The new system changed the behaviour of the sales associates. They diligently entered all the information for each sale. Sales people became much more aggressive in their sales efforts: often customers were approached more than once by different associates in each department. The friendly conversations that had taken place among sales associates and between supervisors and customers were shortened, and sales were processed through the computerized cash registers much more quickly. When sales activity was slow in one department, associates would migrate to other departments were there were more customers. Sometimes conflicts between employees arose because associates from the small appliances and bedding departments migrated to the cookers and televisions department and competed for the ‘big ticket’ sales. A month after the adoption of the new system, unloaded carts lined