It is not easy to re-orient a company's culture and infuse employees with goodwill toward customers. The answer is reduced corporate overhead and improved productivity. An easy target is the systems group. The favored treatment merchandising gets makes it a prime target for cost reduction. Accounting staffs can take on a culture of their own.
Many retailers tend to look down on the accounting function as an unwanted but required evil.
Consequently, these staffs tend to become combative and protective of their responsibilities. Whereas the systems group has lofty goals that are difficult to dispute, the accounting groups are held in contempt because of their focus. Nonetheless, with their own set of jargon, accounting rules and controls, and frequent control of the budgeting process, accountants know how to play the game, and this can easily lead to excess staffing. The costs of the operations group are typically measured as a percentage of sales. Few companies really know how well their store staffing compares to customer traffic patterns and they tend to schedule staff for their convenience, not the customer's needs.