Rusty Saber: Bigger only better if customers are served

Two news stories recently caught my fancy. One was a big-time, blockbuster, banner-headline grabber, while the other was a human-interest story. The former was the merger between America Online and Time Warner. The latter was about a clothing store, B. Lodge & Co., that has survived in downtown Albany, N.Y., since 1867.

You may ask how these stories are connected. It may be that, encamped as I am in Maui, the trade winds have addled my brain beyond its usual state of addledness, but I believe they are connected.

Both stories are fascinating.

A locally owned clothing store surviving in downtown anywhere for 132 years in spite of suburban megamalls, Wal-Marts, Kmarts and Internet shopping is rare enough to make the news. This store still uses old-fashioned cash registers, ones that don't do anything other than hold money and give customers receipts, which is what God intended cash registers to do.

B. Lodge has for 132 years provided the very highest quality men's and women's clothing, and prides itself on highly personalized service. Like at Cheers, everybody knows your name. Except for the few stores like this one, clerks today know your name only if they see it on your credit card.

Sheer magnitude describes the merger of AOL and Time Warner. I mean, this is Time, Sports Illustrated and People. And it's Warner Bros., a major player for most of the history of movies. Warner Bros. was the home of Hollywood movie stars ranging from Bette Davis to Bugs Bunny. Time Warner also includes a major recording giant and the cable TV empire built by Ted Turner.

But it was AOL that bought Time Warner. Until a few years ago, no one had ever heard of AOL or Steve Case, who accumulated the wherewithal to pull off this bonanza by selling access to the Internet. He's now the chief honcho of a vast communications empire that will probably trigger mergers of other communications leviathans trying to grab a share of the Information Age.

Jeremy Rifkin, author of the forthcoming book "The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism Where All of Life is a Paid-for Experience" (the title may turn out to be longer than the book), said that the merger means "the business of business is no longer about exchange of property, but rather about buying access to one's existence in small, commercial time segments."

Rifkin's thesis is that media conglomerates will become the gatekeepers that will control the means by which access is gained to information, making them the equivalent of the captains of industry a century ago.

How does the story of the 132-year-old retail store relate to AOL-Time Warner? I believe it means that the store has managed to survive because it has attracted, and continues to attract, enough people who remember what personalized service is all about. What happens when no one remembers or cares about personal service?

The merger, Jeremy Rifkin said, will move us closer to a "world where access to global networks will define our social dynamics ..."

In cyberspace, it isn't necessary to know anything but your credit card number and address. Personalized service isn't a requirement of doing business in cyberspace, which is too bad.

A hookup of computer, television set and telephone offers just about anything one might need, be it information, entertainment, or goods and services. Once it could be said, "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." Today, we are on the verge of saying, "Build a better mouse and the world will click to your Web site."

I'm rooting for B. Lodge & Co., and others like it, to hang in there for another 132 years because I'm a member of the old guard; I remember personal service.

To me, a small 132-year-old clothing store and the AOL-Time Warner merger are connected because one represents the past where service was king, the other represents the high-tech, impersonal future where speed and convenience count.

I suppose the big question will be whether, in the brave new world of cyberspace, there will be a niche for the merchants who take time to chat with customers, cater to their demands, remember their names and make certain they know their business is appreciated. That sort of thing is hard to come by at the superstore or on the Internet.

(Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University and a Springfield public relations consultant.)