[WPRESTO]

V-A-V "blue laws." My mother worked in a department store for several decades (cosmetics). Once "blue laws" were repealed, she had no choice about working on Sundays if the store ordered her to do so. Repeal was convenient for shoppers, convenient for store owners, but essentially enslaved store employees to the whim of their managers as to which day of the week they had with their family. At holidays there commonly was no day off. Pre-Christmas in particular Mother had to work 12 or more days in a row whether she wanted the extra pay or not, up to 9 or 10PM on Christmas eve. And because she earned a commission from some of the cosmetic companies, the store was freed from giving her cost-of-living or years-of-service salary increases on a regular basis, so her basic pay crept just barely above the starting wage all the years she worked there. She retired on her birthday, which was in early December, when she reached the age when she eligible to collect SS and the store's retirement. The store called her repeatedly to come in and work that month "out of loyalty."

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Last edited by WPRESTO; 07-09-2017 at 01:33 PM.

[Shakey]

I have worked for or with retailers my entire life (in a support industry). Unfortunately their mentality is that they are the center of the universe. If their store is closed people will have nowhere to shop! They generally treat their employees very poorly as you have described the treatment of your mother. Arrogance runs deep in retail and most of their high level execs cannot hold a discussion about anything but "my business'....I'm talking about big national or global retailers. These same companies no longer buy from the US and they push their suppliers to buy from outside the US due to price.
To have a company like B&H or even Chic fil A, observe a day a week so their employees can observe religion or spend time with their families is refreshing. And guess what? The world didn't end without them for a day!

[aslyfox]

I remember being at a restaurant with my young son years ago

he said something about how great it was that it was a holiday and no one had to work

I asked him, " if no one had to work today, who brought you those chocolate chip pancakes?"

one of his early lessons.

He was also taught to say " please " and " thank you " to servers as well

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it isn't just folks who work for retailers or for hourly wages. I am a professional often work demanded that I work more than 40 hours in a week or at times other than the normal work day. You did what needed to be done for the client, when it needed to be done.

and if you were self employed, as I was at times, there was no cost of living bonus

can't complain much I was working, most the time at something I enjoyed

[WPRESTO]

Another anecdote about department stores. There was a Lechmere Dept. store near us decades back which had the best prices on camera equipment of local merchants, and also was a convenient place to have chrome film processed as I could easily drive by it going to-from work. I won a photo contest there once, first prize a consumer-grade Nikon SLR, but the clerks managed to substitute a Pentax for me. Those clerks were really nice, very helpful, never tried to sell me something I did not want, ordered some items on request, again at competitive prices even compared to B&H. Then when I stopped in just before Christmas one year to pick up some processed film, they told me that the entire staff of the photo-department were being "let go" immediately after New Year's Day because, according to the notice they received, they hadn't been selling enough merchandise. I sent a scathing letter to Lechmere management telling them what I thought of a store that casually dismissed some of the most customer-friendly clerks I'd ever encountered, and told them that never again would I step foot into a Lechmere. They replied with all manner of innocuous rationale and a store credit check for $10 that they hoped and expected would bring me back as a loyal customer, promising this-and-that as well. I wrote "VOID" with a large magic marker onto the credit check and sent it back with an even more scathing letter, telling them that only the petty minds of the managerial staff would think loyalty could be purchased with a $10 credit, and wishing a curse upon them, that they should find themselves, on the shortest possible notice, out of work and walking the streets looking for a new job. Within less than a year the company went bankrupt and all its stores were closed and sold. I sincerely hope my curse brought them down, and I weep only for the rest of the clerks who were put out of work.

[fafo13]

Thanks for all replies, i changed battery, didnt help , so i smashed it on the floor and it helped I was very angry because i didnt test it before and i had to used in and i was already late.