Trader Joes

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Trader Joes

Post by veteran+ »

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/01/business ... index.html

Now THAT is the Trader Joes I know from the inside that rarely ever gets out.

Publix has that same efficient PR machine that masks what REALLY goes on inside Publix.

Just sayin..........things are not always what they seem to be.
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Re: Trader Joes

Post by storewanderer »

Would be tough to enforce a 3 strikes policy against customers given Trader Joe's does not have security cameras in its stores at least in my area unless they are somehow really well concealed in the buildings (do they have them in any of their stores...?).

Mask requirements are going away soon anyway. Over the weekend 8 new pallets of assorted reusable masks showed up at Wal Mart, all on display in front/past of the self checkouts in the exit-way (have never seen them display merchandise in that space before). Almost like they want people to just take the masks. Also Safeway has a sale in NorCal all masks .99 with coupon- reusable, disposable 10pk, disposable 20pk- limit 5 or 10 and they are still well stocked except the 20pk is gone (great deal on that).
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Re: Trader Joes

Post by pseudo3d »

Trader Joe's employees are supposed to be helpful and friendly; it's one of the things that has allowed the chain to be as successful as it has been. Between the company's official response and his own letter is a practical confession that he's been harassing customers about mask use for months, and this was probably the final straw.
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Re: Trader Joes

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: March 1st, 2021, 8:46 pm Trader Joe's employees are supposed to be helpful and friendly; it's one of the things that has allowed the chain to be as successful as it has been. Between the company's official response and his own letter is a practical confession that he's been harassing customers about mask use for months, and this was probably the final straw.
This is the thing is most retailers do not enforce mask rules. This employee's best course of action after seeing the store (and most other retailer stores) not enforcing the rules, frankly would have been to keep reporting the store to the city or health department or whoever is in charge of enforcing these mask rules in that city until they do something about it. There would be no way to prove this employee made the complaint and in a store with thousands of customers a day going through it would be assumed some customer complained. Given no security cameras at Trader Joes even pictures could have been provided to the city as proof and it is probably unlikely the employee would have been caught for reporting them. Might get fired for taking pictures of customers but I guess that is the risk you take. It is a pretty snake move to report your employer for something but this is not unheardof with OSHA complaints, etc. when an employer fails to provide a safe work environment.
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Re: Trader Joes

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: March 1st, 2021, 11:16 pm
pseudo3d wrote: March 1st, 2021, 8:46 pm Trader Joe's employees are supposed to be helpful and friendly; it's one of the things that has allowed the chain to be as successful as it has been. Between the company's official response and his own letter is a practical confession that he's been harassing customers about mask use for months, and this was probably the final straw.
This is the thing is most retailers do not enforce mask rules. This employee's best course of action after seeing the store (and most other retailer stores) not enforcing the rules, frankly would have been to keep reporting the store to the city or health department or whoever is in charge of enforcing these mask rules in that city until they do something about it. There would be no way to prove this employee made the complaint and in a store with thousands of customers a day going through it would be assumed some customer complained. Given no security cameras at Trader Joes even pictures could have been provided to the city as proof and it is probably unlikely the employee would have been caught for reporting them. Might get fired for taking pictures of customers but I guess that is the risk you take. It is a pretty snake move to report your employer for something but this is not unheardof with OSHA complaints, etc. when an employer fails to provide a safe work environment.
The other thing to question is he wrote the email to the CEO, how would anyone know? It's unlikely that the CEO would report it down to his own supervisors and/or personally make sure that he was fired, so we have to assume he made it public at the start or copied his own supervisors on it.

I think my big problem here is that whether or not he was being rude and petty to customers, he's playing both martyr and victim here. An employee in ANY business can't start rocking the boat like that and not expect some blowback.
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Re: Trader Joes

Post by veteran+ »

My point in posting was not to defend or dismiss the employee.

My point is that "we" often think things about a company's culture that are not always accurate because of "staged" employee surveys and company PR efforts and customer's "surface" impressions.

Trader Joes' real internal personality (how employees interact with superiors) is not as sweet as many believe. Same thing with Publix that reportedly has that comfy reputation.

It would not be out of character for the powers at TJ to have behaved as alleged.
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Re: Trader Joes

Post by veteran+ »

pseudo3d wrote: March 2nd, 2021, 3:02 am
storewanderer wrote: March 1st, 2021, 11:16 pm
pseudo3d wrote: March 1st, 2021, 8:46 pm Trader Joe's employees are supposed to be helpful and friendly; it's one of the things that has allowed the chain to be as successful as it has been. Between the company's official response and his own letter is a practical confession that he's been harassing customers about mask use for months, and this was probably the final straw.
This is the thing is most retailers do not enforce mask rules. This employee's best course of action after seeing the store (and most other retailer stores) not enforcing the rules, frankly would have been to keep reporting the store to the city or health department or whoever is in charge of enforcing these mask rules in that city until they do something about it. There would be no way to prove this employee made the complaint and in a store with thousands of customers a day going through it would be assumed some customer complained. Given no security cameras at Trader Joes even pictures could have been provided to the city as proof and it is probably unlikely the employee would have been caught for reporting them. Might get fired for taking pictures of customers but I guess that is the risk you take. It is a pretty snake move to report your employer for something but this is not unheardof with OSHA complaints, etc. when an employer fails to provide a safe work environment.
The other thing to question is he wrote the email to the CEO, how would anyone know? It's unlikely that the CEO would report it down to his own supervisors and/or personally make sure that he was fired, so we have to assume he made it public at the start or copied his own supervisors on it.

I think my big problem here is that whether or not he was being rude and petty to customers, he's playing both martyr and victim here. An employee in ANY business can't start rocking the boat like that and not expect some blowback.

Trader Joes like Publix and even Fresh & Easy promote OPEN and honest communication between the big chiefs and the lowly clerk (no chain of command protocols). That's NOT what really happens. Just sayin..........................
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Re: Trader Joes

Post by pseudo3d »

veteran+ wrote: March 2nd, 2021, 8:12 am My point in posting was not to defend or dismiss the employee.

My point is that "we" often think things about a company's culture that are not always accurate because of "staged" employee surveys and company PR efforts and customer's "surface" impressions.

Trader Joes' real internal personality (how employees interact with superiors) is not as sweet as many believe. Same thing with Publix that reportedly has that comfy reputation.

It would not be out of character for the powers at TJ to have behaved as alleged.
No business is going to have 100% of its employees happy with everything, nor its customers. I bet you can go to the Yelp review page for any Trader Joe's and find a less-than-glowing review, to put it mildly.

I also assume that the State of New York has more protections about firing people, so it had to be a lot more than just the letter.
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Re: Trader Joes

Post by veteran+ »

pseudo3d wrote: March 2nd, 2021, 2:23 pm
veteran+ wrote: March 2nd, 2021, 8:12 am My point in posting was not to defend or dismiss the employee.

My point is that "we" often think things about a company's culture that are not always accurate because of "staged" employee surveys and company PR efforts and customer's "surface" impressions.

Trader Joes' real internal personality (how employees interact with superiors) is not as sweet as many believe. Same thing with Publix that reportedly has that comfy reputation.

It would not be out of character for the powers at TJ to have behaved as alleged.
No business is going to have 100% of its employees happy with everything, nor its customers. I bet you can go to the Yelp review page for any Trader Joe's and find a less-than-glowing review, to put it mildly.

I also assume that the State of New York has more protections about firing people, so it had to be a lot more than just the letter.
I was not suggesting that at all. But in the face of their reported reputation of their unique relationship with their employees, it's worth mentioning that in real life...............it's just not that special.

Because of that I would tend to believe the employee in this case.
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