Vendor Rights - part 2

Friday as I was working the store as I usually do everything was going on as it usually does. The topics of sports, family or whatever news topic is relevant at that time. But it wasn’t until the next day that the main topic of interest was the fact that the store manager as well as the assistant manager was fired. Not for any of the usual reasons of drugs, employee disputes, a drop in store sales or the occasional sex with whom or whatever. They were fired because they were too nice.

The stores Upper District Management came to the store and were ordering the Store manager to do more manager duties relating to the employee’s and the vendors who service the store. They wanted the store manager to be more forceful towards the vendors such as keeping no back stock in the store and making sure that even if one item, a package of any kind is placed in a customers shopping cart, that there will be a vendor present in that store to replace that package back on the shelf.

There was a much longer list of items they were requiring the store manager to do but at the end of their conversation the store manager basically said he was leaving the company. He wasn’t going to put up with the list of demands they wanted him to do that would involve putting undo strain to the relations he has with the vendors. So he basically quit but overall he was targeted to being fired or forced to step down as store manager. When the District Management approached the assistant manager they didn’t give him a choice at all. They fired him on the spot without a voice.

And all day Saturday that was the main topic of discussion at that store and the surrounding other stores as vendors of all types shared stories of dealing with this store chain that call themselves ‘Your Neighborhood Food Market’. This store chain recently opened a new store in the North Hills shopping area in Raleigh. A really nice two store grocery store that comes equip with a service elevator for the vendors to use when the store is not storing their back stock in it.

A local beer vendor stated that his boss received a phone call stating that his store has received no service at all for the entire day and wanted someone to come in and service him ‘NOW’. The interesting thing was that there was a beer vendor who stayed in that store for the whole day because of the ‘Grand Opening Sale’. To add insult to injury to this store manage was that he forgot that he had a conversation with the Beer Supervisor early that morning when then the manager was aware that there would be a beer representative in that store all day. And to put the nail in the coffin for the store manager was the fact that the Beer Supervisor had just talked with the beer vendor in the store. And the vendor who was to be in the store all day for the sale was standing right next to the store manager who was on the phone.

This is a common tactic with this grocery store chain. They do have a great deal of sales from time to time but this store primary caters to the rich and the upper middle class. And it’s that mentality that they have for all the vendors who come into their store. Vendors are basically treated like the bastard step-child. A policy that requires a total lack of humanity.