I learned an interesting lesson about American employment the other day and I’m still a little rattled by it. We were doing our weekly shopping and errand run. The last stop was Wal-Mart for our groceries. We wandered rather deliberately in our usual circle around the store picking up this and that. I saw that there were new apples. Yeah! We both love crisp new apples. Some were in those cute paper totes and priced at .98c a pound. I showed my husband and we grabbed a bag.
I headed for the register lines while he went to the foyer to grab watermelon- a summertime staple in our house. While out there he ran into a friend and began talking. Unwilling to give up my hard earned place in line, I stayed put. When my turn came, the first thing the cashier rang up was the bag of apples. It rang up at .98c per bag not per pound! She thought that was funny and brought it to my attention. I assured her that she was right. The apples were priced per pound not per bag. She tried again. Same thing, the computer spit out the price of .98 cents per bag. She set them aside and called for her supervisor.
We both explained the problem to this harried young man. He only half listened. Then he rang them through himself and told us that the computer price was right. I got the 5lb bag of apples for .98cents. My husband was still talking in the foyer so I left the cart with him and headed for produce to check the sign. It read .98c per pound.
By this time, I’m having a struggle within myself- I wanted more .98c bags of apples but since I knew it was an error, wasn’t that like stealing? I told my husband (and his friend) the story. They both said to get more apples. So I did. Ten more bags for $10.00.
But here is where it got interesting. My conscious is very loud- it wouldn’t shut up. So I brought the problem to the attention of the produce worker, the bakery guy, another cashier (the lady in line behind me asked where they were and left the line to get some- no problem with her conscience!), and the door greeter. They all said basically the same thing, if the supervisor okayed it there was nothing they could do about it. Nothing.
Why couldn’t they do something about it? Was it because they didn’t think it was their problem? Or would they actually get in trouble for reporting it? Or did they just not care enough to bother? Whatever the reason I think it’s screwed up. The store lost money which will reflect on their paychecks. Losing money also reflects on future price tags. Keeping costs down should concern us all.
In the meantime, I have fifty pounds of apples……….that’s a lot of apple pies. I’d better get started on them. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
I headed for the register lines while he went to the foyer to grab watermelon- a summertime staple in our house. While out there he ran into a friend and began talking. Unwilling to give up my hard earned place in line, I stayed put. When my turn came, the first thing the cashier rang up was the bag of apples. It rang up at .98c per bag not per pound! She thought that was funny and brought it to my attention. I assured her that she was right. The apples were priced per pound not per bag. She tried again. Same thing, the computer spit out the price of .98 cents per bag. She set them aside and called for her supervisor.
We both explained the problem to this harried young man. He only half listened. Then he rang them through himself and told us that the computer price was right. I got the 5lb bag of apples for .98cents. My husband was still talking in the foyer so I left the cart with him and headed for produce to check the sign. It read .98c per pound.
By this time, I’m having a struggle within myself- I wanted more .98c bags of apples but since I knew it was an error, wasn’t that like stealing? I told my husband (and his friend) the story. They both said to get more apples. So I did. Ten more bags for $10.00.
But here is where it got interesting. My conscious is very loud- it wouldn’t shut up. So I brought the problem to the attention of the produce worker, the bakery guy, another cashier (the lady in line behind me asked where they were and left the line to get some- no problem with her conscience!), and the door greeter. They all said basically the same thing, if the supervisor okayed it there was nothing they could do about it. Nothing.
Why couldn’t they do something about it? Was it because they didn’t think it was their problem? Or would they actually get in trouble for reporting it? Or did they just not care enough to bother? Whatever the reason I think it’s screwed up. The store lost money which will reflect on their paychecks. Losing money also reflects on future price tags. Keeping costs down should concern us all.
In the meantime, I have fifty pounds of apples……….that’s a lot of apple pies. I’d better get started on them. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
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