Under the Boots logo is says: “Feel good.” They made me feel bad. The beautiful old chemists shop in Kirkby Lonsdale had fine wooden shelves and Victorian apothecary’s jars. Last year it was acquired by Boots. Corporate vandals stripped the place and refitted it with a standard ugly sterile white plastic interior. It used to be a delight to shop. Now Boots have made it horrible and heartless.
This isn’t the 1960s. It’s not communist Hungary. Who are these crass, idiotic people? Why? In the name of a unified brand? Some brand.
The Directors of Boots don’t live in plastic boxes. They must be decent chaps living nice lives with decent values. How does this happen?
Despite all the systems and procedures they implement, the good people at the top perhaps can’t infuse the organisation with the values they like to see in their villages in Surrey and the Cotswolds. Meaning that the organisation is too big for them.
Economies of scale come with a hidden cost – society subsidises Boots with a debit to our cultural capital. It’s a simple bit of double-entry book-keeping really.
The wider the perspective you have, the more it all seems like a zero sum game.
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