Post AR4b01fjs7cQZUBBPU by machias@shavingcream.online
 (DIR) More posts by machias@shavingcream.online
 (DIR) Post #AR4b01fjs7cQZUBBPU by machias@shavingcream.online
       2022-12-28T17:57:06Z
       
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       Back in its heydey, Kmart's IT Infrastructure was a mess until they hired an outside CIO to come in and fix things. From the late 1980s to the end of the 90s, their IT infrastructure was "solutions based" and not "vendor based". I believe most of it ran on UNIX. I've always liked that solutions based approach; any hardware/OS combo should be able to get to your data. I fly with Foreflight, but I can get the same data through skyvector. My task lists can be opened with any text editor.
       
 (DIR) Post #AR4b02ChtXzSDjbVnU by AIaYYAle4i1uKmKpqy.gme@bofh.social
       2022-12-28T17:59:48.435898Z
       
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       Home Depot was similar. But it was all developed in-house. And I really grew to admire the hub & spoke approach that the stores had with respect to the mother ship. Each store could pretty much function autonomously without any connection to Corporate except for batch jobs that ran at night to update inventory, etc.Stores ran on a combination of HP/UX and AIX.AIX ran all the POS terminals and registers (and inventory, etc.) and HP/UX ran all the HR, time-keeping, accounting, etc.
       
 (DIR) Post #AR4b02mVkQd80mM6bY by feld@bikeshed.party
       2022-12-28T18:02:20.928804Z
       
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       @gme @machias sounds like my memory of how Menards worked. Also AIX workstations buried in the front office.
       
 (DIR) Post #AR4b0ADM71GL43y8v2 by machias@shavingcream.online
       2022-12-28T17:59:10Z
       
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       Back to the Kmart scenario, stores across the country had differing cash register and point of sale equipment, NCR, IBM, Fujitsu, etc. But they all could get to the same data. That's the important part. Any software package that locks you into a specific hardware solution is going to get you in the end.
       
 (DIR) Post #AR4by3oH3LzeZmnYSO by machias@shavingcream.online
       2022-12-28T18:03:23Z
       
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       @gme Lowe’s did the same. The local Lowe’s had a mix of hardware vendors for registers in the same store. I think Home Depot flipped to Windows for everything. Kmart flipped to a monolithic approach for everything in 2002 or so and hasn’t been the same since.
       
 (DIR) Post #AR4by4DRXm7tpqZegi by AIaYYAle4i1uKmKpqy.gme@bofh.social
       2022-12-28T18:09:53.247633Z
       
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       LOL. Speaking of Lowe’s….When Bob Nardelli quit General Electric because he was passed-over for GE’s CEO position that he felt he was the rightful heir to, Nardelli came to Home Depot as its CEO.Huge scandal here in Atlanta with him even before he started because the AJC had photos of Lowes trucks delivering appliances and furnishings to his new “mansion” (and not Home Depot).Oh what a shit storm that created.He had to send everything back to Lowe’s. When he became CEO one of the very first things he did was to get rid of all GE Appliances and products in the store. Which of course were some of the best selling products.And this is when you saw Lowe’s really start to take off and kick Home Depot’s ass in sales and preference with customers.GE was allowed back a couple of years later after Lowe’s was trouncing Home Depot in sales, profits, stock price and more.
       
 (DIR) Post #AR4by4k3aWDLSzphWS by feld@bikeshed.party
       2022-12-28T18:13:29.153385Z
       
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       @gme @machias Lowes is also GSA so no matter what happens the federal government will bail them out :laugh: