Archive for September, 2012
Hudson’s Bay, Shoppers Drug Mart cutting jobs
Two major Canadian retailers, Hudson’s Bay Co and Shoppers Drug Mart, have announced that they will be cutting jobs in the next 12 to 18 months to reduce costs due to the “competitive and regulatory changes in the Canadian marketplace.” Hudson Bay is laying off 210 employees in the Toronto area, while Shoppers is cutting 80. To further trim costs, Hudson Bay is moving its information services’ headquarter to St. Louis.
A major reason for Hudson Bay to make such vital decision is largely due to the fact that US retail giant Target Corp. is making its step into the Canadian market. Target has bought up Zellers last year, and is slowly converting most of the previous locations into Targets stores. (Note: Zellers is used to be a division of Hudson Bay) As Zellers chain is being phased out of Canada, Hudson Bay must remodel their structure and adjust their operations in order to survive in today’s competitive market. Shoppers, similarly, had also lost an estimated $750 million last year because of the cut of generic drug prices to 25% of the price of patented drugs- down from 50%.
As Target Corp. slowly gets a hold in the Canadian retailing business, more positions will be cut, and more operations and admin jobs will be transfer down to the US for efficiency. It was not a surprise to see Hudson Bay to lay off jobs once the entire Zellers chain had been shut down. I believe that this is just the beginning for the two corporations. The cuts will definitely be larger in the future as more international competitors enter the Canadian market. It is going to be interesting to see which retailers will survive in the next 10 and 20 years.
Business Ethics: Coca-Cola’s Waste
Northampton is a town in Western Massachusetts. It is home to one of Coca-Cola plant. Recently, this plant has been dumping out excessive wastewater that is becoming too expensive for the Northampton’s wastewater treatment facility to process. The sewage from Coca-Cola is more sugary effluent, meaning that the waste cannot be dumped into the river because it creates high-level of bacteria. As a result, the Northampton’s wastewater treatment system must handle the processing of the waste, but at a higher price for overtime, energy, and the expenses.
A possible solution Northampton is considering is to up the wastewater processing rates by 23%. However far from stepping up to help pay for the added waste treatment, Coca-cola headquarter still haven’t responded to the plan.
This article is definitely an article regarding business ethics. Before the expansion and construction of a new plant, Coca-cola should have foreseen the waste problem. It is not ordinary waste that the company is leaking out, but a waste that could bring potential danger to the citizens of Northampton. What if a worker one day accidentally dump a gallon of waste water into the toilet? What if a young boy drinks the water when he is down by the lake? Working with communities can not only set a mutual agreement, but also the company can show the citizens its proactive side on water stewardship. Hopefully Coca-Cola will find a win-win situation for itself and the citizens of Northampton.
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