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*presented without comment and fully stifled personal opinion*

It's Yoga Mom-Benz-Bentley-Faux-Namaste town where i live. In other words not really my thing but after years of pleading with the snob township Dunkin came in a few years ago and thankfully, the 'nice' minority within the town comes here versus the other places but of course, the usual element is certain present.

There's this girl - maaaaybe 11-12 years old tops who comes in most mornings, her parent(s) waitin car outside and she picks up her online order.

MEAN AS SHIT. Like she's got a sign on her head "i'm mean". She's every stereotype of a stuck up soccer mom trapped in a youth's existence. Anyway---nopt my monkey, not my circus, I dont care---my kids are yes sir, yes ma'am, please, thank you. So i could care less.

So she comes in minutes ago "IS MY PINK READY OR DO YOU HAVE NEW PEOPLE AGAIN"? So she snatches her paper bag off the rack and i swear the wait for drink couldn't be more than 20 seconds...she's got her arms folded and shaking her head in a "wtf why so long way". A few of us regulars exchange the usual glance and i go back to my laptop.

It's a small store so I hear one Dunkin' Employee say to his or her co-worker "I thought they aren't allowed to come out in the morning on Yom Kippur" The co-worker says "no, I think they gotta be home by night time"

Anyhow, don't shoot the messagener. OR dont' high five the messenger.

Anyhow, don't shoot the messagener. OR dont' high five the messenger.

There was a kid that came in my Radio Shack from time to time. Spawn of the owner of one of the mobile home parks nearby. What a fat little monster. Comes in, bangs on the counter, demanding "service". He is probably a "JC" by now.

Steve

He is probably a "JC" by now.

Junior Custodian (promoted from vagrant/bum/unemployed/on welfare--or drugs--or both).

hee hee. Funny how in retail you sort of ....just know.


BTW as a kid i didn't like the mean people at Radio Shack (i think mine was in 12 Oaks Mall ---something i have a feeling might be familiar to you). but I thought the R/C cars were badass fast.

i think mine was in 12 Oaks Mall

In Novi? Bought my Kenmore dryer at the Sears in 12 Oaks, in 96.

I usually hit the Sears in Briarwood, in Ann Arbor, until the Sears opened at Westland Mall. There was an RS in a strip center right in the 'burb where I live, so no need to drive anywhere else. After all the years I worked there, I would just sweep in, gather up the parts I needed, and get rung up.

I knew Office Depot was peaking out, in the mid 90s, because they were in the same mode as RS, in the 80s. Their attitude was they could grow sales to infinity, by simply adding more stores, as if "saturation" was not a thing.

Steve

I knew Office Depot was peaking out, in the mid 90s, because they were in the same mode as RS, in the 80s. Their attitude was they could grow sales to infinity, by simply adding more stores, as if "saturation" was not a thing.

A common strategy in corporate America- juice the short term at the expense of the long term.

Does wonders for the short term stock price and value of stock options in the CEO’s compensation package.


By the time the scheme collapses, destroying the company, the CEO has long since cashed in his stock options and retired to South Florida.

And from his safe perch in the shadow of Mara Lago, he can then go on FOX Business News and cluck his tongue about the company he successfully helmed- now drowning under new management’s diversity policies and incompetent DEI hires.

Does wonders for the short term stock price and value of stock options in the CEO’s compensation package.

At the start of the 90s, Office Depot's two honchos were Dave Fuente and Mark Begelman. Fuente had founded OD, while Begleman had founded "Office Club" on the west coast. The two chains were merged, but the former Office Club stores on the west cost retain the blue signage and letter font that Office Club had used.

Begleman left OD around 96, just as my store manager was saying OD can build stores to infinity. Begleman went on to buy a chain of music stores, Mars Music. The Wiki entry says Mars overexpanded, went bust, and liquidated in 2002.

Somewhere in 97 or 98, Fuente tried to merge OD with Staples. I think I may still have the issue of "Ink" the OD internal magazine, around somewhere, that touted the merger proposal. I said "the #1 and #2 office supply chains merging? FTC will never allow it". The FTC did indeed block the merger. Fuente retired as CEO of OD in 2000, at age 55. Ever since 2000, OD has been described as "troubled".

the CEO has long since cashed in his stock options and retired to South Florida.

The Wiki entry says Begleman had Mars Music's HQ in Fort Lauderdale. When I worked for OD, the HQ was in Delray Beach, Florida.

And from his safe perch in the shadow of Mara Lago,

As luck would have it, I went to a lecture at the Dearborn Historical Museum, last evening, about the various major food companies that started in Michigan. Post cereal was founded by C W Post. When he passed, management of the company passed to his daughter Marjorie Merriweather Post, who went on to build General Foods, as well as banking a fortune off of Post. She had her personal mansion built in the mid 20s, in Palm Beach....Mar-a-Lago.

Steve

Steve- I no longer have your email and don’t want to share mine on a public forum. But I’d love to meet for lunch in the next month or two.

There’s an old bar&grill in Depot Town, about 50 feet from where the Amtrak train comes barreling through the crossing. I’m guessing you know where it is- right across the street from the car museum.

My wife and I are taking a driving vacation to Savannah-Charleston-Kitty Hawk-Fredericksburg this month, but will be back in November. You up for lunch? Mish got famous and now lives in Utah, so he won’t be there, of course. But I’d love to catch up with you.

As luck would have it, I went to a lecture at the Dearborn Historical Museum

As the thread veers OT...some old phartz here may remember the Faygo soda-pop TV ad that was shot on an excursion boat. Some say the boat was one of the Boblo boats. It emphatically is NOT one of the Boblo boats. I rode on the St Clair and Columbia several times, they were bigger, and older. The people giving the lecture said the advert was shot in Mexico.

Trivia bit, the founders of Faygo were Russian immigrants to Detroit, who were bakers by trade. They hit on the idea of using the flavorings they used in their cake frostings, in soda water, thus inventing the first fruit flavored pop.

Faygo Boat Song TV commercial - 1970's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQqyDj7RX6Y

Steve...I'll have the Redpop

Hee hee.

Small world.

I was a teenager working at the Sbarro's Pizza in 12 oaks which i think was right outside the Sears within the mall :)

I believe i was there around 1989 ish.

14 years old, $4.25 an hour, and semi skimming off free pizza if it was end of day with tacit manager approval. (Ok me and the guys engineered the last minute demand for pizza that went unused)

14 years old, $4.25 an hour

$4.25 an hour?! What, did you work for Bill Gates or something? My first job was $3.15 an hour :) at concession stands in St. Louis.

$4.25 an hour?! What, did you work for Bill Gates or something? My first job was $3.15 an hour :) at concession stands in St. Louis.

Oh you young whippersnappers!

Mine was summer of 65- washing dishes for Howard Johnsons in Tulsa for 85cents/hr. No overtime bump for the 60-70 hours/week. All straight time.

Next summer I thought I hit gold with a bump in pay to what was then the minimum- $1.25. But still no overtime bump in rate.

Thanks for sharing.

Yes, $4.25 was great in 1989 for a kid.

My best job was the school district swim classes - assistant teacher. I *hated* taking my shirt off where the hot girl teachers could see my tits BUT.....it was $3.35 an hour all for saying "kick your legs...good job" and then clearing out the kickboards.

3.35 was min wage at the time but....AT 14 Sbarro told me on the phone that i gotta be 16 cause of knives so using hte phone book i called the manager at home and he was so cool. "Ok you called me at home, it shows you wanna work. You can't touch ovens or the kitchen so you'll get less hours"---umm hell yeah so $4.25 at the mall was great.


Appreciate your story about the bump in pay, it's funny how a few bucks meant to much at those ages. I asked for a raise and got to $4.50 and manager told me to keep it secret cause it was only for me but THEN a girl blabbed that her pay was off and that she never got the 4.75 he promised her. So the manager was smart...he told us the TRUTH that corporate ain't allowing $4.75 but he wants to keep us. SO.....each week we'd figure out the difference in pay - @4.50 vs 4.75 and just add the extra hours to our time cards :) yes, my contempt for how easy and dumb corporate folk are started long ago.

Best was weekend nights the chef would call out "do we have people" ....us..."yeah some people just walked in" so the dingus would make 1-2 pizzas, bring them out, and get so pissed 'you assholes there's nobody here you just wanted pizza to take home"

Free food. What a prize.

there's nobody here you just wanted pizza to take home

Lived in a high rise with a pizza shop on the first floor. They sold pizza by the slice (rectangular pizza). One roommate worked there part time. Employees allowed to take home one pizza per week at no charge. 12" x 18" pizza worked for us (g).

$4.25 an hour?! What, did you work for Bill Gates or something? My first job was $3.15 an hour :) at concession stands in St. Louis.


At 14 years old...got $1.25/hr at a peach drying yard. Then a job bagging groceries at a military grocery store for tips only (actually a good job, could often make $2/hr). Then later at various ag jobs that were seasonally available in the San Joaquin Valley: tomato packing shed, peach cannery, onion and garlic dehydrating plant, hoeing weeds in grape vineyards, etc.

All that was good motivation to get a degree and find something I enjoyed doing.

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