E-mail, I get e-mail.............

I received an e-mail from one of my readers concerning my post about the do-it-yourself checkouts that seem to be proliferating everywhere. Of course, I'm not going to identify the writer but here is the e-mail in it's entirety.............

I NEVER use those damn check yourself out lines. Screw that union-busting, let's-boost-the-bottom-line-by-getting rid-of-cashiers bullshit.

Hey, George, maybe next they'll have a bake-it-yourself donut line!

Remember when someone pumped your gas? Those days are never coming back. Once these corporate middle managers with their great money saving ideas get us accustomed to doing things ourselves, they figure we'll just shrug our shoulders and go with the program.

They ain't gonna give us discounts for doing it either. Probably charge us more for the "convenience". Just think, they get the same amount of profit AND get to fire the cashiers.

I hate corporations.

You know what? I agree with you for the most part. Couple things I'd like to add............

I don't really hate all corporations, some are better then others. The company I work for has supermarkets all over the world and I've been working for them since 1976. I left them in 1988 for a few years for a substantially higher paying job but things didn't work out(I hated the job and they really didn't like me either so we parted ways) and was rehired in 1991.

I make about 2/3 of what I used to make. But I am lots happier. I have a pension, full family med benefits, dental and prescription for less than 10 bucks a week. They also match the first 5% of my 401k deduction. While it's certainly not "executive level" benefits, they are pretty good for a working stiff.

The cashier thing? Yeah, I suppose it saves them money but in our company's defense- good help is hard to find. I think Wal-Mart's annual employee turnover rate is over 40%. Ours is considerably lower. Not sure what the deal is at Wal-Mart but our part timers get full healthcare benefits after 90 days and after a year-they have the same healthcare deal full-timers get for their families.

Man I hope they don't come up with a bake-it-yourself donut! By rough count over the past 10 years, I've trained about 75 bakers and been to 25 grand openings to help train new associates. So while I suppose some corporations can be a pain to work for-mine ain't half bad..................

Random bitch....................Where we live at, we have these concrete traffic islands separating the opposing lanes of traffic. We have these groups of people that will stand on them and beg for money when the traffic is stopped for a light. They are always dressed nice but the pitch varies from week to week. Sometimes it's for a "Rescue Mission" sometimes it's for a church, it just depends on who is there asking for money. Thing is-people actually give them money. I'm okay with that but guess what?........ they pick one of the busiest intersections in the county and when people have to dig for their wallets and purses-it holds up traffic. There oughta be a law...............Random bitch over............

I could be a newscaster. I have gas.

Nice. Teach those parents how to behave before they kill each other.

I'm not sure what's worse...........................

..this or the fact that there is a "British Hamster Association"

With that..........

Till later.