Company Traitor!
I can’t quite forget that meeting I had with my current boss, when he came to our store.
He wanted to get to know our department, so we all had a meeting with him.
During his talk, he mentioned something to the effect of,
When you shop, shop with our company. Employees who shop with their company are loyal, and benefit us. Employees who shop around are disloyal, and traitors to our business.
I find it interesting that he said this, but our store’s prices are some of the highest in town.
A few posts back, I had insinuated as to what I get paid for working at the Customer Service Center (which, I should add, is generally less than I’d get as a plain, single duty cashier — if it didn’t bug me to be stuck in one spot all day, I’d switch departments!) in this store.
With as little as I get paid, plus, forced into paying out the nose per week on a lovely wage garnishment (DIE, Asset Acceptance, you lot of asses) I can’t afford not to shop around.
Here’s a classic example: Soda.
I drink sodas when I’m stressed. Lots of them. I stopped smoking, not only because it’s too expensive, but it messes with my asthma too. So, let’s look at the cost of a two liter bottle of soda.
My place of employ:
Pepsi: $1.59 (-5%); Store Brand: 5 for $4 (80¢ each) (-10%).
Wal-Mart (which I can walk to):
Pepsi: 4 for $5 ($1.25 each); Store Brand: 50¢ each.
Yeah, it’s not only cheaper at Wal-Mart, it’s quicker. I can walk to Wal-Mart, save myself a gallon of unleaded, get a couple of two liter bottles, and walk home on my day off, satisfying my soda lust, and still have enough to perhaps get a cheap bite to eat somewhere.
For what it’s worth, I don’t quite care that I’m a “traitor to the company” now. I used to be one of those oddball loyalists, way back when, refusing to shop at Wal-Mart when I worked at Target; refusing to eat at McDonald’s when I worked at Sonic, etc etc.
It’s more like, the company is a traitor to my wallet now. If I were being paid more, then I could afford to shop with my employer. I might shop with my company more, when their prices go down, or my pay goes way the hell up. Their choice.
My dad actually had a confrontation about this with the store director at a store he used to work with.
My dad was drinking a particular type of soda which is no longer carried at the store. The product is a generic brand diet caffeine free cola.
Here’s the confrontation:
So the store director says “drinking up the competition huh?”
My dad responds with “if we carried this product in our generic brand I would drink it, I do not like having to make a separate trip to another store.” The store director responds with “I know we still carry the product, I just saw it the other day.” My dad says “well go out and look for it and tell me when you find it, I’ll be here in the lunchroom until my lunch is over.”
The store director never came back to the lunchroom and never mentioned it again.