The first school to desegregate.
The first state to allow gay marriage.
The first state to legalize marijuana.
And now the first convenience store to ban the sale of tobacco products: CVS.
It took a long time. And a lot of courage. And for CVS, quite frankly, financial incentive. But slowly, others will follow suit. Just like they did with segregation, gay marriage and marijuana.
Way to be first, CVS!
Next up: Processed food products.
Who will be first?
These days, when you check out at CVS, there’s an extra step. “Would you like to make a donation to ALS?” You can choose $1, $5 or “No, thanks. Not today”.
Unfortunately, CVS’s checkout screen doesn’t show you much. There’s no video like this one about Mike Winston and Winning for Winston. Or this one about Steve Gleason from the NFL. Or an excerpt from Susan Spencer-Wendel’s book. When you’re asked for a donation to ALS, it’s just small text and a blurry ALS logo.
Everyone knows someone who died from cancer. So, there’s a connection. With ALS, Lou Gehrig might be all they know.
Are you willing to feel connected to Mike? Or Steve? Or Susan?
Please don’t say, “No, thanks. Not today.”
Ask any mobster. The mafia business model is simple: Offer convenience and cures.
If you need a loan, you can get it from the mafia quickly. It’s convenient. Then, if you get over your head in debt, they’re there to help. They’ll burn your restaurant down and collect the insurance. That’s the cure.
Need something else? They’re open all day.
So, how is the CVS business model any different? If you need a snack, you can get it quickly. It’s convenient. Then, when you’re sick with diabetes, they’ll set you up with some insulin. That’s the cure.
Need something else? They’re open all day.
No, CVS won’t burn your house down. But, they might kill your family.
At the airport, CVS or at the movie theater, you’ll find self-checkout. Self-checkout has its benefits. Most of those benefits, though, do not go to you or me. The customer. We don’t care about lower labor costs, less shrinkage or better analytics.
We, the customer, don’t like the imbalance of benefits associated with self-checkout. But this is not what’s so painful. The utter lack of updates we get during the process, especially when we’re waiting, is what’s so painful
At self-checkout, there’s nobody to give you an update. Good or bad. There’s nobody to say “We’re experiencing delays with the computer.” There’s nobody to say, “Customer assistance for an extra register please.” There’s nobody to say, “Ma’am, this credit card didn’t go through, can we try another?”
How can we get self-checkout machines to give status updates? We don’t need much. Something like, “I’m an expert, here’s what’s happening, here’s how long it’s going to be. Thanks for the patience.” Oh, that’s a job a machine can’t do?