’t sound like a lot of lost value, we have to remember that 12% adds up to a lot when it’s impacting every single purchase. Worse…
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Shrinkflation

According to Wikipedia, shrinkflation “is the process of items shrinking in size or quantity, or even sometimes reformulating or reducing quality, while their prices remain the same or increase.” The term is relatively new, and is usually attributed to British economist Pippa Malmgren, who used it in a Twitter conversation…
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