However, when it comes to cynical little me, unlike the In-n-Out, which seems to be a family business gone big-ish, there are big businesses that try to inject the personal into the their product, just to insidiously convince you that they do care. The Wal-Mart greeter? Bah! The more spin there is, the more cynical I become to the whole process of consuming, the more I want to go to the corner store, eat at the family run restaurant, etc., etc., etc. I'm just so bloodly sick of being played.
The Wal-Mart greeter, I second that Bah! Let's call it what it really is, the check to see you're not stealing person. I've come dangerously close to being arrested twice at Walmart because I refuse to stop for them when they ask to see my receipt even when I set off the alarm. One time two "associates" hounded me all the way to the car, one was on the radio calling for security. I guess they could give me a hassle, but what are they gonna do really, arrest me for not showing my receipt while walking out of the store with fully paid for merchandise?
Fuck 'em, fuck 'em in the ass. Fuck In and Out too, there are still thousands of family owned burger joints where you can get a burger actually made by a member of the family. And they beat the ever lovin' shit out of In and Out. I can say that without reservation having never eaten an In and Out.
See what I mean?
Praise Jesus.
~Paul
Ah, see I have a long, deep understanding of the depths of the Wal-Mart greeter. When the first ever Wal-Mart came to Winnipeg, my mother was hired as a greeter. This was a time when no one in my corner of the world knew what a greeter was - it was a little hard to explain to people. Even hard to explain to many is that my mother, who is - and always has been - mentally ill, could not handle the job of being a greeter. Later I worked at Wal-Mart for three years and watched first hand as the greeters singled out teenagers and people who looked a little unusual for the undercover store cops to follow around, while the actual shoplifters were basically ignored.
I remember a really low point a couple years ago where my SO and I both found ourselves unemployed at the same time, before Christmas I think, and we went to apply at a Home Depot job fair for holiday help, as we were very desperate. As we entered the store, I commented on how, like at Wal-Mart, the greeters at the Home Depot had clearly been trained to not greet or otherwise acknowledge young people (i.e. us a few years ago in our early 20's, who looked like we were in our late teens) - we were ungreeted, and although we were looked at by the greeter, there was no smile or sign that we were infact welcome to enter. We went into the job fair, we never set foot beyound the little area that had been set up for the application and interview process - didn't enter the retail space at any time. After an initial application and screening interview, were both asked to stay for real interviews, they said it would be about 15 minutes and that we had to stay in the little waiting area, not wander the store, we obliged and actually waited about 2 1/2 hours sitting in the little area, and were finally called in by different interviewers at the same time. We both had extremely positive interviews. I was told that I would be hired as a seasonal temp base on my several years of experience with Wal-mart and my high level of job interview skills. I was fine with that, and happy to accept the offer. I was told I would be called for training. My SO can drive a Fork Lift, so the shipping and recieving department manager told him that he too would definitly be hired as a temp, and would be called for training. My SO was very enthusiastic about this because it's the exact area of work he wanted to get into - they even told him they could get him certified as a forklift operator, which he was very happy about.
As we walked out of the interview area toward the exit, both excited that we were being offered jobs - that our terrifying stint of unemployment had reached an end - I notices a middle aged woman hanging near the door who looked very nervous. I remember wondering why her eyes were darting around, kind of thinking something was wrong, but not having any time to really analyse what it was. We passed through the alarm panel thing-y's in silence. The alarm sounded from behind us as she then darted infront of us, running out the door full tilt. We both realized we were witnessing a shoplifter, and as we heard footfall behind us, we imagined that it was security or one of those undercover shoppers, going to make chase after her. But no. it was three staff people insisting that we stop. I remember saying something like: "that woman just set off the alarm and now she's running across the parking lot!" at about the same time as we were being asked about the content of our pockets, if we had purchased anything, etc. My SO said of the woman who dashed and was now in a car and driving away -something like "she's getting away." Which was also ignored, and the questions about what was in our pockets, if we had purchased anything were being repeated. I explained that we hadn't been in the store itseld but had just been interviewed for jobs. We passed through the metal detectors again, and as with the first time
we passed through, we did not set off the alarm. I said something like - "I told you, it was that woman who ran out ahead of us!" to which one of the employees said "Yeah, right." and another rolled here eyes.
Worse than the staff's refusal to listen to the fact we had just seen a woman bolt from the store and set off the metal detectors, was what came next. We were never called for the jobs we were offered. I can only assume that the staff that had so rudely singled us out and ignored the far more obviouse real thief running like a bat out of hell for her car, also then told the people who had interviewed us that we had "gotten away with shoplifting," and that they in turn, had therefore not hired us. For me, it didn't matter since I knew I would have only worked at a place like that for a couple of weeks until I found something better, but for the SO it was more of a disapointment. He was so excited about the idea of working in a big warehouse and using a forklift again.
Needless to say, we never shop at Home Depot anymore.
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Topic: The In-N-Out 20x20 (Read 20142 times)