Strange things afoot at the supermarket
The other day I went to my local supermarket after work to pick up some provisions for dinner. As I was standing on line at the checkout I glanced up at the wall next to where the employees punch their time cards. On it there was a notice to all employees that at the last inventory the store was $171,000 short!! I could read this clearly from where I was standing because it was in huge print. Below this statement there was a small printed list of what employees could do to help prevent this in the future.
- I have no desire to ever use my credit card there again. I think from now on all purchases will be made in cash at this grocery store. In fact, during this purchase I found myself totally shielding the keypad where you punch in your pin from the cashier.
- I’ve decided that either my fellow shoppers are sinister and stealing merchandise, or the employees I am handing my credit card over to are stealing.
- Why was this sign placed where all customers could see it?
- This was a form letter with the amount of money lost inked in with a sharpie. I am therefore assuming that this is a common occurrence in the supermarket business. Talk about shrinkage! (If this is common there should also be protocol about not posting this sign where your customers can see it!)
My husband and I were once at the same supermarket and got extremely helpful service from our cashier. My husband went to the manager to compliment the employee and the manager came out of his office with a dreaded look on his face. He obviously was preparing himself for some kind of complaint. When we told him that we wanted to compliment our cashier the manager mumbled a thanks and that was that.
Things go wrong in business all the time. The fact that this letter was a template and just taped to the wall tells me that there is an overwhelming complacency within the company for this kind of thing. Or it could be normal in the supermarket business, I really don’t know. Either way it feels like they have things backward.
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