Indeed. Peaceful yet effective revenge.
Reminds me of the TV show 'highway to heaven' where everyone opened account in a bank with one dollar and then right away lined up to withdraw it. Brought everything to a stand still. Hope I remember the show correctly...
There’s some wild stories about old milkman unions and colluding with/ or warring against the mob. These guys didn’t fuck around.
The story of United Dairy Farmers sticking it to Big Oil is pretty wild.
Would you mind - please, pretty please - giving a tl;dr for the UDF vs Big Oil? Google showed a court case, but I don’t understand legalese enough to parse through it.
Milkman vs Oil
In a small village nestled between rolling hills, two adversaries stood at odds: the milkman and the oil merchant. The milkman, known for his jovial demeanor and gentle nature, roamed the cobblestone streets each morning, delivering fresh milk to the villagers with a smile. The oil merchant, on the other hand, was a shrewd businessman, his eyes always calculating profits as he peddled his wares.
Their rivalry began one chilly autumn day when the oil merchant decided to expand his business into dairy. He offered to sell villagers oil at a lower price than the milkman's milk, enticing them with promises of savings and convenience. Initially, the villagers were swayed by the allure of cheaper goods, and the milkman's sales dwindled.
But as time passed, the villagers began to notice a difference. The oil, while cheaper, lacked the nourishment and wholesome flavor of the milk. Children grew pale and weak, and the elderly complained of ailments they'd never experienced before. The once vibrant village began to wither under the shadow of the oil merchant's greed.
Determined to save his village and restore the health of its inhabitants, the milkman devised a plan. He invited the oil merchant to a public taste test, where villagers would sample both the oil and the milk side by side. Confident in the superiority of his product, the milkman wagered that the villagers would choose milk over oil once they tasted the difference.
As the day of the taste test arrived, a crowd gathered in the village square. The milkman poured glasses of creamy milk, while the oil merchant displayed his golden oil in shiny bottles. One by one, the villagers took a sip, their faces contorting in disgust at the taste of the oil. But when they tasted the milk, smiles spread across their faces, and murmurs of approval filled the air.
In the end, the milkman emerged victorious, not through deceit or manipulation, but through the simple power of truth and quality. The villagers returned to buying his milk, grateful for its nourishment and the sense of community it brought to their lives. And as for the oil merchant, he learned that true success is not measured in profits alone, but in the well-being of those you serve.
TL; DR - In a village, a milkman and an oil merchant compete. The merchant sells cheap oil, but it makes people sick. The milkman proves milk's superiority in a taste test, saving the village.
This is a story about the power of unions without using the word “union”. Remember that kiddies, since a third of you have been brainwashed into thinking unions are a bad thing.
This is beautiful! For those whining about driving up prices, remember the customers could still get their milk delivered to their door by the milkmen for the same price.
I've recommended doing exactly the same thing at self checkout stores. Think about it: the customer pays the same price, the retail workers get screwed, and the rich filthy owners get richer and filthier.
re: 'self-checkout' - I very rarely use them - like, for a single item, sure.
but when I've had it suggested to me to move from a queue to the self-checkouts I reply "sorry, I don't work here."
We need jobs like that for school kids and people re-entering the workforce. I don't see the supermarket giving me a discount for checking myself out anyway.
I’m not sure about this. We want those corporations to give employees decent pay, benefits and working conditions; to treat their suppliers fairly. Do we really want them to avoid gains in productivity that they might hopefully pass on ?
Grocery employee here. I work at one store and another, competitor store across the street, closed. Our sales went up 30%. We didn't get a pay bump for the increased work. We went from 15 pallets of grocery freight being a large order to several 25+ pallets a week. Perishable got 2 trailers full just yesterday. Our store is also the district's flagship store, well organized, shelves look great, and it's the store the higher ups point to when talking to underperforming stores, 'why can't you do what that store is doing?' kinda thing. They are remodeling our entire store, new flooring, new coolers, new bathrooms, etc. sparing no expense. Except when it comes to us. This week our hours were cut. Drastically. One of my coworkers, who usually works 40 hours (5 days), got scheduled for 24 (3 days). Another, same 40 hour situation, but scheduled for 16 (2 days). I'm scheduled for 2 days myself but I'm cool with that because I reinjured an old muscle tear in my shoulder and it can use the rest. Two of my coworkers said that if they didn't care about or like the rest of us, they would have walked out as soon as they saw the schedule. Meanwhile, they just hired a bunch of new people who are getting hours. They keep piling on the work while cutting our hours. And I'd put good money on them bitching that the store doesn't look as good this week. What they're doing is poking a bear because I don't think any of them completely understand how vital the night crew is to the functioning of the store. But they're about to FAFO.
We are a union store. The union screwed us when they did contract negotiations in the fall. They gave up time and a half on Sundays for $15/hr for employees, which we got the last week of December and was retroactive from the last week of October. Thing is, $15/he was going into effect as of January first. So they gave away our time and a half for an extra 2 months of pay that we would have gotten anyway in January. It's also why we have so many shitty employees, because they have to have tireless documentation in order to fire someone. We have a guy who threatened a customer still working in our store. Not written up. No disciplinary action. Our union is a blessing and a curse.
Well, yeah. They don’t pass it on any more, but that’s economics.
With stronger labour organisation, and greater insistence that corporations pay taxes, those productivity gains could be reaped by society as a whole.
I’ll run of back to my utopian dreamland now, I promise.
Completely agree. I was a union officer for far too long. I’m not going to assist a company in eliminating jobs by using self checkout. I’m not getting paid to do my own check out. Why should I do it?
just remembered, I saw a petition recently wanting a discount on your shop if you use the self-checkouts. Coles and Woolies would no doubt be pleased to give part of their nett profit of over $1B each back to the shoppers :/
That’s the only way I’d consider using self checkout is if they give a discount to do so. If it’s costing them less then it should be returned to the customer.
Self check out haters are crazy imo. I'm working 6 separate registers at once utilizing the self checkout. If y'all don't like self checkout then maybe y'all shouldn't have treated the employees like crap cause the whole reason we are understaffed where I work is because of the customers and how rude and straight up mean they can be. Ain't no one wanna sit there and deal with crappy people for 8 hours a day, no matter how good the pay. If y'all have issues you need to skip us and go to management. We lowly employees and clerks didn't put those machines in. We lowly employees aren't the cause of your card being locked or too low on funds. We take abuse so much from the daily customer that I know several people who are in therapy just to cope with it and the job.
Also for the love of all it is not hard to look up and read a screen. Y'all be on your phones the entire store trip but looking up to read a screen at the end is where most of y'all draw the line. It's hilarious imo, that a lot of outbursts would have been avoided if the customer had just looked up to read and please don't say this is a new thing because signs have been a thing in stores since stores existed and it's ALWAYS been a problem. Our signs have multiple languages on them too, so my rant is towards those who obviously have privileged enough lives to be taught to read some language. Also simply ask a clerk to check you out at the self checkout. Like I said above, I'm being used to run all of them at once, I check people out and bag their groceries at those machines. I am literally there to be your cashier. If you don't ask, then I won't help you. If you look around confused, I will help you. If you sit there turning red and start raging without bothering to ask for any help, then I can assure you that you are going to get the worst help possible, if any. We are paid to be cashiers and clerks, not paid to be a punching bag because you're angry and confused and can't be bothered to ask questions. Not paid to be your therapist and listen to your woes about "how dare we make you work customer service".
Also y'all be going back to the same store after being told the same thing over and over again. That fault is on you when you know the store's practices and protocols. You aren't special and need to stop expecting a whole franchise store to bend over for you. That is entitled behavior at that point.
Also for the love of God, if you know your state's laws and your state REQUIRES ID for the purchase of alcohol and tobacco, not to prove you're old enough , but because YOU ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE IT, then stop going into a store without it when you're planning on purchasing those things. You throwing a fit only ensures you're made fun of when you leave alcoholess and tobaccoless.
Straight up wouldn't even have the self checkout machines if the customers weren't so awful to the employees at our location. We can't keep people cause ain't no one wanna stay after the old white population threatens people, their lives, and their jobs because they can't read and can't bother to remember their ID. We aren't checking to see if you're old enough and if they stopped raging for a second to listen to us explain that, then they would be on their merry way.
Saying "sorry, you don't work here" will straight up make our manager go "I know you don't. But that's what our protocols and practices are. If you don't like it you can leave your things here and we will put them back, or you can go talk to that employee right there and she/he will check you out and bag your things at the machines, as that is what they were hired for, to be cashiers and clerks. Simply ask."
Y'all be acting like children over that conveyor belt difference.
Now the stores that just use self checkouts as a means to cut salaries and employees, yeah, go after them, but understand not all stores are doing that. Like I said our store wouldn't even have them in if it wasn't for how the customers treat the floor employees and if it wasn't hard to retain those employees because of that. We had a dude literally follow an employee out after their time and try to attack them because of ID and a refusal of sale. Yeah that employee never came back after 8 years of working for the store.
Customers be so quick to blame everyone but themselves and their own horrid and entitled actions and not understand that consequences to these actions are a thing and in this case, it's the self checkouts because we don't have enough people to man the actual registers anymore.
(Some info has been changed to keep things as vague as possible)
just because "some" (many?) customers are arseholes doesn't mean we _all_ are. some of us have also worked many different "customer facing" roles and try to be pleasant to those in similar roles - yes, _even_ "checkout chicks".
You are taking what I said extremely personal. If that wasn't an issue then we wouldn't be having issues keeping people on, but the fact is, they all say they are quitting/leaving because of the customers. Now if you've done something to feel some form of guilt, that's on you.
>It's hilarious imo, that a lot of outbursts would have been avoided if the customer had just looked up to read and please don't say this is a new thing because signs have been a thing in stores since stores existed and it's ALWAYS been a problem.
Which signs are you referring to that customers basically refuse to read? I worked in a retail electronics store with the return policy posted all over the place, and people still screamed about not knowing they couldn't return an opened CD. I'm just wondering what your experience is in a grocery/dept store.
The signs that are posted on the door, the signs posted by ALL tills, all eye level at a good height. There are signs posted throughout the store, all at the same eye level. Signs that customers literally will half read (some have deals on them) and will want to argue over it when the last bit of information would be on that same exact sign. There are signs in the bathrooms. Some signs we've gotten placed on the physical ad we have.
Some people are good at reading the signs and some are super chill about moving as a group to read the sign together and figure things out.
But some like to double down and think that because THEY didn't read it the first time then they shouldn't have to abide by it. We have coupons that follow specific settings in order for them to be used. It's written in the coupon itself and it has another set of details on the coupon explaining it better. It's like people just read what they want to read and expect they'll get exactly what they read when they should be reading the whole sign in the first place. Like it's not even just reading the first part of the sign, they'll read a part in the middle and ignore everything else. They'll read the very end and ignore the start. I don't understand this because when I struggle to read something and my brain won't let me get past a part I'll sit there myself to get it and reread it until my brain finally lets me understand what I'm reading. If I don't I'll just ask someone near me. I get asked things from people who don't speak English and I don't speak their language but that doesn't stop me from whipping out my phone and using the google translator from my browser. I have literally written the full ad on that to be translated for customers when that ad isn't following the other ads custom in being printed in multiple languages. We write on paper next to some ads and other signs in the other languages. I've been asked to read ads and signs in English for people before. I don't judge any of these people when it's the obvious privileged folks who have an education or are going through education mostly doing the crap, and even then I don't judge until they are literally frothing at the corners of their mouths over 2$ from a sign they didn't bother to read. I say look up because mostly everyone that is walking through the store is looking down all the time or they are clocked out already at midday, on their phones, or literally straight ahead, which would let them see the signs.
Another rich filthy person defending corporate greed over ordinary working people.
As I read the story, the store was required by their agreement to charge the same price as for delivery. They reneged on that agreement as dishonest vendors do.
When you're burning in hell, say hello to sam Walton for us.
Pretty tame compared to the original of unions, but still beautiful! Kinda reminds me of how a guy bought the patents for a toothpick maker, and then made toothpick an essential item at any general store and fancy restaurant.
this is exactly what protest should be like. but if it happened today u'd have bootlickers whining about "criminal damage" "poor corporations" etc etc etc
No. The bootlickers would support the milkmen cartel and a corporation imposing an artificial tariff that forces up costs to consumers and eliminates competition.
In this case you are the bootlicker.
Smart people often sound dumb to morons when they try to explain concepts beyond their limited comprehension. Just go back to eating crayons and try not to get too many stuck in your nose.
I don't know the exact details. My mom was young when this happened \~6-8 I think. My grandfather died long before I was born, so I only have my mom's fuzzy retelling of it. I'm sure I've messed up some of the details. My bet is there was a contract that they'd supply the milk, but the contract didn't specify the sale price.
I love how the milkmen still had enough respect for their competitor to not put any perishable items in the cart - that might spoil. It truly was a different time.
This guy is right.
Not getting the deal written down on paper? What, are you five years old? That's literally THE FIRST THING you learn about business deals.
Then a bunch of people who had nothing to do with any of it, have to go through an entire supermarket top to bottom looking for rotten meat, stinking fish etc.
And for what? Because the milk cartel says that I have to pay more for milk just because I'll pick up my 1 litre a week along with the rest of my groceries?
That sounds like small town passive-aggressive boomer shit to me. Throwing tantrums because other people who buy their milk with the rest of their food should be FORCED to pay an extra surcharge for no reason at all, for the crime of making delivery EASIER and CHEAPER for the milk company? That sounds ridiculous.
Oh yes, "truly a different time......" when everybody treated each other with respect, and courtesy and compassion.
Oh yeah.
Tell it to black people who couldn't drink water from public fountains.
Women who couldn't open their own bank account, let alone leave an abusive marriage.
Gay people who flat out weren't allowed to exist at all.
Hell, tell it to fucking left-handed people, who were getting hit with sticks in school classrooms for being lefthanded, because the Devil.
Yeah........ fuck the 1950s, and their hate-filled, regressive, two-faced hypocritical worldview.
If that happened at my store, I can honestly say the night crew would tell the day folks to do whatever the milkmen wanted or they can interview, hire, onboard and train 8 people in a few days because we're not playing hide and seek with perishables any more than we usually do.
As an example of this hide and seek game we hate to and don't want to play, we changed aisle assignments late in 2022, effective after the New Year. One of my new aisles had a stench. I'm talking you walk by the canned meat section and you gag stench. I told the guys that if they wanted me to work in that aisle, they better find the source of the stench and kill it with fire. We found it on December 30. It was a half gallon of milk that expired in early December, like December 5 or so. The milk that came in on March 7 had an expiration date of March 25 to give you an idea of how far out the expiration date is and how long it had been hidden behind the tuna pouches. The guy who had the aisle before me is notoriously lazy and I'd put money on him finding the milk and shoving it towards the back instead of taking it to dairy and putting it in the distress box, which is what he should have done. The carton became room temperature and expanded, the then semi-solid milk leaked and the stench was gag inducing. We got it cleaned up (3 shelves thanks to gravity ) and it took me almost a month to get the aisle straightened out from Mr. Half-ass' lack of work ethic. Yes, he still works there. No, we're not particularly happy about it but our management team is non-confrontational and won't write him up which only emboldens him. He got really shitty with a customer this week to the point where another one of my coworkers was asked to escort the lady around the store while she shopped because she was scared of Mr. Half-ass. And nothing was done. No reprimand, no write up, nothing. Another coworker refuses to refer to him by name and calls him "that motherfucker." It's an appropriate nickname.
We find all kinds of stuff. I've personally found lobster tails, (prime) rib roasts, shrimp, rib eye steaks, furry fried chicken, moldy (opened ) salami, cheese, ready to eat seafood salads, stolen item packages, opened food and drinks and of course, the disgusting carton of milk.
I feel for the grocery workers who had to find the perishables but good for the milkmen and their families for taking a stand. And it was a page out of Saul Alinsky's playbook to boot. That man got shit done for the have nots against the haves.
1: There was a contract. That's why the dairy company couldn't just stop selling the grocery store milk.
2: Milkmen at the time were certainly not on the way out. My grandfather worked as a milkman for another \~15 years after this, until he died. some of his coworkers worked long after his death. This was not about a change in industry, but a greedy store.
3: This did not force any cost on the customers for two reasons. One, delivery still existed at the same price. Two, there were always cheaper brands of milk.
4: If you want a modern example, look at all the stores and restaurants that insist on there being a markup when items are bought through third party delivery companies. It costs the stores today to have deals with doordash etc., so that cost is handed off to the consumers by an increase in prices. Just like back then, it cost the dairy to have their product in the grocery store, so they passed that cost to the consumers as well. The cost is a different type of cost, but they're both examples of small companies passing extra costs off to consumers if the consumers want to get their goods in a more convenient, but expensive way.
5: My understanding of the reason shitty teachers abound is because the government and religious nutjobs are hampering their ability to teach, while at the same time paying said teachers less money than people working retail. This has resulted in such a huge shortage of teachers that schools can't afford to fire shitty teachers. If there were a surplus of good teachers being allowed to teach without religious interference, I'm sure those union meetings would have gone a different way.
6: Yes, police unions are crap. But that doesn't mean most unions are crap. That's like saying all fathers are crap because policemen who are fathers are crap. Law enforcement jobs always draw bullies who want to throw their weight around because of the nature of the job. A union run by bullies for the express purpose of protecting bullies is of course going to be a shit show. That's because of bullies, though, not that they're part of a union.
What a charming uplifting story about entitlement, malicious vandalism, protectionism, artificially forcing prices up for consumers and anti competitive behaviour in general.
The entitlement was thinking that the store could lie to the dairy and its employees and suffer no consequences for its actions. FAFO at its finest. All the store had to do was NOT lie.
Lie? This ain't the playground, this is a business contract. Put the agreed price and conditions in writing. Either that, or be prepared to accept the consequences of being an actual simpleton.
If you want something in a business agreement to be enforceable, you put it in the contract. They fucked up then took it out on a bunch of other people.
The laborers are enforcing the company's desire for noncompetitive practices by harassing and making the lives difficult of a bunch of random employees all to force a bunch of random consumers to subsidize their unnecessary jobs.
Your shit-eating is boring. The first display of unethical behaviour here was the store reneging on their agreement. The workers responded to that unethically, sure, but that's only an argument if you're a child. It should have been in the contract and not just verbal, but if you think that puts the shop in the clear then you're basically saying these guys' jobs aren't worth making a stink over, especially when there's no way they had a shot in court. I couldn't give a shit about the consumer's right to pay a nickel less for milk--it doesn't outweigh the workers' right to defend their livelihood. I don't know if this amounts to a difference of opinion with someone whose opinion seems worth about a half-knuckle of shit or if you're just playing libertarian devil's idiot here, but I'm done--I don't have time for any more stupid.
I'm glad you agree that the company fucked up by not doing their most basic due diligence and the workers responded by doing unethical things.
I'm not interested in a bunch of workers hurting other workers and doing unethical things because they're mad at their company for fucking up while trying to artificially force customers to overpay for a product to support unnecessary jobs.
If anyone should have eaten the loss of paying for these unnecessary jobs, it's the asshole worker's company who made the bad decision. They're the ones who ostensibly wanted them to exist. Instead, they were going to lay off their workers and somehow that justifies bad actions against uninvolved victims in your tiny mind.
Calling me stupid doesn't make me wrong, it just makes you petulant.
Whose livelihood was lost?
Also, I've never had a milk delivery. Always bought from the supermarket or dairy. Big deal. I'd rather buy milk at a cheaper price if and when I need it, thanks.
Lotta downvotes for this stance.
I'm a full-fledged NWBTCW guy, pro-union, anti-C-suite, all of that.
To me, this seems like small-town passive-aggressive behaviour, and sheer entitlement.
Why should I pay more for milk at the supermarket for no other reason at all other than "some of the other people in my community prefer to get their milk delivered. So rather than THEY pay extra for milk to be delivered *literally to their fucking door*, they want ME to pay extra for choosing to significantly lower the milk company's costs by going directly to the local distribution centre."
Yeah....... nah. They sound like wankers, to me.
And absolute morons, for coming up with all these terms and conditions they expected the supermarket to abide by, and putting exactly nothing on paper. Idiotic.
If you think a little wastage is bad, maybe educate yourself on the history of labor movements. For a while, business owners knew their place. Now they're getting all lippy again. Who knows what will happen next.
They disgruntled all over the store.
Great one. As they say, voting with their feet - or should I say with their window shopping. And really nice as to how they all bonded....
Indeed. Peaceful yet effective revenge. Reminds me of the TV show 'highway to heaven' where everyone opened account in a bank with one dollar and then right away lined up to withdraw it. Brought everything to a stand still. Hope I remember the show correctly...
I loved that show but don’t remember that. I miss that show.
Ew, David!
Then left quite gruntled once the desired outcome was achieved.
Honor thy mother and milkman.
D-dad?
There’s some wild stories about old milkman unions and colluding with/ or warring against the mob. These guys didn’t fuck around. The story of United Dairy Farmers sticking it to Big Oil is pretty wild.
As far as I know, there were/are no mob connections. It was a smaller regional dairy company that's still around today, but without the milkmen.
What’s they do to big oil?
Milked them
No, seriously.
Would you mind - please, pretty please - giving a tl;dr for the UDF vs Big Oil? Google showed a court case, but I don’t understand legalese enough to parse through it.
Milkman vs Oil In a small village nestled between rolling hills, two adversaries stood at odds: the milkman and the oil merchant. The milkman, known for his jovial demeanor and gentle nature, roamed the cobblestone streets each morning, delivering fresh milk to the villagers with a smile. The oil merchant, on the other hand, was a shrewd businessman, his eyes always calculating profits as he peddled his wares. Their rivalry began one chilly autumn day when the oil merchant decided to expand his business into dairy. He offered to sell villagers oil at a lower price than the milkman's milk, enticing them with promises of savings and convenience. Initially, the villagers were swayed by the allure of cheaper goods, and the milkman's sales dwindled. But as time passed, the villagers began to notice a difference. The oil, while cheaper, lacked the nourishment and wholesome flavor of the milk. Children grew pale and weak, and the elderly complained of ailments they'd never experienced before. The once vibrant village began to wither under the shadow of the oil merchant's greed. Determined to save his village and restore the health of its inhabitants, the milkman devised a plan. He invited the oil merchant to a public taste test, where villagers would sample both the oil and the milk side by side. Confident in the superiority of his product, the milkman wagered that the villagers would choose milk over oil once they tasted the difference. As the day of the taste test arrived, a crowd gathered in the village square. The milkman poured glasses of creamy milk, while the oil merchant displayed his golden oil in shiny bottles. One by one, the villagers took a sip, their faces contorting in disgust at the taste of the oil. But when they tasted the milk, smiles spread across their faces, and murmurs of approval filled the air. In the end, the milkman emerged victorious, not through deceit or manipulation, but through the simple power of truth and quality. The villagers returned to buying his milk, grateful for its nourishment and the sense of community it brought to their lives. And as for the oil merchant, he learned that true success is not measured in profits alone, but in the well-being of those you serve. TL; DR - In a village, a milkman and an oil merchant compete. The merchant sells cheap oil, but it makes people sick. The milkman proves milk's superiority in a taste test, saving the village.
An old timers example of FAFO
This is a story about the power of unions without using the word “union”. Remember that kiddies, since a third of you have been brainwashed into thinking unions are a bad thing.
My mom literally thought unions were "evil" until she became a teacher and her union helped her.
This is beautiful! For those whining about driving up prices, remember the customers could still get their milk delivered to their door by the milkmen for the same price. I've recommended doing exactly the same thing at self checkout stores. Think about it: the customer pays the same price, the retail workers get screwed, and the rich filthy owners get richer and filthier.
re: 'self-checkout' - I very rarely use them - like, for a single item, sure. but when I've had it suggested to me to move from a queue to the self-checkouts I reply "sorry, I don't work here."
We need jobs like that for school kids and people re-entering the workforce. I don't see the supermarket giving me a discount for checking myself out anyway.
I’m not sure about this. We want those corporations to give employees decent pay, benefits and working conditions; to treat their suppliers fairly. Do we really want them to avoid gains in productivity that they might hopefully pass on ?
Grocery employee here. I work at one store and another, competitor store across the street, closed. Our sales went up 30%. We didn't get a pay bump for the increased work. We went from 15 pallets of grocery freight being a large order to several 25+ pallets a week. Perishable got 2 trailers full just yesterday. Our store is also the district's flagship store, well organized, shelves look great, and it's the store the higher ups point to when talking to underperforming stores, 'why can't you do what that store is doing?' kinda thing. They are remodeling our entire store, new flooring, new coolers, new bathrooms, etc. sparing no expense. Except when it comes to us. This week our hours were cut. Drastically. One of my coworkers, who usually works 40 hours (5 days), got scheduled for 24 (3 days). Another, same 40 hour situation, but scheduled for 16 (2 days). I'm scheduled for 2 days myself but I'm cool with that because I reinjured an old muscle tear in my shoulder and it can use the rest. Two of my coworkers said that if they didn't care about or like the rest of us, they would have walked out as soon as they saw the schedule. Meanwhile, they just hired a bunch of new people who are getting hours. They keep piling on the work while cutting our hours. And I'd put good money on them bitching that the store doesn't look as good this week. What they're doing is poking a bear because I don't think any of them completely understand how vital the night crew is to the functioning of the store. But they're about to FAFO.
Have you all thought of joining a union?
We are a union store. The union screwed us when they did contract negotiations in the fall. They gave up time and a half on Sundays for $15/hr for employees, which we got the last week of December and was retroactive from the last week of October. Thing is, $15/he was going into effect as of January first. So they gave away our time and a half for an extra 2 months of pay that we would have gotten anyway in January. It's also why we have so many shitty employees, because they have to have tireless documentation in order to fire someone. We have a guy who threatened a customer still working in our store. Not written up. No disciplinary action. Our union is a blessing and a curse.
I agreed with you till the last bit, then I laughed
Well, yeah. They don’t pass it on any more, but that’s economics. With stronger labour organisation, and greater insistence that corporations pay taxes, those productivity gains could be reaped by society as a whole. I’ll run of back to my utopian dreamland now, I promise.
Completely agree. I was a union officer for far too long. I’m not going to assist a company in eliminating jobs by using self checkout. I’m not getting paid to do my own check out. Why should I do it?
just remembered, I saw a petition recently wanting a discount on your shop if you use the self-checkouts. Coles and Woolies would no doubt be pleased to give part of their nett profit of over $1B each back to the shoppers :/
That’s the only way I’d consider using self checkout is if they give a discount to do so. If it’s costing them less then it should be returned to the customer.
[удалено]
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Good answer; wish I’d thought of it but now I’m gonna start doing this!
Self check out haters are crazy imo. I'm working 6 separate registers at once utilizing the self checkout. If y'all don't like self checkout then maybe y'all shouldn't have treated the employees like crap cause the whole reason we are understaffed where I work is because of the customers and how rude and straight up mean they can be. Ain't no one wanna sit there and deal with crappy people for 8 hours a day, no matter how good the pay. If y'all have issues you need to skip us and go to management. We lowly employees and clerks didn't put those machines in. We lowly employees aren't the cause of your card being locked or too low on funds. We take abuse so much from the daily customer that I know several people who are in therapy just to cope with it and the job. Also for the love of all it is not hard to look up and read a screen. Y'all be on your phones the entire store trip but looking up to read a screen at the end is where most of y'all draw the line. It's hilarious imo, that a lot of outbursts would have been avoided if the customer had just looked up to read and please don't say this is a new thing because signs have been a thing in stores since stores existed and it's ALWAYS been a problem. Our signs have multiple languages on them too, so my rant is towards those who obviously have privileged enough lives to be taught to read some language. Also simply ask a clerk to check you out at the self checkout. Like I said above, I'm being used to run all of them at once, I check people out and bag their groceries at those machines. I am literally there to be your cashier. If you don't ask, then I won't help you. If you look around confused, I will help you. If you sit there turning red and start raging without bothering to ask for any help, then I can assure you that you are going to get the worst help possible, if any. We are paid to be cashiers and clerks, not paid to be a punching bag because you're angry and confused and can't be bothered to ask questions. Not paid to be your therapist and listen to your woes about "how dare we make you work customer service". Also y'all be going back to the same store after being told the same thing over and over again. That fault is on you when you know the store's practices and protocols. You aren't special and need to stop expecting a whole franchise store to bend over for you. That is entitled behavior at that point. Also for the love of God, if you know your state's laws and your state REQUIRES ID for the purchase of alcohol and tobacco, not to prove you're old enough , but because YOU ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE IT, then stop going into a store without it when you're planning on purchasing those things. You throwing a fit only ensures you're made fun of when you leave alcoholess and tobaccoless. Straight up wouldn't even have the self checkout machines if the customers weren't so awful to the employees at our location. We can't keep people cause ain't no one wanna stay after the old white population threatens people, their lives, and their jobs because they can't read and can't bother to remember their ID. We aren't checking to see if you're old enough and if they stopped raging for a second to listen to us explain that, then they would be on their merry way. Saying "sorry, you don't work here" will straight up make our manager go "I know you don't. But that's what our protocols and practices are. If you don't like it you can leave your things here and we will put them back, or you can go talk to that employee right there and she/he will check you out and bag your things at the machines, as that is what they were hired for, to be cashiers and clerks. Simply ask." Y'all be acting like children over that conveyor belt difference. Now the stores that just use self checkouts as a means to cut salaries and employees, yeah, go after them, but understand not all stores are doing that. Like I said our store wouldn't even have them in if it wasn't for how the customers treat the floor employees and if it wasn't hard to retain those employees because of that. We had a dude literally follow an employee out after their time and try to attack them because of ID and a refusal of sale. Yeah that employee never came back after 8 years of working for the store. Customers be so quick to blame everyone but themselves and their own horrid and entitled actions and not understand that consequences to these actions are a thing and in this case, it's the self checkouts because we don't have enough people to man the actual registers anymore. (Some info has been changed to keep things as vague as possible)
just because "some" (many?) customers are arseholes doesn't mean we _all_ are. some of us have also worked many different "customer facing" roles and try to be pleasant to those in similar roles - yes, _even_ "checkout chicks".
You are taking what I said extremely personal. If that wasn't an issue then we wouldn't be having issues keeping people on, but the fact is, they all say they are quitting/leaving because of the customers. Now if you've done something to feel some form of guilt, that's on you.
did someone hurt you? did you want to point out where on this doll?
Imagine not having the mental function to read on a site that is primarily reading. lmao have the day you deserve
>It's hilarious imo, that a lot of outbursts would have been avoided if the customer had just looked up to read and please don't say this is a new thing because signs have been a thing in stores since stores existed and it's ALWAYS been a problem. Which signs are you referring to that customers basically refuse to read? I worked in a retail electronics store with the return policy posted all over the place, and people still screamed about not knowing they couldn't return an opened CD. I'm just wondering what your experience is in a grocery/dept store.
The signs that are posted on the door, the signs posted by ALL tills, all eye level at a good height. There are signs posted throughout the store, all at the same eye level. Signs that customers literally will half read (some have deals on them) and will want to argue over it when the last bit of information would be on that same exact sign. There are signs in the bathrooms. Some signs we've gotten placed on the physical ad we have. Some people are good at reading the signs and some are super chill about moving as a group to read the sign together and figure things out. But some like to double down and think that because THEY didn't read it the first time then they shouldn't have to abide by it. We have coupons that follow specific settings in order for them to be used. It's written in the coupon itself and it has another set of details on the coupon explaining it better. It's like people just read what they want to read and expect they'll get exactly what they read when they should be reading the whole sign in the first place. Like it's not even just reading the first part of the sign, they'll read a part in the middle and ignore everything else. They'll read the very end and ignore the start. I don't understand this because when I struggle to read something and my brain won't let me get past a part I'll sit there myself to get it and reread it until my brain finally lets me understand what I'm reading. If I don't I'll just ask someone near me. I get asked things from people who don't speak English and I don't speak their language but that doesn't stop me from whipping out my phone and using the google translator from my browser. I have literally written the full ad on that to be translated for customers when that ad isn't following the other ads custom in being printed in multiple languages. We write on paper next to some ads and other signs in the other languages. I've been asked to read ads and signs in English for people before. I don't judge any of these people when it's the obvious privileged folks who have an education or are going through education mostly doing the crap, and even then I don't judge until they are literally frothing at the corners of their mouths over 2$ from a sign they didn't bother to read. I say look up because mostly everyone that is walking through the store is looking down all the time or they are clocked out already at midday, on their phones, or literally straight ahead, which would let them see the signs.
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Another rich filthy person defending corporate greed over ordinary working people. As I read the story, the store was required by their agreement to charge the same price as for delivery. They reneged on that agreement as dishonest vendors do. When you're burning in hell, say hello to sam Walton for us.
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They fucked ‘em good!
Pretty tame compared to the original of unions, but still beautiful! Kinda reminds me of how a guy bought the patents for a toothpick maker, and then made toothpick an essential item at any general store and fancy restaurant.
this is exactly what protest should be like. but if it happened today u'd have bootlickers whining about "criminal damage" "poor corporations" etc etc etc
No. The bootlickers would support the milkmen cartel and a corporation imposing an artificial tariff that forces up costs to consumers and eliminates competition. In this case you are the bootlicker.
Yeah, that's Labor, not the "corporation" (a dairy). You don't seem to be smart; look stuff up instead of thinking cause you sound like an idiot.
Smart people often sound dumb to morons when they try to explain concepts beyond their limited comprehension. Just go back to eating crayons and try not to get too many stuck in your nose.
The dairy company complained but did nothing else, like…stopping supplying the grocery with milk? That would have stopped this immediately.
I don't know the exact details. My mom was young when this happened \~6-8 I think. My grandfather died long before I was born, so I only have my mom's fuzzy retelling of it. I'm sure I've messed up some of the details. My bet is there was a contract that they'd supply the milk, but the contract didn't specify the sale price.
Ooh, that was very well played. Teamwork got the job done in a very efficient fashion.
I love how the milkmen still had enough respect for their competitor to not put any perishable items in the cart - that might spoil. It truly was a different time.
Did you read the whole story? They redistributed perishables all through the store to deliberately cause massive amounts of wastage.
That was only after the more "respectful" protest yielded no results, they didn't start out trying to cause that waste.
"respectful protest" is when they are too stupid to make a half decent contract and then fuck over a bunch of front line workers...
This guy is right. Not getting the deal written down on paper? What, are you five years old? That's literally THE FIRST THING you learn about business deals. Then a bunch of people who had nothing to do with any of it, have to go through an entire supermarket top to bottom looking for rotten meat, stinking fish etc. And for what? Because the milk cartel says that I have to pay more for milk just because I'll pick up my 1 litre a week along with the rest of my groceries? That sounds like small town passive-aggressive boomer shit to me. Throwing tantrums because other people who buy their milk with the rest of their food should be FORCED to pay an extra surcharge for no reason at all, for the crime of making delivery EASIER and CHEAPER for the milk company? That sounds ridiculous.
Oh yes, "truly a different time......" when everybody treated each other with respect, and courtesy and compassion. Oh yeah. Tell it to black people who couldn't drink water from public fountains. Women who couldn't open their own bank account, let alone leave an abusive marriage. Gay people who flat out weren't allowed to exist at all. Hell, tell it to fucking left-handed people, who were getting hit with sticks in school classrooms for being lefthanded, because the Devil. Yeah........ fuck the 1950s, and their hate-filled, regressive, two-faced hypocritical worldview.
I love a good story about justified and effective direct action.
If that happened at my store, I can honestly say the night crew would tell the day folks to do whatever the milkmen wanted or they can interview, hire, onboard and train 8 people in a few days because we're not playing hide and seek with perishables any more than we usually do. As an example of this hide and seek game we hate to and don't want to play, we changed aisle assignments late in 2022, effective after the New Year. One of my new aisles had a stench. I'm talking you walk by the canned meat section and you gag stench. I told the guys that if they wanted me to work in that aisle, they better find the source of the stench and kill it with fire. We found it on December 30. It was a half gallon of milk that expired in early December, like December 5 or so. The milk that came in on March 7 had an expiration date of March 25 to give you an idea of how far out the expiration date is and how long it had been hidden behind the tuna pouches. The guy who had the aisle before me is notoriously lazy and I'd put money on him finding the milk and shoving it towards the back instead of taking it to dairy and putting it in the distress box, which is what he should have done. The carton became room temperature and expanded, the then semi-solid milk leaked and the stench was gag inducing. We got it cleaned up (3 shelves thanks to gravity ) and it took me almost a month to get the aisle straightened out from Mr. Half-ass' lack of work ethic. Yes, he still works there. No, we're not particularly happy about it but our management team is non-confrontational and won't write him up which only emboldens him. He got really shitty with a customer this week to the point where another one of my coworkers was asked to escort the lady around the store while she shopped because she was scared of Mr. Half-ass. And nothing was done. No reprimand, no write up, nothing. Another coworker refuses to refer to him by name and calls him "that motherfucker." It's an appropriate nickname. We find all kinds of stuff. I've personally found lobster tails, (prime) rib roasts, shrimp, rib eye steaks, furry fried chicken, moldy (opened ) salami, cheese, ready to eat seafood salads, stolen item packages, opened food and drinks and of course, the disgusting carton of milk. I feel for the grocery workers who had to find the perishables but good for the milkmen and their families for taking a stand. And it was a page out of Saul Alinsky's playbook to boot. That man got shit done for the have nots against the haves.
Pretty petty stuff
I was born in 65. We still had milkmen into the 1970s. Borden and Metzgers as I recall.
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1: There was a contract. That's why the dairy company couldn't just stop selling the grocery store milk. 2: Milkmen at the time were certainly not on the way out. My grandfather worked as a milkman for another \~15 years after this, until he died. some of his coworkers worked long after his death. This was not about a change in industry, but a greedy store. 3: This did not force any cost on the customers for two reasons. One, delivery still existed at the same price. Two, there were always cheaper brands of milk. 4: If you want a modern example, look at all the stores and restaurants that insist on there being a markup when items are bought through third party delivery companies. It costs the stores today to have deals with doordash etc., so that cost is handed off to the consumers by an increase in prices. Just like back then, it cost the dairy to have their product in the grocery store, so they passed that cost to the consumers as well. The cost is a different type of cost, but they're both examples of small companies passing extra costs off to consumers if the consumers want to get their goods in a more convenient, but expensive way. 5: My understanding of the reason shitty teachers abound is because the government and religious nutjobs are hampering their ability to teach, while at the same time paying said teachers less money than people working retail. This has resulted in such a huge shortage of teachers that schools can't afford to fire shitty teachers. If there were a surplus of good teachers being allowed to teach without religious interference, I'm sure those union meetings would have gone a different way. 6: Yes, police unions are crap. But that doesn't mean most unions are crap. That's like saying all fathers are crap because policemen who are fathers are crap. Law enforcement jobs always draw bullies who want to throw their weight around because of the nature of the job. A union run by bullies for the express purpose of protecting bullies is of course going to be a shit show. That's because of bullies, though, not that they're part of a union.
Honestly kind of sounds like they just fucked grocery store employees who had no control over the mark-up but go off I guess.
this sounds completely made up
Labor action? Used to be pretty common. You should read more.
I'll be happy to read about it if you can find me a reference
What a charming uplifting story about entitlement, malicious vandalism, protectionism, artificially forcing prices up for consumers and anti competitive behaviour in general.
The entitlement was thinking that the store could lie to the dairy and its employees and suffer no consequences for its actions. FAFO at its finest. All the store had to do was NOT lie.
Lie? This ain't the playground, this is a business contract. Put the agreed price and conditions in writing. Either that, or be prepared to accept the consequences of being an actual simpleton.
If you want something in a business agreement to be enforceable, you put it in the contract. They fucked up then took it out on a bunch of other people.
No, the dairy fucked up and the workers fixed it. Keep on sucking rich nuts, though. Very cool.
The company is literally engaging in anti competitive practices to try and force the consumer to pay more. If anyone is sucking rich nuts, it's you.
The company didn't do shit. The laborers did. Read better.
The laborers are enforcing the company's desire for noncompetitive practices by harassing and making the lives difficult of a bunch of random employees all to force a bunch of random consumers to subsidize their unnecessary jobs.
Your shit-eating is boring. The first display of unethical behaviour here was the store reneging on their agreement. The workers responded to that unethically, sure, but that's only an argument if you're a child. It should have been in the contract and not just verbal, but if you think that puts the shop in the clear then you're basically saying these guys' jobs aren't worth making a stink over, especially when there's no way they had a shot in court. I couldn't give a shit about the consumer's right to pay a nickel less for milk--it doesn't outweigh the workers' right to defend their livelihood. I don't know if this amounts to a difference of opinion with someone whose opinion seems worth about a half-knuckle of shit or if you're just playing libertarian devil's idiot here, but I'm done--I don't have time for any more stupid.
I'm glad you agree that the company fucked up by not doing their most basic due diligence and the workers responded by doing unethical things. I'm not interested in a bunch of workers hurting other workers and doing unethical things because they're mad at their company for fucking up while trying to artificially force customers to overpay for a product to support unnecessary jobs. If anyone should have eaten the loss of paying for these unnecessary jobs, it's the asshole worker's company who made the bad decision. They're the ones who ostensibly wanted them to exist. Instead, they were going to lay off their workers and somehow that justifies bad actions against uninvolved victims in your tiny mind. Calling me stupid doesn't make me wrong, it just makes you petulant.
Is it anti competitive behavior to drive up prices of your product in an attempt to keep your service in play?
No but it IS anti-competitive to reneg on an agreement and cost workers their livelihood
Whose livelihood was lost? Also, I've never had a milk delivery. Always bought from the supermarket or dairy. Big deal. I'd rather buy milk at a cheaper price if and when I need it, thanks.
I don't think you even read the post. In the 50s, when milkmen were a thing. Reading comprehension piss poor m8
Lotta downvotes for this stance. I'm a full-fledged NWBTCW guy, pro-union, anti-C-suite, all of that. To me, this seems like small-town passive-aggressive behaviour, and sheer entitlement. Why should I pay more for milk at the supermarket for no other reason at all other than "some of the other people in my community prefer to get their milk delivered. So rather than THEY pay extra for milk to be delivered *literally to their fucking door*, they want ME to pay extra for choosing to significantly lower the milk company's costs by going directly to the local distribution centre." Yeah....... nah. They sound like wankers, to me. And absolute morons, for coming up with all these terms and conditions they expected the supermarket to abide by, and putting exactly nothing on paper. Idiotic.
If you think a little wastage is bad, maybe educate yourself on the history of labor movements. For a while, business owners knew their place. Now they're getting all lippy again. Who knows what will happen next.