Priorities: Exterior or Interior?

     You can probably foretell the answer to that question, based on the most common experiences.  But, here's a story anyway.  A friend of mine (she's a darling lady) works for a ultra-high end retail boutique on upper Madison Avenue.  It's an eye-catching store.  Great product... regarded highly in the world as elite.

     However, the company is badly disorganized.  The catalogs and price lists are full of errors and typos.  The website is not updated, nor is it representative of the merchandise.  The POS system was installed in 1982.  The outsourced "tech help" service that the company uses jokes that they get someone out of retirement to answer questions about it.  Simple transactions take too long, because of it.  Luxury clients don't like it.  In fact, there is no cash register.  A credit card swiping machine (like the kind you'd find in a bagel shop) is used... along with an old metal box (with key on a ribbon)... which is kept in a floor-level drawer.  How déclassé for a store selling $100,000 items.  Even local food trucks and coffee vendors in the park use an iPad with credit card swipe attached!  
     Considering that the store is only 2 years old, it's evident that no thought was put into the creation of space for "payment transactions" or "gift wrapping".  The computer system crashes regularly.  Sales Associates use their own cellphones to conjure business with clients, instead of using the antiquated systems.  Insane amounts of money were applied to the ceiling, which is so delicate that it's needed to be replaced twice.  A lavish chandelier has failed to stay lit, often blowing fuses.  The cheap carpentry used on the nice-looking displays causes unpleasant banging/yanking/slamming to show off merchandise.  The inventory has issues, communication between stores and corporate is riddled with problems/delays, executives are known to delete emails without reply, and there is no oversight of store managers.  Hence, 4 store managers have worked at that store in 2 years, equal to the number of associates who interviewed for "luxury retail" there and then quit.  
     The company just opened a small shop in fashionable downtown, but logistically it's abysmal.  Its stock/mailing room is "off site" in a basement.  With only two employees at the store, whenever one needs to get something from the stock room, that increases the risk for unsupervised shoplifting.
     Needless to say, when a large stockholder visited the Upper Madison flagship store and wanted to see how things could be improved, the staff was delighted.  However, the stockholder's recommendation--which is now underway--was that new carpeting should be installed and a new chandelier be hung.  Nothing was said about the "back-of-house" issues that cause customer/employee frustration.  Nobody cared that their lack of infrastructure created bad impressions, as customers finish their transactions.
     Needless to say, the company's profits don't seem to be reinvested into itself... just the shareholders' pockets or to support its upper-middle corporate management (which allegedly wastes plenty of money on their own needs and projects).