Posted on 09/26/2016 8:02:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Two bottles of OJ that retailed for $1.69 at Dollar General will end up costing the chain more than a quarter of a million dollars. That after a diabetic former employee won a lawsuit connected to the juice.
Linda Atkins was working at a Maryville, Tenn., location in the fall of 2011 when she felt a hypoglycemic attack coming on. The main cashier was on break, and so “to avoid leaving the cash register unattended, and for the security of the store,” Atkins grabbed a bottle of OJ from the cooler, drank it, and then paid for it once her blood sugar had stabilized.
WBIR reports the same thing happened again the following January. She was fired for “grazing,” and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued. On Sept. 16 Atkins was awarded $27,565 in back wages and $250,000 in compensatory damages, per an EEOC press release.
The backstory is that Atkins asked her supervisor if she could keep her own juice at the register but was told that violated store policy—except that policy allows exceptions for people with medical needs.
Atkins’ firing was precipitated by a March 2012 “shrinkage” audit to investigate any employee thefts at the store; two employees who admitted to “grazing” pointed out that Atkins had done it as well.
That’s when Atkins was fired, though the auditors were aware of the medical angle and that she had ultimately paid for the drinks. While the jury found Atkins was wrongfully fired and that the Americans with Disabilities Act was violated, it did not find the managers acted with malicious intent, thus there are no punitive damages, reports the Knoxville News Sentinel.
There you go... (thanks George Bush)
Does “grazing” mean stealing (no reimbursement), or any consuming of merchandise regardless?
I can’t tell you how many times, including today, that I’ve gone into a store, usually a grocery store/big box, thirsty from a workout grabbed something drank it as I shopped and paid for the empty bottle/container.
I know it’s probably questionable to do but hell my mom used to take me to the grocery store, give me a box of animal crackers with the string on top to eat as she pushed the cart then paid for the empty or near empty box when we were checking out.
Heck, even when I’ve grabbed a smoothie flavor that was so bad I nearly chucked it in the trash because I didn’t want to finish it I paid for the bottle.
The backstory is that Atkins asked her supervisor if she could keep her own juice at the register but was told that violated store policy—except that policy allows exceptions for people with medical needs
I’ve worked retail. While a grey area most retailers don’t care of a customer grazes while they shop as long as they pay. Employees however must pay for food they want eat before they eat it and have the receipt with said food.
I always thought it meant people who go through the grocery store, eating a grape here, a self serve bulk food item there.
I was always under the impression that an item belongs to the store owner until YOU put the money in HIS hand to pay for it.
ONLY then is it yours to do with as you will, and not before.
Doesn’t matter how thirsty or famished someone is - it doesn’t belong to them until it’s paid for.
If you pay for it you are a customer.
Usually there is a policy that you can not check yourself out but in the case of there being only one cashier this policy is usually not considered practical.
Used to work in a convenience store.
But I bet when you go to a restaurant, you don’t pay until after you’ve finished eating.
Oh I’m not disagreeing with you, I’m sure if I got stopped by loss prevention during the act I’d be apologizing profusely regardless of my intent/history of this admittedly bad behavior.
I can’t tell you how many times, including today, that I’ve gone into a store, usually a grocery store/big box, thirsty from a workout grabbed something drank it as I shopped and paid for the empty bottle/container.
I see people do that all the time. They even have cup holders built into the shopping cart, so I think stores are just fine with it.
Truly sorry for your condition.
You’re right; I have not. But if I did, I’d be sure that I had my medication for it with me at all times.
So lighten up with the threats. You and I are probably on the same page with about 99% of everything else.
True enough.
It seems a little different when you’re sitting down for a meal, versus walking around a supermarket and chowing down.
Guess it’s up to the store owner, how he or she views it, ultimately.
It wood seem wise too to carry something with you. Stores are not always so handy, even in Metropolis.
I wasn’t giving you grief about it, just pointing out how the store owner might see it differently.
I went to our local DG and there was a family that came in and turned their children loose - they immediately separated in all different directions and rampaged through the store.
In addition to being annoying to other customers like myself, it was dangerous to have kids running around like that handling and dropping everything in sight where people can stumble over the junk or get cut on broken glass or plastic, or get tripped up when kids fly by.
I’ve seen this crap before, it’s usually a case where the parents are either using the kids to distract while the parent[s] shoplift, or the kids shoplift.
The manager was immediately onto them and she and another employee caught up and kept up with the brats and the parents soon got in a huff and left the store with their unruly vermin.
And then they must have complained immediately to DG that the manager acted “like a pervert” to headquarters because the manager got nailed for “following” the kids.
Now if I thought some store manager was in the wrong I’d just quit visiting the store. It’d never occur to me to call corporate headquarters to complain- especially about employees being overprotective. But this family did it so quick it must be a habit for them.
I think they do this to soften the target... complain enough so that the morons at the top crack down on the employees a lot for being too diligent at protecting merchandise, and then eventually steal right in front of them with impugnity because they are now “trained” to look the other way by being punished.
Dollar General’s management at HQ must be on the dull side. There’s a point when “acceptable loss” by ignoring shoplifting rather than chasten shoplifters starts costing you in good customers, rather than mere baubels and trinkets.
Last time I went in the employees let feral brats run loose unhindered. I’d normally linger a bit to see what else is a good buy but with brats screaming and playing tags in the store I just got what I came for and cleared out.
Thanks.
My mother was a cashier in a department store and I know they had policies about employees purchasing things when they were working. I can’t remember what they were, but I know they had them.
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