Business and corporations

An interesting 3 page article on how Walmart is using technology instead of people (managers) to make decisions. Because they need to save money. This is starting to catch up with the company. I don't have a fascination with Walmart, lol, it's just that they write more about Walmart.
To me this is interesting because ever since I worked at McDonalds I've been theorizing about this same subject-why do corporations not realize that treating their employees like dirt hurts the company? Particular employees can really be a value to a company but the attitude of most Corp. is that all employees are easily replaceable. They're always trying to make an extra buck in ways that hurt the customer. Yes, they're in it to make money, but they go to ridiculous lengths to acomplish this. One of the most popular (that I've seen, anyway) is to reduce the number of employees on the shifts. Not because they're not as busy, but because they want to pull more work out of already challenged employees. This hurts the employees who become tired and sometimes grouchy with the customers, and of course it hurts the customers who must wait much longer for service and as a result of overworked employees often get poorer service to boot. I know from working in the Deli that many customers, particularly the elderly ones, like to chat with the employees, during and after thier order is filled. They like to come and see the same people each time. But when you're always that busy you don't have time to talk anymore and a customer trying to talk with you often becomes an annoyance because you have too much to do and not enough time to do it.
In my experience, when they reduce employees they also start new rules regarding things like not talking. Less talking means more work, right? Especially in a stupid job where the pay and skill is low and you don't have perks, little things like the friendships you form while working are the reasons you keep employees. It makes an otherwise boring job worthwhile. Then they usually yell at you for not smiling more. (I'm gonna smile now that I can't talk to employees or customers and I have more work to do and less help doing it?)
I think I'm gonna end this post for now. I could go on quite a bit more on this subject. I'll just say that I think it pays to treat your employees and customers well. I think today corporations try to do as absolutly little as they can. They've become incredibly greedy, focusing all the wealth a company makes at the very top of the ladder (CEOs and such) and the employees doing the hard labor are the one making pennies. It says much about our society that this is perfectly accepted behavior, doesn't it?