Wal-Mart: YOU'RE FIRED!!!

[gblowfish]

This story was in the KC Star this morning. Wal-Mart fired a brain damaged cashier who worked there for almost 20 years for discounting a jug of sweet tea for a customer by fifty cents. I hope he sues their ass off. Story is here:

Thousands of people are rallying behind a brain-damaged Walmart worker who was fired last week.

Frank Swanson was a cashier at a Walmart in West Plains, Missouri for nearly two decades.

He was well known in the local community as an enthusiastic worker who loved to hug customers.

He was fired just 20 days short of his 20-year anniversary with Walmart.

A Walmart spokesman said he was fired for violating a pricing policy.

"Letting an associate go is never easy," the spokesman said. "For this associate, point-of-sale policies had not been followed in some instances. A recent violation of those policies moved the associate to the final step of our discipline process, resulting in his dismissal."

Swanson's supporters claim he was terminated for giving out hugs, and they are planning a protest at the West Plains Walmart on Saturday to show their support.

More than 1,500 people have committed to attending the rally on a Facebook page called "Hugs for Frank" and another 3,100 said they are interested in attending.

"Walmart has decided to fire Frank, the sweetest employee you'd ever meet, for hugging a costumer," the page reads. "So we're going to gather at Walmart on Saturday April 9th with signs or t-shirts offering free hugs. Let's do this for Frank."

The workers' rights group Making Change at Walmart also released a statement on the matter.

"It appears Walmart fired workers for being decent and kind. So, if you believe in hugs or being nice to customers, don’t apply for a job at Walmart," said Jess Levin, communications director for MCAW.

Swanson's bosses cited his hugs as inappropriate, but that's not why he was fired, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Swanson broke store policy on at least one occasion by discounting a jug of tea by 50 cents, after a customer told him a competitor was selling the tea for 50 cents cheaper,the Post-Dispatch reports. He took the customer at her word, but under store policy, he should have asked her to produce a printed circular proving the competitor's price.

Swanson's sister, Babbi Marsh, confirmed that Swanson was terminated for excessive price matching.

"He never let anyone walk out without paying for their merchandise. What he was told was that he was being let go for excessive price matching," she told the West Plains Daily Quill.

Swanson suffered severe injuries including brain damage following an accident when he was young that left him in a coma for six weeks and temporarily paralyzed, his family told KSPR TV.

Walmart customer Jenn Harper called Swanson a "sign of hope."

"I feel like one of our own has been hurt," she told KSPR. "He's a sign of hope, he made your day better. If you were having a bad day at Walmart, he would light up your whole trip."

http://www.businessinsider.com/walma...0-years-2016-4

[BigBeauford]

I was hearing about this story. Apparently he would sometimes not give people their change back unless they gave him a hug.

[BigRichard]

Originally Posted by mikeyis4dcats.

so just because he's been there 24 years he should be allowed to harrass someone?

According to the OP, yes.

[gblowfish]

The KC Star story is here:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local...e73691612.html

Part of the story:

"All this because a woman in Frank’s line that day wanted to buy a gallon of the sweet tea. She told Frank a store in a neighboring town had a sale price that Wal-Mart was supposed to match.

She didn’t have the ad, as required, but she didn’t need it with Frank. He’d always made it a point to keep up with prices at other stores, so he let her have it at the sale price.

That got Frank called in and fired after nearly 20 years.

“The bosses said I made up an imaginary price,” he said Thursday.

Frank went to Willow Springs and got an issue of a local paper that showed he was right about the price of tea."

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Wal Mart needed that fifty cents.

They owe Pennsylvania Employees $224 million for forcing them to work during their lunch breaks:

http://occupydemocrats.com/2016/04/1...-lunch-breaks/

if they don't hold him accountable then they can't hold the teen accountable when he dicsounts video games for his friends, or when another employee discounts a laptop. Big companies have policies, and if they don't apply them equally they get sued.

[ModSocks]

So we only care about this story because he has slight brain damage?

****s given: 0

[ptlyon]

6 years of college, down the drain

[T-post Tom]

Hard to make a judgment here w/o all the details. On the surface, sounds like bad management at that store.

Why not:

Manager: "Frank, we need you to slow down on the price matching. If you feel you must match under our policy, alert a manager for review. At least for the time being. If you can't do that, then we'll have to move you off the register to another area."

Frank: "Ok."

PR crisis averted.

[LOCOChief]

Originally Posted by BigBeauford

I was hearing about this story. Apparently he would sometimes not give people their change back unless they gave him a hug.

That would send me into a giant rage. The only thing I can think of on the rare occasions that I'm in Walmart is "I have to get the **** out of here" but first I gotta hug the reerun to get my change.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by MTG#10

This made local news in Springfield a couple weeks ago. It was for far more than a jug of tea. He had been giving discounts I think I read around 20 times more often than the next highest employee and had been warned several times.

But lets not let facts cloud our judgement of the evil empire of WalMart.

Yeah, not a surprise, most of these stories seem to be crossposted from The Daily Worker

[Toby Waller]

Originally Posted by eDave

Except for ushering in chip readers. Those annoy me for some reason.

It's a legalistic myth.
You can't be perfect every single day.

[BigRichard]

Originally Posted by T-post Tom

Hard to make a judgment here w/o all the details. On the surface, sounds like bad management at that store.

Why not:

Manager: "Frank, we need you to slow down on the price matching. If you feel you must match under our policy, alert a manager for review. At least for the time being. If you can't do that, then we'll have to move you off the register to another area."

Frank: "Ok."

PR crisis averted.

Not saying it was necessary but they might have done this for all you know.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by mikeyis4dcats.

so just because he's been there 24 years he should be allowed to harrass someone?

If not for this precedent I could have run wild in eight more years.

[RobBlake]

Originally Posted by BigRichard

Not saying it was necessary but they might have done this for all you know.

Well, if the ydid this, he should have been moved to door greeter/bag checker.

[gblowfish]

Well, the local grocery store snapped up Frank and gave him a job, so I'm glad the guy wasn't out of work for long.

But you have to know this has cost Wal-Mart thousands more in bad PR than what they saved by whacking this guy. They could have moved him off the register and let him do returns, or stock shelves or something. Just the latest in a history of poor employee relations for Wal-Mart.

[RockChalk]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

So we only care about this story because he has slight brain damage?

I don't think so. I believe the paper only labeled him as "brain-damaged" to differentiate him from the 2% of Wal-Mart employees who are not brain-damaged.