My town seems to be jumping, and I'm cautiously optimistic that we're finally headed in the right direction. Our company's sales first started to decline in Sept. '08 and they stayed lethargic throughout 2009. We managed to stay in the black by cutting costs. Beginning this past March we started to see a noticeable increase in business that seems to be gaining momentum. We're on track for our best year since the recession began.
I have a buddy who is a sales manager for a local soft drink distributor. He told me that his drivers are still operating on a 4-day delivery schedule, despite a big uptick in sales. Upper management is refusing to hire additional help or increase overtime, preferring instead to increase profits by squeezing the existing workers even harder. My buddy says he feels like he's constantly in crisis mode these days, having to deal with an increasing number of what he describes as driver "melt-downs".
No doubt, there are plenty of other companies doing the same thing. Besides the human cost, ultimately it can't be very good for sales.
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