Some companies seem a bit suicidal

I have noticed a trend lately. Many of the companies I deal with seem to be deliberately trying to annoy their customers. In these difficult economic times I really don't understand this.

I used to do most of my shopping at Meijer. Then they started reducing the number of cashiers so that long lines would form at the register. That was followed by replacing most of the cashiers with self-checkout lanes. While some people like them I hate self-checkout lanes, and so do quite a few others judging by the long lines of people waiting to check out at the few lanes that still have cashiers. The result is that while I used to spend over $100 a week at Meijer I now spend less than $20, and would stop spending that much if I could find another brand of chocolate milk my son likes.

I used to shop at Home Depot a lot, but now you have to walk through a gauntlet of no less than four people trying to sell you roof repairs, some special product, a credit card, or something similar. Now I do most of my shopping at Lowes.

I rarely sign up for email of special offers from companies, but for a few of my favorites I have. Of these I have had to drop out of two thirds of them because they started sending me daily emails. Do they really think they can harass me into buying something?

I realize all of these are attempts to save money and increase sales, but you don't accomplish those things by driving away your customers. The people that run these companies surely must know that, they are customers themselves. Yet the companies do it anyway. Either you can truly harass your customers into buying more or these companies have become so desperate they are suicidal. I am not a retail genius but I am leaning towards the second explanation.