bad business

It's not uncommon to see a business established on quality become "big" and "popular." It makes sense. I mean, if a business is good, people will tell friends who will tell friends, and so on. It's the old adage: the best advertisement is word of mouth. Unfortunately, it seems that when many businesses become "big" and "popular," they tend to lose the sight of what got them there. It's like the owner/executives become so obsessed with popularity, ratings, sales, etc. that they become obsessed with it and focus more on that than the things which led to the quality that made their name for them in the first place. Restaurants are notoriously guilty for this. They start out with quality food, service, and value which causes their business to explode. Then, they feel like people will come regardless and the value slips. A perfect example of this is Hilltop Steakhouse in Saugus. The food there used to be amazing. You would wait in line forever to eat, but it was worth it. People still frequent Hilltop but only because it's name is already well known. Most leave unsatisfied. TV stations and shows are also often guilty of this. ESPN built itself as a quality outlet for all things sports. Now that they're big, they just have a bunch of talking heads who are usually wrong. They also have a lot of unfunny anchors who think they're comedians, which is a different topic for a different day I guess. This is certainly not always the case as places like Kelly's Roast Beef and Seafood have maintained excellent quality over the years. But this is more like the exception that proves the rule. Many more places tend to live on their name instead of product than not. I only hope that I don't lose quality on this blog. If I start posting garbage full of fluff and no thought, let me know.