It's that time again.
Over the past few weeks I've been getting less and less happy with the place that I am working.
I keep getting the feeling that I'm much better than what I am doing, and I'm always showing myself how I can understand things well beyond the level that I am required to do.
I work at a Meijer, which is a retail store in the midwest area. Meijer has been around for over seventy years at this point, and yet they don't seem like they will last another couple of years. My co-workers and I have been talking about it and have been playing with the idea that the top people in corporate are gearing up for our store to be sold. They have been prettying up the stores with new machines and have been cutting hours everywhere, yet demanding more work. All in all, it seems like they are trying to give us record profits so that it will look good for the markets, and could care less about the long term effects of what they are doing, as they won't be around to have to deal with them.
Well, I went into work today and ran solidly into a mental wall where I wasn't willing to compromise my integrity anymore. We've been getting treated more and more like flesh machines that don't always work the way that the bean pushers in the company think we should, and have most certainly been treated like everyone in the store is the same.
I spent the first hour of my shift just mentally trying to figure out what to do, as I didn't want to compromise myself anymore yet at the same time was being driven by my work drive, which keeps me doing a good job. I was constantly fluctuating between anger and depression and it was starting to give me both a headache and a stomach ache. I got the same feeling that I've had recently, which was that I was wasting valuable time working when I could be getting another job, only this time stronger than ever. Not the greatest way to spend your day at work, you know.
So what was it that tripped me over the line? It was a simple thing, something that most other people would look at and laugh, yet due to the large amount of stuff that I was unhappy about this little thing was just enough to trip me over the edge. In order to gain data of what areas shop at our store, we were required to ask each and every customer for their home zip code. It's not the first time that they company has had to do this, yet it's the first time I've been in a department where it was enforced. More than likely, all the company is doing in a situation like this is looking to make sure they are spending their advertising budget wisely for the market. In and of itself, it's not a bad idea, yet there are other ways to gather up data rather than ask for it.
I've always personally been bothered when companies ask for information like this. I've been asked when shopping places, and I've had companies like Best Buy ask for my phone number, when making a simple purchase. Now, at Best Buy they will tell you that it makes it so that if you lose your reciept you can look up the purchase in their system. However, how can you trust that those phone numbers aren't being sold somewhere along the line to generate profit for the company? If I am doing something where it makes sense to have a phone number, (Job/Credit card application, writing a large check) I have no problem giving it out. I draw the line at giving out this information just because someone asks for it, though.
So I'll tell you some things about Meijer, that while I have no hard proof I have enough evidence to believe that what I am saying is true.
Meijer tracks your purchases and spending habits, not down to the name but as generic customer (or guest as we are supposed to call them) profiles. It doesn't do this in the "approved" method, such as Jewel's preferred card, but instead uses the credit card numbers and check numbers to store this data. I do not know if Meijer uses this information in store only, or if it then sells the data gathered from these profiles to other companies. Now, companies always could do things like this at an inventory level, rather than at a more personal level, but the trend is for it to be as personal as possible.
How do I know this? We have Catalina printers that print out coupons during the course of an order. These coupons tend to get generated from the order itself. If someone buys a lot of Progresso soups, and there is a coupon for Campbells soups in the system, it prints out the coupon to try and get people to try the new item (and hopefully get hooked). These seems pretty normal, and never really raised any red-flags in my head. What I started to notice, though, is that large blocks of coupons would print out after the person had already paid, but only if they had paid with a credit card or check. These coupons rarely had anything to do with the current order, and instead had to do with things that they had bought previously.
I would have female customers who would purchase nothing but groceries, recieving coupons for tampons and pantyliners. I had retired men and women recieving coupons for Depends undergarments. I had parents with kids who recieved many baby food vouchers, or people recieving pet food coupons, yet they didn't buy any pet food. I had regular customers through the liquor department who would recieve coupons for diapers who would say that they didn't have any kids and always recieved those coupons, yet the almost always had purchased baby clothes for someone else for a shower or other situation just like this.
Meijer also has a card like the preferred card, except that they donate a small percentage of the purchases made to schools and churches (the cusotmer gets to choose where the money will go). These cards are much worse at logging the data than the other methods, as I've seen four feet worth of coupons print, just from scanning the card at the start of an order.
I'd like to think that the logging is done using a semi-unique number generated from the credit card/checking account number, and that there is no storage database containing this information. This way it would only be generic data, and couldn't be traced back to the specific person, or card number. However, when I thought of how the system should work underneath, I went for the best scenario possible because it is the way that I would do it. I've found out over and over again that I take things up to a much higher level than companies really ever seem to take, so I highly doubt it.
This is all the more reason for my discontent with Meijer, as I can see past all the various layers of bullshit that they tell themselves and come up with ideas that could speed things up for everyone, and make the company more money in the long term, The only thing; I'm just a lowly cashier/bagger with no college degree so what could I ever know about these things? Right now they are only caring about whatever saves them money right now.
So to make it dead obvious what my original subject title is about; It's time to go job hunting again. This time I don't plan on doing what I have done in the past. In the past I've gotten so down upon myself and I've felt so worthless that I end up passing up opportunities to get jobs. Rather than apply for a postion that I could do, I would talk myself down and tell myself how I would never get that job, and then I would not apply. However, I have realized that this is stupid, as if I apply at job after job and they turn me down then I am no worse off than if I hadn't done anything. Yet, I'm better off because I believed in myself enough to make the effort to apply.
So I'm not going to do things the same way this time. I'm going to work at finding a new job, and I am going to find a new job. Even if I don't manage to come up with a better job, I don't see why that should stop me from continuing to look. It is time for me to show myself just how good of a guy I am.
Look out future, here I come.
I keep getting the feeling that I'm much better than what I am doing, and I'm always showing myself how I can understand things well beyond the level that I am required to do.
I work at a Meijer, which is a retail store in the midwest area. Meijer has been around for over seventy years at this point, and yet they don't seem like they will last another couple of years. My co-workers and I have been talking about it and have been playing with the idea that the top people in corporate are gearing up for our store to be sold. They have been prettying up the stores with new machines and have been cutting hours everywhere, yet demanding more work. All in all, it seems like they are trying to give us record profits so that it will look good for the markets, and could care less about the long term effects of what they are doing, as they won't be around to have to deal with them.
Well, I went into work today and ran solidly into a mental wall where I wasn't willing to compromise my integrity anymore. We've been getting treated more and more like flesh machines that don't always work the way that the bean pushers in the company think we should, and have most certainly been treated like everyone in the store is the same.
I spent the first hour of my shift just mentally trying to figure out what to do, as I didn't want to compromise myself anymore yet at the same time was being driven by my work drive, which keeps me doing a good job. I was constantly fluctuating between anger and depression and it was starting to give me both a headache and a stomach ache. I got the same feeling that I've had recently, which was that I was wasting valuable time working when I could be getting another job, only this time stronger than ever. Not the greatest way to spend your day at work, you know.
So what was it that tripped me over the line? It was a simple thing, something that most other people would look at and laugh, yet due to the large amount of stuff that I was unhappy about this little thing was just enough to trip me over the edge. In order to gain data of what areas shop at our store, we were required to ask each and every customer for their home zip code. It's not the first time that they company has had to do this, yet it's the first time I've been in a department where it was enforced. More than likely, all the company is doing in a situation like this is looking to make sure they are spending their advertising budget wisely for the market. In and of itself, it's not a bad idea, yet there are other ways to gather up data rather than ask for it.
I've always personally been bothered when companies ask for information like this. I've been asked when shopping places, and I've had companies like Best Buy ask for my phone number, when making a simple purchase. Now, at Best Buy they will tell you that it makes it so that if you lose your reciept you can look up the purchase in their system. However, how can you trust that those phone numbers aren't being sold somewhere along the line to generate profit for the company? If I am doing something where it makes sense to have a phone number, (Job/Credit card application, writing a large check) I have no problem giving it out. I draw the line at giving out this information just because someone asks for it, though.
So I'll tell you some things about Meijer, that while I have no hard proof I have enough evidence to believe that what I am saying is true.
Meijer tracks your purchases and spending habits, not down to the name but as generic customer (or guest as we are supposed to call them) profiles. It doesn't do this in the "approved" method, such as Jewel's preferred card, but instead uses the credit card numbers and check numbers to store this data. I do not know if Meijer uses this information in store only, or if it then sells the data gathered from these profiles to other companies. Now, companies always could do things like this at an inventory level, rather than at a more personal level, but the trend is for it to be as personal as possible.
How do I know this? We have Catalina printers that print out coupons during the course of an order. These coupons tend to get generated from the order itself. If someone buys a lot of Progresso soups, and there is a coupon for Campbells soups in the system, it prints out the coupon to try and get people to try the new item (and hopefully get hooked). These seems pretty normal, and never really raised any red-flags in my head. What I started to notice, though, is that large blocks of coupons would print out after the person had already paid, but only if they had paid with a credit card or check. These coupons rarely had anything to do with the current order, and instead had to do with things that they had bought previously.
I would have female customers who would purchase nothing but groceries, recieving coupons for tampons and pantyliners. I had retired men and women recieving coupons for Depends undergarments. I had parents with kids who recieved many baby food vouchers, or people recieving pet food coupons, yet they didn't buy any pet food. I had regular customers through the liquor department who would recieve coupons for diapers who would say that they didn't have any kids and always recieved those coupons, yet the almost always had purchased baby clothes for someone else for a shower or other situation just like this.
Meijer also has a card like the preferred card, except that they donate a small percentage of the purchases made to schools and churches (the cusotmer gets to choose where the money will go). These cards are much worse at logging the data than the other methods, as I've seen four feet worth of coupons print, just from scanning the card at the start of an order.
I'd like to think that the logging is done using a semi-unique number generated from the credit card/checking account number, and that there is no storage database containing this information. This way it would only be generic data, and couldn't be traced back to the specific person, or card number. However, when I thought of how the system should work underneath, I went for the best scenario possible because it is the way that I would do it. I've found out over and over again that I take things up to a much higher level than companies really ever seem to take, so I highly doubt it.
This is all the more reason for my discontent with Meijer, as I can see past all the various layers of bullshit that they tell themselves and come up with ideas that could speed things up for everyone, and make the company more money in the long term, The only thing; I'm just a lowly cashier/bagger with no college degree so what could I ever know about these things? Right now they are only caring about whatever saves them money right now.
So to make it dead obvious what my original subject title is about; It's time to go job hunting again. This time I don't plan on doing what I have done in the past. In the past I've gotten so down upon myself and I've felt so worthless that I end up passing up opportunities to get jobs. Rather than apply for a postion that I could do, I would talk myself down and tell myself how I would never get that job, and then I would not apply. However, I have realized that this is stupid, as if I apply at job after job and they turn me down then I am no worse off than if I hadn't done anything. Yet, I'm better off because I believed in myself enough to make the effort to apply.
So I'm not going to do things the same way this time. I'm going to work at finding a new job, and I am going to find a new job. Even if I don't manage to come up with a better job, I don't see why that should stop me from continuing to look. It is time for me to show myself just how good of a guy I am.
Look out future, here I come.