Price vs. quality

When demanding consumers or small businesspeople visit a warehouse retailer such as Metro in Western Europe or Costco in the U.S., they're lucky to get out with their wallet intact. The selection of goods and the price/quality relationship is set in such a way as to ensure that they spend the maximum. At Makro in the CR, it's different. Quality is in short supply when it comes to such things as electronics, clothes or tools. A demanding customer who wants to spend money often leaves empty-handed. The problem, Makro says, is that the average Czech consumer is geared toward price, not quality. It wants to change this. It will sponsor a European Quality Week this month and has set up a special quality division for overseeing production, warehousing and distribution of certain products. It's goals seem clear: Higher quality means higher margins and, more importantly, better customer satisfaction.