To me, large companies are good for some things, and small companies are good for others. Large companies are good for products and services you can stamp out, and do the same thing a hundred times. Small companies are better for things where serving and individual customer takes more thought and intelligence.
It’s like Wal-mart. The last thing I’d ever want to do is go into a mom and pop competitor to Wal-mart. There’s just no way for a mom and pop to compete. And you can stamp out a million Walm-marts all over the planet. Each new one takes some intelligence to set up. But after it’s going, you don’t need very well paid people to run it.
But something like fixing your car... As many problems as I’ve had with car mechanics over the years, I would never go to a chain. Yes, it is possible for some smart, very able person to end up running a store that’s got a chain’s name on it. But I’ve found it much more likely to end up with better service when the owner of the mechanics shop is sitting there right behind the counter when I walk in.
It’s like if I’m a really good mechanic, why would I want to work in a shop where every time I fix a car, not only are the people in the shop getting paid, but also the regional manager and his staff get a cut, and the office he reports to, all the way up to the CEO. And don’t forget the stockholders, they want a cut too with the dividend they receive every quarter. And I’ve spoken to the couple of mechanics over they years and I’ve asked them why they work at that independent shop and not a chain. And they’ve told me the same, very simple thing. They make more money.
With computers, there are a lot of simple repairs anyone fairly knowledgeable with computers can do. And that’s why the Genius Bar has never been helpful to me. I can do what they can do myself. I am glad they’re there. Because there are a lot of people who can’t do that stuff. But an any serious repair I can’t do myself, like removing a faulty chip off a computer board? I’d much rather look around a little and try to find an independent shop do the work than bring it into the stamped out Apple stores.