by Tdarcos » Tue Feb 21, 2023 7:26 pm
I think I passed through Lost Wages probably a half-dozen times as my family traveled, as the bus - Greyhound or Trailways - between Los Angeles and Denver routes through Las Vegas, or at least it did up through 1976, the last time I ever traveled that route. I was staying over Summer Vacation for two or three months). As it has been noted here, food was very inexpensive (not cheap) and good tasting, good quality (which is why it was inexpensive, not cheap). I think you could get a decent meal of food for $1.75 (equivalent to $9.36 in 2023.) Actually, I think it might have been less than this.
The crooks running the casinos** knew that you wanted customers at the tables and machines gambling; the money made is essentially pure profit, as extra players require no additional cost to sevice. Customers who are eating and paying high prices are spending money that could be gambled. So they made food inexpensive to draw people to the casinos.
I think what we are seeing here is an "all the traffic can bear" mentality. Disney theme parks are doing the same thing. Too many businesses are going this way, and when you encourage no loyalty among customers and employees, it's no wonder employees decided, when employers treated them as disposable, that there is no longer a reason to put extra effort into their jobs, or that it might be a better idea to freelance and potentially make more money.
I have heard too many Reddit stories about employees refusing to accept being treated badly by permanently reducing output to quota minimum. And employers say productivity rateas drop.
One example was a guy who routinely cut carpet rolls fast and efficiently, as such he'd often be doing twice as much as others, and so was sometimes coming in a little late or leaving early. Or something like that. Management discovers this, and he gets called and written up. The reason he was working faster was so that he could take the later train instead of having to get up an hour earlier, and have to wait an extra half hour for the next train home. Okay.
From then on he arrived 1/2 hour early, then went into the break room, to rest for 30 minutes, clocking in exactly on time. He didn't run anymore, if he needed a tool he'd go get it instead of getting it in advance so as not to mess up his completion time even though this took longer. He took a full hour of lunch instead of the half hour he used to take. He cut his work down to the quota minimum. At the end of the week, his boss called him in. His entire section is below quota, because he isn't doing any extra like he used to. He asked if he was not doing the rerquired level of work. He was, but his boss was disappouinted, his worik helped others who didn't make quota. His boss tried to raise the, "we're supposed to be a family," BS, but he shot that down, by pointing out that if they cared, they'd have found out first. Since he's been punished for doing too much, they will get exactly the quota requirement and no more. They brought it on themselves.
And an attitude of "all that the traffic will bear" only works as long as you have no substitute and people really need or want what you have. But once there is an alternative, customers will go elsewhere. Loyalty is a two-way street.
** Back then (up to the 1980s), casinos were all run by either men who had bookmaking or other gambling convictions, got licenses when the rules were lax, then were "grandfathered in," or used clean "front men" fronting for the actual crooks running the places. As one rather pragmatic person put it, "If you didn't have gambling professionals who already knew the trade (by plying it where doing so was illegal), where was anyone supposed to learn how?"
I think I passed through Lost Wages probably a half-dozen times as my family traveled, as the bus - Greyhound or Trailways - between Los Angeles and Denver routes through Las Vegas, or at least it did up through 1976, the last time I ever traveled that route. I was staying over Summer Vacation for two or three months). As it has been noted here, food was [i]very[/i] inexpensive (not cheap) and good tasting, good quality (which is why it was inexpensive, not cheap). I think you could get a decent meal of food for $1.75 (equivalent to $9.36 in 2023.) Actually, I think it might have been less than this.
The crooks running the casinos** knew that you wanted customers at the tables and machines gambling; the money made is essentially pure profit, as extra players require no additional cost to sevice. Customers who are eating and paying high prices are spending money that could be gambled. So they made food inexpensive to draw people to the casinos.
I think what we are seeing here is an "all the traffic can bear" mentality. Disney theme parks are doing the same thing. Too many businesses are going this way, and when you encourage no loyalty among customers and employees, it's no wonder employees decided, when employers treated them as disposable, that there is no longer a reason to put extra effort into their jobs, or that it might be a better idea to freelance and potentially make more money.
I have heard too many Reddit stories about employees refusing to accept being treated badly by permanently reducing output to quota minimum. And employers say productivity rateas drop.
One example was a guy who routinely cut carpet rolls fast and efficiently, as such he'd often be doing twice as much as others, and so was sometimes coming in a little late or leaving early. Or something like that. Management discovers this, and he gets called and written up. The reason he was working faster was so that he could take the later train instead of having to get up an hour earlier, and have to wait an extra half hour for the next train home. Okay.
From then on he arrived 1/2 hour early, then went into the break room, to rest for 30 minutes, clocking in exactly on time. He didn't run anymore, if he needed a tool he'd go get it instead of getting it in advance so as not to mess up his completion time even though this took longer. He took a full hour of lunch instead of the half hour he used to take. He cut his work down to the quota minimum. At the end of the week, his boss called him in. His entire section is below quota, because he isn't doing any extra like he used to. He asked if he was not doing the rerquired level of work. He was, but his boss was disappouinted, his worik helped others who didn't make quota. His boss tried to raise the, "we're supposed to be a family," BS, but he shot that down, by pointing out that if they cared, they'd have found out first. Since he's been punished for doing too much, they will get exactly the quota requirement and no more. They brought it on themselves.
And an attitude of "all that the traffic will bear" only works as long as you have no substitute and people really need or want what you have. But once there is an alternative, customers will go elsewhere. Loyalty is a two-way street.
** Back then (up to the 1980s), casinos were all run by either men who had bookmaking or other gambling convictions, got licenses when the rules were lax, then were "grandfathered in," or used clean "front men" fronting for the actual crooks running the places. As one rather pragmatic person put it, "If you didn't have gambling professionals who already knew the trade (by plying it where doing so was illegal), where was anyone supposed to learn how?"