Store POS System Blog

A Case for Hiring Minorities

I remember talking a store owner back in 1981. The store is located in the town where I live which has a majority Hispanic population and a large Native American or Indian population. He mentioned that in the past he had an Indian that worked for him who was now deceased. He said that sometimes you could look at the counter and there would be 4 sales people with no customers and there would be 6 Indian customers lined up to buy from the one Indian sales person. I watched a similar situation occur in a town that has a majority Indian population. There were no Indian sales people but there was an Indian janitor. Every time an Indian walked in they would head straight to the janitor and try to get information from him. The janitor would then have to lead them over to a sales person. Finally, I saw two situations in the South that got my attention. First, there was a small store in a small city with a 90% black population. The owner and one employee worked there and both were white. Second, was a store in a racially mixed community. It seemed to me that many if not most of the customers were black mechanics. The owner treated all customers with respect. His delivery man on the other hand waited until the owner was not around to tell me that he didn't like "niggers". That attitude was sooner or later going to show up when he dealt with customers and you have to get rid of employees like that. Time and again I see situations like these that are obvious opportunities to increase sales by going the extra mile to hire a minority and making sure that your existing employees treat everybody with respect. Yes, you may need to train minority employees but with electronic cataloging available on most Store POS Systems, it is much easier to train people today. Yes, their culture is different and you may have to make allowances for it. Yes, you may not like doing this sort of thing, but business is business. Oh yes, it is also the right thing to do ethically. I remember a friend that lived in an area with a large immigrant Haitian population. He didn't like the Haitian culture but he swallowed his pride and hired one because he knew that would increase his sales to Haitians.

Labels: Hispanics, Indians, Minority Employees, Store POS System

posted by MIB @ 7:57 AM