1: How should Fosdick respond to the immediate situation?
2: What controls, of the types discussed in this chapter, might have been used by Red Spot Markets to reduce or eliminate the problems discussed in the case?
3: What longer-range steps should Fosdick take to control the operations of the Providence distribution center?
4: What longer-range steps should Fosdick take to improve the Providence distribution center’s productivity?
5: What longer-range steps can Fosdick take to reduce the distribution center’s high rate of shrinkage?
6: Assume that Fosdick decides that the practice of free lunches from the open cases of goods must be stopped. Develop and present arguments he should give in a meeting with a union shop steward.
7: (This is a continuation of Question 6.) Assume, instead, that you are the union shop steward. Develop and present your argument that the free lunches represent a long-standing employee benefit enjoyed by the distribution center’s employees, and that management’s attempt to stop them is a breach of an unwritten contract and will be resisted.
8: Much of the situation described in the case seems to revolve around the personality of T.D. Bigelow. How should he be treated? Why?