Thanks to Mike Shannon for sending me these notes.

Retail sales for February, excluding auto, were up for clothing, electronics, furniture and gasoline.  Overall, excluding auto, sales were up nearly 1%.  That's better than it sounds out there.

But mediocrity is up too.  If it isn't bad enough that salespeople still get acknowledged, rewarded and thanked for failing to exceed 100%, we have news that airlines improved their on time performance rates in January - up to 77%.  Shouldn't we all be excited about that?  And this is skewed somewhat by the #1,3 and 5 performers, probably not the airlines you are flying for business (Hawaiin, Express Jet and Pinnacle).  So after #2, Southwest, at 83.3%, the best of the majors is United at 79%.

When are we going to make it clear to the airlines, our salespeople, and anyone else who doesn't perform that we simply aren't going to take it anymore?

(c) Copyright 2009 Dave Kurlan