Yesterday, I encountered a real caricatured small-scale bourgeois business. I went to Giethoorn, where a man runs a warehouse with an outlet to the canal, and he keeps boats there. I decided to book a boat in advance. My friends and I arrived a bit early, and we were told there were no boats available, and we’d have to wait 30 minutes, then another 10 minutes. I immediately realized this was a small-scale bourgeois enterprise.
The owner was running between different points in the warehouse — the bar, the cash register, the toilet, and an office desk in another part of the building. Crowds gathered at each point. He deftly collected money — cash, card payments, he had a bag for cash like a vendor. He didn’t care about service or delays; he just said the boat would be ready in 15 minutes – 1 hour, without any reference to a system. Apparently, he has a statistical estimate for such cases in his head. Even the toilet was monetized at 1 euro.
His children were involved in all this. He had about five of them: two helped unload and prepare the boat, the third — a chubby manager like their father — constantly reported the situation, and two worked at the cash register, although they were often absent.
Visiting such places no longer brings me joy.
The described situation shows several signs of capitalism: private ownership of the warehouse and boats, a drive for maximum profit, market relations, exploitation of labor (the owner’s children work for him), and monetization of services, including a paid toilet. The owner is more interested in making money than in satisfying customers, which is also typical of capitalist enterprises.