Huff Po: Business cards -- so often they're exchanged, slipped inside a wallet and promptly forgotten. We imagine that's not so with the cards for Brazilian cheese shop Bon Vivant, which hired ad agency JWT to come up with a card that cuts through the competition. And they did, literally, with a business card that doubles as a cheese grater.

According to JWT's web site, Bon Vivant customers quickly snatched up the 1,000 total cards that were made. Bon Vivant owner, Beto Rogoski, said that the store had to establish a rule that customers receiving a card had to wait two or three days before coming back and snagging another one.

Don't worry about it ruining your back pocket -- the card comes in a protective sleeve.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

A Cover Letter

I was recently on glassdoor.com which asked me to write the pros and cons of a company. My former employer, RadioShack, immediately came to mind. Before I left there, I wrote a letter to my Regional Manager in regards to my district manager. Now, I didn’t expect anything to come of this letter, mostly because the Regional Manager, Bill Mynett, was a Napoleonic little man who had been hired from Blockbuster. He, in turn, placed former Blockbuster employees in District Manager positions, who did the same with store manager positions. One such District Manager was my former…Reginald Weekly.

The Letter: (Part 3)

After all the complaining Reggie did all year about my wireless performance, I was the number 1 store in the district, in December, in post paid gross profit and comp; Instead of him acknowledging this accomplishment Reggie called me to chastise me about my battery sales and the fact that I was under 27 hours for the week.

On Monday morning, December 31st 2012, I went to my store on my day off to do the deposit and leave instructions for my assistant manager. My assistant didn’t have a car, so I would often do the deposit on my day off for him. I found a letter sitting on the fax machine which was left there from the night before from my employee Shante. In the letter to Reggie, Shante claimed that I would stand over her shoulder when she gave African American people their change, and that I told African American customers that our computer was down when they wanted to buy cell phones.

The register in my store had been $310 short in December, on 3 occasions. Each time the register was short, Shante was working with either the assistant manager who’s worked there for over a year or Stephanie, who’d been there for six months. I never had money missing from the register when either of them worked, nor had I ever had money missing from my register in all the years I worked at RadioShack. I wrote Chris, Stephanie, AND Shante a verbal warning the first time we were short $170 and went over with them, at length, the procedures of handling cash. I did this at Reggie’s behest. I also told them all that nobody thinks they were stealing money, I just think one of them made a mistake. Part of my instruction to Shante involved her counting out the customers change in front of them for her safety and theirs. Over the next few weeks, I found Shante ignoring my instruction on several occasions, in which she would grab a wad of cash from the register and hand it back to the customer. Then we were $40 short on a Saturday evening after she worked.

After I told Reggie, he told me to give SHANTE a written warning. I spoke with her about the missing money, explaining to her once again that I didn’t think she was deliberately mishandling funds, but she needed to be more careful. So yes, I absolutely watched Shante carefully when she was handing out change to anybody, not just African Americans. I felt justified in doing this as we were again short by $100 after Shante worked. Each time she worked I found money in the wrong parts of the register; 20’s mixed in with 5’s, 10’s mixed in with 20’s and so on, which is why I felt she just wasn’t paying attention to what she was doing when it came to handling cash.

Next, as anyone in Reggie’s district will tell you, Reggie asked us to use common sense when turning away fraudulent cell phone customers. So, as Shante had only been with the company for a month she didn’t know why I told customers we didn’t have a phone when we did, or that our computers were down so we couldn’t process their sale. It was because there was no hologram on the customer’s driver’s license, or the customers didn’t know each other but claimed to be relatives, or some other thing that sparked suspicion. This is something that I trained my entire staff to look for in any customer, as all of the managers in the district did per Reggie’s instruction. There was nothing I wanted to do more than sell phones in my store because it was the only time that I didn’t feel like I was about to get fired. However, I wasn’t going to let fraud slip by on my watch just to make a sale.

(It should be noted here that in 2012, the Tinley Park RadioShack had the lowest fraudulent phone sales at 2 for the whole year, while the next lowest was 23. One store in Reggie’s district lost 112 THOUSAND dollars in fraudulent phone sales)

My point in telling you this though is that the way in which Reggie handled this employee issue is just another example of his unprofessionalism. Since the fax didn’t go through and I found it SITTING on the fax machine, I called Reggie, who was once again off of work through the first week of the New Year. I told him that I found a letter for him on the fax machine, and I proceeded to read it to him verbatim. In her letter Shante wrote, “Like I told you in the other letter,” and at the end she wrote “I hope this helps.” I asked Reggie if there was something he’d like to talk to me about because Shante said “in the other letter”, to which Reggie said he didn’t know what I was talking about and that he never got another letter from Shante. Then he told me he was off until Wednesday and hung up the phone. Being in retail for as long as I’ve been, it’s my understanding that if Shante felt she was being treated unfairly, she could absolutely go to Reggie if she didn’t feel comfortable coming to me. Then Reggie, as my superior would bring the issue to me, keeping Shante’s confidence, so that he could hear my side and we could come to a resolution. However, instead of confronting me, discussing the issue with me, or treating me or Shante’s complaint with a modicum of respect or decorum, Reggie simply lied. I got the distinct feeling that Reggie put Shante up to this letter as a means to fire me.

It was quite clear to me from his inclusionary management methods that Reggie was a racist. He just didn’t like white people and he treated me and the only other white manager in his district with the same disregard. During the course of 2012, we were the ONLY 2 managers never taken to lunch by Reggie. Reggie often told me that I needed to hire hot black women in my store while lambasting my white employee’s appearances. And when Reggie would interview potential employees at my store, there was never ONE white person in the groups. However, it was a friend of mine who used to work at Blockbuster for Reggie, who would confirm my suspicions. Reggie never knew I was friends with this individual, but he managed the Blockbuster near my old RadioShack location on Archer and Central. Reggie was his district manager at Blockbuster for a time and he told me how Reggie was fired from Blockbuster after HE and many other managers complained to Human Recourses that Reggie was a bigot. I got along with most of Reggie’s management choices, however it should be noted that 6, SIX of the individuals he hired to manage stores, including Lawrence before me at Tinley, were fired for either stealing or being paid by customers to make fraudulent phone sales. This is not a statement on African Americans, but on Reggie’s track record with hiring.

These are the stresses I had to deal with daily from Reginald Weekly. I was put in a constant fear of losing my job coupled with the daily disappointment of feeling left out and singled out. Instead of concentrating on customers; I felt that I always had to concentrate on being one step ahead of Reggie firing me. It’s unfathomable that anyone should have to work under these conditions. Reggie made working for RadioShack untenable, and if I wasn’t able to turn the Tinley Park store back into the million dollar store it was years ago, the fault lies at Reggie’s feet. These are not excuses; these are clear precise examples of the hostile work environment that Reginald Weekly created while I worked for him.

(End part 3)

--via http://generaldouchebaggery.com/

So they waited until the building had to renovate, and raised a zoning stink and dragged the nonprofit through court until they could no longer afford the fight, and sold. By the way, THE PROPERTY NEVER WAS FOR SALE. And then the company CEO had the gall to state:

"Company CEO John Barrett has long said it was time for the women at the Anna Louise to leave the neighborhood to make way for economic development. He plans to turn the building into a boutique hotel and envisions transforming the neighborhood into a hub of activity with restaurants and bars.

"This truly is a win for everyone and will make Lytle Park a destination like no other," Barrett said in a Monday news release announcing the Anna Louise sale.

Barrett, who has repeatedly declined requests for an interview, has become a loathed figure at the Anna Louise, not only for his tireless efforts to acquire the property but also for the way he has talked about the women living there, repeatedly referring to them as recovering prostitutes and saying they just don't belong in the neighborhood."

One more way money > people's lives.

By the way, eminent domain can be used for 'economic development', as in, building a Walmart over a prized Asian market.

--ShelterDoll

This story takes place when I have about 3-4 years under my belt so by this point nothing really shakes me off my rocker.

I was working alone on counter, my supervisor was in drive thru and it was just us running the floor. This is a typical night for me, both of us are awesome at the job and we throw in some laughs here and there. I'm on counter happily taking orders when a girl in her late teens orders a sandwich.

Already I'm praying for the customers to please be patient as there is a line up of about 5 people still and it's slowly growing. I run over with her to the sandwich counter and start at it. I'm literally wrapping this ladies completed sandwich in a good amount of time when all I hear from the cash is;

"CAN YOU SEND ONE OF THE OTHER GIRLS DOWN HERE TO THE CASH?!"

Everyone in the store turns to stare at him and I politely call back with a normal tone of voice, because by now the entire restaurant is silent;

"I'm sorry sir I'm just finishing up her sandwich, I will be right there."

"NOT MY PROBLEM!"

In the next few seconds I hand her the sandwich, and she leans over and whispers; "Good luck..."

I nod with a smile and go right into it. The next orders are punched out in under 30 seconds. I get to the customer, and by now he's agitated.

"Large double double WITH MILK."

"Yes sir-"

"Make sure it's with MILK NOT CREAM!"

Okay normally I'm completely nice, this guy has been a complete ass. So I did a little revenge of my own. A common mistake that I've seen TONS of workers do at other branches. Not stirring coffee. I swirled it around with the spoon and put a lid on it. With the biggest smile I could give I handed it to him. What happens is if the coffee isn't stirred you end up with a huge pile of sugar at the bottom. Making it very sweet. I've never seen this guy before so I never expected to see him again. Guess again.

I spotted him in the line up again about a few days later and this time when he came up he gave me a knowing smile and happily placed his order which I gladly made correctly. Since then he requested me when I was on shift to personally make him his coffee if someone didn't make it to his standards. We have had friendly conversations and he became a regular at the store. I looked forward to seeing him everytime he came in and he would always have the biggest smile. A complete 180 from that night. Or maybe that swirl really was all his drink needed...

WARNING: Attempting revenge on a crusty is not recommended. I got lucky with a 1 in a million chance.

--Canadia

Because I don't have a working vehicle and I'm disabled, the state pays to transport me to my many doctors visits. Way too many if you ask me. Anyway, I call ahead, they set up transportation, I'm given a confirmation number, and in theory, they send a cab to pick me up and bring me back home in a timely manner.

I met a cab driver back last October I'll call "Dick" (not his real name, but it fits). Dick and I got to talking after I made a comment about some idiot walking across the street in front of us holding up his pants even though he clearly was wearing a belt. Only problem was, the belt was strapped *under* his ass, so it was doing him no good! I'm sorry, but if you have to go around being a human suspender because you're a jackass, I'm going to call you out. Dick started laughing, and that's how we started talking.

By the time he got me home, he had asked me out for lunch. HOLY CRAP! I haven't been out to lunch with someone for over 20 years that wasn't my husband, and that was just a casual thing. So sure, why not?

We go out to lunch, I ask him about his past, he asks me about mine (he's educated!), and we seem to be able to have an intelligent conversation. He has no trouble with the fact that I take a Service Dog with me everywhere I go (although squeezing her into a small pick-up he finds surprisingly easy for such a large dog), and we even have a nice time at the dog park. I really enjoy picking his brain about how the cab company works because it explains a LOT about some of the problems I have.

About six weeks in I realize things are not going the way they should when he starts making snide comments about Mexican, black, and foreign cab drivers. Mexicans the most.

Excuse me, but did you happen to know that the Spanish sold the Arizona land to Americans in 1912? Yeah, they were here FIRST. You're IRISH decent. So unless you happen to come from a native tribe STFU!

I was being as nice as I could but the comments kept coming getting bolder and bolder about them being "illiterate", "stupid", and "useless". Finally, after I'd gotten a driver that had asked me if my dog would bite (to which I'm always tempted to reply, "Why do you think I have this limp?"), I had texted Dick about having a bad day and told him what was said.

He texted I should have told him, "She only bites Mexicans."

That was IT! I'd had it! It wasn't even a Latino driver! I texted back and said "No, she only bites bigots." and we never talked again.