Daniel Josef M. Aloroy                                                                                                2.5.08

ITETHIC                                                                                                                       O0B

Reaction Paper on Casas Bahia

            Casas Bahia is a monstrous retail company in Brazil which focuses on linens, towels, and sheets. It was named after the largest state in poverty at Brazil. Due to the people’s inability to purchase the goods that they need, Samuel Klein thought of putting up a store that would cater on the needs of the people under economic classes C, D and E on affordable prices. It is running currently under the management of Samuel’s two sons, Michael and Saul.

            Casas Bahia can be compared to the local and even worldwide famous chain of retail stores, the SM. Their founders share something in common, which was starting out as struggling young boys who earns money through their own efforts. With a dream of helping out the poor to have the things they need and desire, Casas Bahia was born.

            The culture inside Casas Bahia is really appropriate for their customers, the local Brazilians. Because, they own 330 stores nationwide, catering to 10 million people and employing 20,000 employees, Casas Bahia really knows how to relate very well to them by giving them options on paying their merchandise, and giving them an advantage to come back again. But there is one thing that I admire about their system. It is the requirement to submit a score acquired from Service Credit Protection. Customers are evaluated based on their ability to pay their loans as soon as possible. Their score is given to a Casas Bahia salesman whenever they would visit their store. If the total of the products they wish to buy exceeds a certain amount, they would be denied.

            Although, Casas Bahia is very much similar to some malls here in the Philippines, its only edge above the rest is that its devotion to its customers by continuously improving on their relationship with them. They made a big leap when they shifted they operating systems from IBM OS/2 to a Linux operating system. They never thought twice on retraining their employees from using it.