S10.E18: Dollar Stores

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Main topic:  Dollar Stores

Also:  George Santos ethics committee findings; Fox Business interviews Fabio re: Hamas and war in Gaza; Congress keeps the government open for now through stopgap bill; fights in the senate - senator vs. senator and senator vs. teamster; you'll never guess where Fox's Pete Hegseth went to college; puteketeke is New Zealand's Bird of the Century!

Original air date 2023.11.19

[Annber03]

"This whole session raises the question of whether House Republicans can govern at all."

Ooh! Ooh! I know the answer to that! *Waves hand around wildly* I liked John reminding these people that the rest of us manage to work our jobs without acting like immature children. I would get fired if I behaved like this at my job, I wish the same thing could happen anytime these overgrown babies decide to act up like this. This is embarrassing. You're grown men, for god's sakes, try actually acting like it. 

Regarding the main story...okay, the stuff about the THOUSANDS of rats in that distribution center, and the suggestions given to employees about how to handle bird poop on their merchandise? Gross. Absolutely gross. On every single level imaginable. Good lord. 

And then the corporate people have the audacity to be all, "Our employees don't need unions." Dumbass, you've got people literally dying in their fellow employees' arms and being made to take home merchandise covered in bird poop to clean it off AND PUT IT BACK ON THE SHELVES. They have more than EARNED the right to join a union after that kind of insanity. Kudos to the employees who just up and said, "Fuck this" and quit...and put signs on the doors explaining why they quit besides. 

We have a Family Dollar here in my town - it's actually literally just a couple blocks' walk from my house. And I think we also have both a Dollar Tree and Dollar General here as well, but I haven't been in those, so I can't say what they're like. My mom has been in the Dollar General, though, and she said that store isn't very nice, so... Our Family Dollar store, while small, is thankfully not messy and crowded and hoarder-ish as the stores shown in those video clips...but they're also not staffed with a ton of employees, no. Anytime I've been in our Family Dollar store, at most I see two people working there, and one of them is working the register. The other is putting out merchandise. 

And we also shop at our Family Dollar a lot because it's literally the only store on my end of town. If I want to do any more detailed shopping, I have to go to the other side of town, where all the other stores are. It's not a long drive, mind, I could get there within five, ten minutes or so, but still...it would be nice to have a little more variety on our end of town, yes. 

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out the employees at our stores here in town aren't paid very well, though. It definitely isn't the kind of job that provides any sort of decent upward mobility, no. I love the ads promoting these stores where the employees always look so cheerful and talkative. I have worked retail and have been in many retail stores. Even when the employees are friendly, they are not THAT friendly. 

On a much lighter note, congrats on the bird election results, John :D!

[ahisma]

I am flabbergasted that there are more Dollar General/Tree stores in the US than Walmart, McDonalds, and Starbucks combined. That seems inconceivable! I hope more employees ditch their horrifying pay and staffing conditions. 

Puteketeke! 

[Lantern7]

We can’t have anything nice, can we? Even the dollar stores are fucked up. I didn’t know they were so prevalent and poorly-run. Pretty darn appalling.

Didn’t the Teamster kinda/sorta look like Colin Robinson? It’s great that the Senate is a powder keg that can blow up at any moment. And you wonder why few people like Congress these days.

Looks like John got what he wanted, and he’s been immortalized along with the bird he pushed for. I honestly didn’t think John had the pull to make the Pūteketeke a winner. Great that he wore the suit one more time. I’m thinking the Pūteketeke will be a fixture in the opening credits for at least one season.

No new episode on Thanksgiving Sunday. I think the show would’ve been done for the year if it hadn’t been for the strikes.

Was it me, or did Fabio need captions?

[Annber03]

15 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

Was it me, or did Fabio need captions?

I would LOVE to know how the hell that particular interview/conversation choice came about. That was surreal. 

[andromeda331]

Well, that explains why there's always stuff everywhere in those stores still in boxes or thrown around. The crime doesn't surprise me my dad and I noticed whether we watched Cops or Live PD (which is basically Cops) how often the Dollar Store or Dollar General showed up on those shows either being robbed or fights or stabbings or people shooting up in the parking lot. It was really weird. I can't think of any other store that popped up so much on those shows no matter what city. 

[ahisma]

4 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

how often the Dollar Store or Dollar General showed up on those shows either being robbed

That’s one thing that’s hard to understand. It’s a DOLLAR store. How much money are you going to get versus the penalty for armed robbery?

[peeayebee]

Markwayne deserved a "Don't make me turn this car around" from Bernie. What an unbelievable asshole. 

I'm no fan of Kevin McCarthy, but when I first heard about the other Congressman saying McCarthy had elbowed him in the kidneys, I was skeptical. But then a reporter confirmed it, AND there was that other incident when he pushed or shoved or whatever a colleague. So... par for the course.

10 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Didn’t the Teamster kinda/sorta look like Colin Robinson?

Now that you mention it, yes!

Quote

Was it me, or did Fabio need captions?

Yeah, I couldn't tell what he was saying. And frankly I had forgotten he had an accent.

I knew that those dollar stores are all over the place, but I didn't know how horribly they treat their employees. I always think that the motivation for not paying employees enough has to do with investors. Yes, the CEOs and other executives get paid obscene amounts of money and don't want to give up any of it, but I figure not wanting to scare off investors is an important reason why so little money is expended on the employees and supporting them. I don't know the numbers and really anything more than what I just said, so maybe I'm way off base.

I've been in a few dollar stores in my lifetime, but I've never seen a store with such messy and chaotic aisles as shown here. Yes, I've seen boxes stacked up here and there, but not like that.

Loved seeing more of the aftermath of the bird contest. I went to metalbirds.com. You can actually just buy Putektektek's Little Friend (i.e., John Oliver) for $19.99. The bird and John is $74.99. Plus there are a lot of other very cool sculptures. Hmmm. Christmas presents....

[PrincessPurrsALot]

11 hours ago, peeayebee said:

Markwayne deserved a "Don't make me turn this car around" from Bernie. What an unbelievable asshole. 

Bernie's hand being shown in the clip was perfect.  Sit down and be quiet or we are not stopping at Dairy Queen! 

While I 100% agree that this behavior is absolutely not acceptable among members of Congress, I am not surprised.  I work in tech and often interact with C-suite members.  I have seen a lot of this type of behavior.  People talk in hushed, respectful tones about an executive who threw a chair through a glass wall, showering the people working below with (fortunately safety) glass.  I've heard screaming, threats, etc.  I do not revere these folks. 

I've never been in any of the dollar stores mentioned, but I have been to Big Lots.  Their commercials and their stores bear little resemblance to each other.

[Not4Me]

5 hours ago, ahisma said:

That’s one thing that’s hard to understand. It’s a DOLLAR store. How much money are you going to get versus the penalty for armed robbery?

I’m wondering if there’s a lot more petty cash available at these types of stores that make them an easier target for robbers. Perhaps there’s a sizable proportion of customers, who due to their financial situation, aren’t eligible for charge cards nor have the luxury to be part of the cashless society, therefore they might have more cash to pay with. It’s such a sad situation for the workers.

I’m also quite surprised there isn’t a lawsuit against Dollar Tree/General because of the deplorable working conditions there.  

Edited November 20, 2023 by Not4Me

[peeayebee]

I'm sure some people spend quite a lot in individual transactions at a dollar store, and if it's the only option for people in a particular area, then it makes sense that there'd be a lot of cash on hand to be stolen. Plus, would-be robbers probably know that staffing is light.

[Jodithgrace]

I think it’s the same at the other big robbery target…7-11. People go in there for a pack of cigarettes or a lottery ticket and pay cash. I’m sure that’s how it is with dollar stores.

I think the messiness of a store is in direct correlation to the wealth of an area. In my affluent part of NJ, our Dollar stores are neat and well run, from what I’ve seen. People wouldn’t go there if it were chaotic. We have choices. It’s sad that people who most need dollar stores, are the people most poorly served by them. 

[ALenore]

3 hours ago, Not4Me said:

’m wondering if there’s a lot more petty cash available at these types of stores that make them an easier target for robbers. Perhaps there’s a sizable proportion of customers, who due to their financial situation, aren’t eligible for charge cards nor have the luxury to be part of the cashless society, therefore they might have more cash to pay with. It’s such a sad situation for the workers.

That was my thought too.  I think there's a much higher percentage of people who use cash at dollar stores than the average store. I heard about true crime book, The Yoga Store Murder, which tells about a robbery at a Lululemon store where two employees were attacked and one was killed. The police began to suspect one of the employees was involved because the store had very little cash on hand, business was almost totally credit card. 

[marina to]

So happy that John won the bird contest. He had way too much fun spending corporate daddy's money on that one. 

Same old story. Ask people to do what there should be twice the amount of staff to do. Dollar stores here in Canada aren't usually that bad and a lot of the ones here in Toronto have security guards. Granted though, we generally don't have that many food deserts thanks to our grocery cartel. They all have discount grocery stores that compete with dollar stores.

Dollar Tree has tried to make a dent here but our big gorilla is Dollarama. I decided to see what they made last quarter:

Quote

Sales increased by 19.6% to $1,455.9 million • Comparable store sales increased by 15.5% over and above a 13.2% growth the previous year

Bad times seem to be good for them too.

[purist]

Loved this episode. It struck the perfect balance between an important and serious main story and several lighter segments. I cheered when John showed us the metal puteketeke with a miniature John Oliver riding on its back. His pure glee about the whole Bird of the Century saga is delightful to behold 😁

Edited November 21, 2023 by purist

[andromeda331]

13 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I knew that those dollar stores are all over the place, but I didn't know how horribly they treat their employees. I always think that the motivation for not paying employees enough has to do with investors. Yes, the CEOs and other executives get paid obscene amounts of money and don't want to give up any of it, but I figure not wanting to scare off investors is an important reason why so little money is expended on the employees and supporting them. I don't know the numbers and really anything more than what I just said, so maybe I'm way off base.

That's exactly it. That's the problem across the board in almost every industry. CEOs and executive get paid insane amount of money and won't give any of it up for the people who actually do the work that make them the money. They could easily pay their employees a decent wage and benefits and they'd still rake in the money. But they won't because they don't care. 

[wknt3]

On 11/20/2023 at 9:29 AM, ahisma said:

That’s one thing that’s hard to understand. It’s a DOLLAR store. How much money are you going to get versus the penalty for armed robbery?

 

On 11/20/2023 at 2:47 PM, Not4Me said:

I’m wondering if there’s a lot more petty cash available at these types of stores that make them an easier target for robbers. Perhaps there’s a sizable proportion of customers, who due to their financial situation, aren’t eligible for charge cards nor have the luxury to be part of the cashless society, therefore they might have more cash to pay with. It’s such a sad situation for the workers.

 

On 11/20/2023 at 3:48 PM, peeayebee said:

I'm sure some people spend quite a lot in individual transactions at a dollar store, and if it's the only option for people in a particular area, then it makes sense that there'd be a lot of cash on hand to be stolen. Plus, would-be robbers probably know that staffing is light.

All of this is correct. Plus one of the things John could have mentioned, but chose not to in keeping the segment length down to less than the complete running time of Doctor Who is that one of the areas where these chains cut corners is not utilizing armored car services as other operations that deal in similar amounts of currency do, but forcing store management to carry large amounts of cash to the bank. So they are often carrying large amounts of money, especially if they are picking up change as well. A fair number of the robberies you hear about are for larger amounts than the typical register stick up - often tipped off by some of those abused workers who are watching  1/3-1/2 of their annual earnings being carried around with minimal security. There is also the fact that without enough staff to carry out the basic functions of operating a retail store there is more money for even those register stick ups than at other locations that abuse their staff, but at least care about the bare pretense of respectability such as fast food or convenience stores since once of the things that gets skipped along with taking out trash and bathroom breaks is putting extra cash into the safe.
 

Edited November 22, 2023 by wknt3
fixing what I screwed up correcting the previous error

[khyber]

On 11/20/2023 at 3:03 PM, Jodithgrace said:

I think the messiness of a store is in direct correlation to the wealth of an area. In my affluent part of NJ, our Dollar stores are neat and well run, from what I’ve seen. People wouldn’t go there if it were chaotic. We have choices. It’s sad that people who most need dollar stores, are the people most poorly served by them. 

Exactly. The ones in my community are also fine.

[Popples]

I was actually in a Dollar Tree a couple of years ago where there was only one employee working and he made it so the doors wouldn't automatically open on the outside but would let us out because he was so overwhelmed. I don't know if anyone came to relieve him or if he just closed the store early.

I wish the giant Pūteketeke puppet and John in the costume could be on a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.