Supreme Commander of Devalued Inventory
Family Dollar Stores
Post Office Box 1017
Charlotte, North Carolina 28201-1017
Dear Corporate Chieftain:
Your Alpine Texas location was the scene of a very enlightening exchange between myself and two employees over the purchase of a holiday item excavated from the clearance shelf - exactly nineteen days after the New Year.
When the cashier scanned the item it was priced at one cent. I remarked on my good fortune. I was informed that item could not be sold because it was "less than five cents". I protested and tried to negotiate for a five-cents sale. Broadcast was made for the store manager*, who appeared wearing a paper badge upon which employee title and first name only were handwritten. I went on to argue that the item was presented for sale and that there are no public laws or store policies posted regarding sale prohibitions relating to price amounts. The manager was steadfast and defended the appropriation of the item from me by citing "store policy" behind each of the following statements:
I cannot sell anything priced below five cents.
These were all put in the trash.
This one should have been put in the trash.
This one must now be put in the trash.
This is very intriguing news about "trash". I look forward to investigating the devaluation and disposition of seasonal inventory by FDS (and its contemporaries). Given our nation's war for 'green' and 'austere' measures, it is the least I can offer to do with my unemployed spare time.
It was appalling to learn of the policies exposed by this aborted transaction. While such policies benefit shareholders in the short run, customers upon whom FDS depends will soon realize that the disposability applied by FDS to its employee badges and its inventory can also be applied by the customer to FDS. Especially once it becomes known that Alpine residents are denied post-season sales beyond a short time window, and that FDS employees are not permitted to treat their neighbors fairly as customers.
These two so-called-by-corporate-America "human resources" are conscientious, hard-working human persons who were job-scared over the sale of a tax write-off that escaped trash collection. I'd say that FDS should be ashamed of itself but it is we Americans who should be ashamed for allowing the creation of "corporations as legal persons" that stop at nothing for shareholder profit.
When the cashier scanned the item it was priced at one cent. I remarked on my good fortune. I was informed that item could not be sold because it was "less than five cents". I protested and tried to negotiate for a five-cents sale. Broadcast was made for the store manager*, who appeared wearing a paper badge upon which employee title and first name only were handwritten. I went on to argue that the item was presented for sale and that there are no public laws or store policies posted regarding sale prohibitions relating to price amounts. The manager was steadfast and defended the appropriation of the item from me by citing "store policy" behind each of the following statements:
I cannot sell anything priced below five cents.
These were all put in the trash.
This one should have been put in the trash.
This one must now be put in the trash.
This is very intriguing news about "trash". I look forward to investigating the devaluation and disposition of seasonal inventory by FDS (and its contemporaries). Given our nation's war for 'green' and 'austere' measures, it is the least I can offer to do with my unemployed spare time.
It was appalling to learn of the policies exposed by this aborted transaction. While such policies benefit shareholders in the short run, customers upon whom FDS depends will soon realize that the disposability applied by FDS to its employee badges and its inventory can also be applied by the customer to FDS. Especially once it becomes known that Alpine residents are denied post-season sales beyond a short time window, and that FDS employees are not permitted to treat their neighbors fairly as customers.
These two so-called-by-corporate-America "human resources" are conscientious, hard-working human persons who were job-scared over the sale of a tax write-off that escaped trash collection. I'd say that FDS should be ashamed of itself but it is we Americans who should be ashamed for allowing the creation of "corporations as legal persons" that stop at nothing for shareholder profit.
Unquestioningly outraged,
kf
*Interrupting the regularly annoying broadcast informing shoppers that cameras were filming throughout the store for customers' protection.
