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Today, an event occurred in my part of the world, not too terribly far in fact, from my house. I've shopped at this store.
Long story short, it appears that an employee took his own life in the deli in the middle of the afternoon when the store was busy with customers and full of employees. Afterward, two things happened:
1. The store remained open for nearly an hour.
2. The store announced it would open for business in the morning.
A quote from the news story:
Customers inside and out knew something happened, but not what.
"I go in, and to the right,it's a crime scene. I don't know if I should go back in, or out. Everybody is looking frantic. There's a woman to the left of me crying," said Janae Jenkins shortly after the shooting.
Police taped off the deli area, but the store was still open. Police say they couldn't force Ingles to close.
I have problems with this. I keep envisioning the muzak playing, sprinkled with perky come-ons for store brands. I also keep wondering if a single night is adequate to make the deli kitchen presentable for customers demanding their rotisserie chickens tomorrow. It's my understanding that shooting oneself in the head tends to make a far-flung sort of mess.
Mostly though, it bothers me that here we appear to have a very blatant object lesson in exactly how little a corporation values its employees. I mean, really... You would think, eminently reasonable as you are, that if someone shoots themselves in the head in the grocery store, the store closes. Immediately. It stays open long enough to evacuate, and that's that. Nobody buys their goddamn cold cuts. They leave. As for when it reopens... I dunno. I would think a day staying closed would be reasonable and respectful, but I do understand the factor of perishable inventory. I'm sure they won't be reopening the deli itself, but I really wouldn't put it past a company that stayed open that long after it happened.
All in all, the whole thing just really bothers me. It seems like the employee who did this to himself meant nothing at all to the company and that just isn't right.
Long story short, it appears that an employee took his own life in the deli in the middle of the afternoon when the store was busy with customers and full of employees. Afterward, two things happened:
1. The store remained open for nearly an hour.
2. The store announced it would open for business in the morning.
A quote from the news story:
Customers inside and out knew something happened, but not what.
"I go in, and to the right,it's a crime scene. I don't know if I should go back in, or out. Everybody is looking frantic. There's a woman to the left of me crying," said Janae Jenkins shortly after the shooting.
Police taped off the deli area, but the store was still open. Police say they couldn't force Ingles to close.
I have problems with this. I keep envisioning the muzak playing, sprinkled with perky come-ons for store brands. I also keep wondering if a single night is adequate to make the deli kitchen presentable for customers demanding their rotisserie chickens tomorrow. It's my understanding that shooting oneself in the head tends to make a far-flung sort of mess.
Mostly though, it bothers me that here we appear to have a very blatant object lesson in exactly how little a corporation values its employees. I mean, really... You would think, eminently reasonable as you are, that if someone shoots themselves in the head in the grocery store, the store closes. Immediately. It stays open long enough to evacuate, and that's that. Nobody buys their goddamn cold cuts. They leave. As for when it reopens... I dunno. I would think a day staying closed would be reasonable and respectful, but I do understand the factor of perishable inventory. I'm sure they won't be reopening the deli itself, but I really wouldn't put it past a company that stayed open that long after it happened.
All in all, the whole thing just really bothers me. It seems like the employee who did this to himself meant nothing at all to the company and that just isn't right.
Expecting them to work after that is just... I don't have words.
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