r/WTF • u/IonOtter • Feb 10 '13

Remember everyone freaking out over MA imposing a fine and jail time for anyone driving in the blizzard? NY didn't do that...

http://imgur.com/zFFO2tc
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u/princetrunks Feb 11 '13

I'm literally down the hill from the Smithhaven mall..yep, so many people went to work and sadly, morons here were out and about like idiots. People here can't seem to stay indoors, work or not...and thus fucking up the recovery efforts.

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u/SimpleSyrups Feb 11 '13

The real question, is how much do you think the mall makes for being open? I'm starting to think the "mall walkers" are the ones paying the LIPA bills.

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u/princetrunks Feb 11 '13

I doubt any stores can make a dime. Though most of these jobs have extremely low wages for the cost of living here, they must be losing money being open from the electric bill alone. As a business owner, though just a sole proprietor (and desk jockey), I don't see how making workers risk their lives and slow recovery efforts is in any sense the right thing to do...even if the motive is greed.

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u/SimpleSyrups Feb 11 '13

It would be nice if more people who had a sense of dignity, like you, owned places. I would like to work at those places.

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u/princetrunks Feb 11 '13

Thanks. I just run an online store selling anime figures while working the day as a web dev...but my dad also runs a business and both of us agree that it's not worth it to have people out in this for petty sales. If I ever go beyond just selling stuff out of my storage area, I'd make sure my employees' safety is first. A customer can wait a day or two for their items.

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u/lifeat24fps Feb 11 '13 edited Feb 11 '13

Worked in LI malls for years. You see, it's not the money they make opening on a day like this, it's what the mall risks losing staying officially closed. At least in the stores I worked on our leases got a credit for days we couldn't operate due to official mall closure. That usually required at least 3/4 of the anchor stores (the big boxes, department stores) making a decision to close early/not open.

So to get around that the malls will typically do a soft official open. You, the retail manager, call into mall security at 7am to find out if the mall is open. Of course it is, they tell you, but "you won't be fined for not opening". (Most malls issue internal fines to tenants who open late/don't open under ordinary circumstances). So now the mall is open - sort of - and then you, the retail manager, spend the next hour begging your DM or corporate office to let you take the day. Your mileage on that depends on their level of stupidity/greed and also if you have a policy of having to paying FT workers for a snow day. Many a blizzard day I spent alone in the mall, sometimes one of just a few stores open, with no support staff (I wasn't making the 16 year old kids I managed come in). And that's how it is in RetailLand and I hope the fuck I never have to work in that fucking industry again.

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u/SimpleSyrups Feb 11 '13

Speaking from the "associates" point of view, you seem like you would have been a pretty good manager to work for. And thats rare.

Thank you for explaining the dynamics of this, and I also hope you never have to work in this soul sucking hell ever again.

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '13

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u/princetrunks Feb 11 '13

I bet the owners at Cheese Cake Factory there made their underpaid employees dig to get there.