I worked for the Downer's Grove Fry's from 2015-2016. Every single employee was severely underpaid, overworked, and was expected to follow a massively outdated and creepy sales model. We were encouraged to follow customers around to ask what they needed I quote from one of the training manuals I had in a box, "A great way to greet a customer by name is to get their name from their credit card transaction". Employees in the AV department (TV's and stereos and home theaters) were 100% on commission. if you did not make your minimum sales, you were put on a stipend equivalent to minimum wage, with the expectation that if you did not get off of it within a week or two, you would be fired. Employees in Computers (pre-builts, Mac's, monitors, printers etc.) were 100% on commission as well. Components (processors, hard drives pc parts, hobby parts) were not. Toys/Electronics were also on commission. Cashiers received commission equivalent to 1% of whatever goes through your till, daily. Management at that store was absolute festering garbage. The favored tactic was to make sure they caught you "stealing time" by clocking in early for your shift on days that required the extra help, while asking you to do your job without pay if you were in the building. You got three write ups, then you were fired. One of the store's upper management was supposedly sleeping with a department head, and there was rumors of department sales numbers not being reported correctly. Returns were to the point that if you did not have a 100% readable after being run through a scanner receipt, you would be denied. the internet "price matching" was done via UPC or via model number lookup. If the upc/model from an online source did not match EXACTLY what was on file, it was denied. My personal favorite thing to talk about is the fact that the till software, and all financial software was from the DOS era. Black screens, text boxes and no mouse input, being run in emulation on cheap windows 7 workstations. Fry's also had refused to update to the chip compatible card readers, and was "eating" the fine from those weekly. The employees were the best and worst part of working for Fry's. You had nerds, as far as the eye could see. Hobbyists, gamers, DIY'ers everyone. You commonly had people talking about the latest anime or manga in the cafe on break, or their anticipated music or movies coming out. The flip side to all of this was the commissioned workers. They were always stressed to the point to people crying on break. Always super hungry to make a sale, because they either had to, or be fired after they got their check. All of this being said, the Downers Grove Fry's got the short end of the stick as far as decoration goes. The store's main "feature" was the marble floors that they had imported from Italy, and the "stately" columns they had in the store. The decorations were officially listed the historic black and white photographs of the Downer family which were on large format prints on special mounts around the store, for whom that town was named. There was no theming, nothing special. It was a square building, with rectangle isles and the decor did nothing to help that. The one lasting impression that I remember after stopping in around 2019 was how bare everything was, and how much of the store was being devoted to "As seen on TV" or actual "knockoff" stuff like rip off perfumes and colognes. They also still had a fully stocked "adult media" section all the way towards the end of the store's run. Nearing the end (2019-ish) they were constantly told that stock was arriving, and stuff would be on shelves soon. The last paycheck was mailed. They gave zero warning about the store closing, employees just walked up to locked doors on open one morning.
to the port of hvide sande in Denmark. He’ll be working on a ship
called hvide sande. I believe that’s a work ship. It’s possible he’ll be leaving straight from Denmark to the port of Kabil in Indonesia. I believe the ship he’s working on in Indonesia is a supply ship.
He’s currently in the air
headed for Kennedy airport in NY before hopping on another flight that goes to Copenhagen.
I’ll keep you updated!
