Obama Slams Staples

Writer’s note:  I am postponing the post on RadioShack until a future date as I believe this is certainly more important and interesting at the current time.  Hopefully, you will feel the same.

 

First let me point of reference to the following link:  http://www.buzzfeed.com/sapna/staples-threatens-to-fire#.ytlLb8j3L.

 

I am in 100% agreement with Obama on this one.  Unlike his other thoughts on issues, he is dead on correct with this.

 

As I mentioned way back in 2011, Staples was reducing the hours of full-timers as well as part-timers in a way of cutting costs despite that the company was still doing fairly well at that time.  Along with that, the company later changed how vacation time was issued as well, again to cut costs of operation.

 

However, the big issue of this article is how managers tell their employees that they are responsible for their own hours.  At the time that I worked for them, there was absolutely NO way to do this unless the employee kept track of their hours on a spreadsheet like I did and highly doubt that anybody except me would be that anal to do that.

 

What I find most interesting about this article is the notice sent out to employees from one store manager about managing their own time.  The interesting part is that the manager’s name was cut off the notice before being posted to this site.  My thought would have been to embarrass this manager by posting his name and location as to show everybody just what an idiot that this person really is.

 

I have always believed that it is the responsibility of managers to watch the hours of employees and keep them or send them home accordingly depending on where they stand hour wise.  However, nobody can anticipate sickness or if a store gets busy and is needed for extra help.  I have never seen a clean-cut answer to how to manage hours.

 

That is except for cutting hours to a threshold lower than the maximum number of hours.  For full-timers, this meant not scheduling for more than 37 ½ hours per week and for part-timers to no more than about 20 hours per week.  At least that was the way that it was when I left the company in 2009; I don’t know how that has changed since then.  I would certainly be interested in hearing any comments as to the situation at any Staples store now as to the maximum scheduled hours and if employees are highly restricted with them.

 

The biggest issue of course with all these hour changes all rotate around the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which I have never supported.  I have always believed in a fair insurance system with free enterprise and no health restrictions.  Of course, full-timers always had this, but only a couple of years before I got terminated did the part-timers get insurance benefits.

 

Maybe this is part of the problem at Staples.

 

Having to insure both full-timers and part-timers is not a cheap venture, which is the reason why I and others were terminated because we were using more than our fair share of the health insurance program.  In fact, the day I was terminated I went to the doctor to have new bandage wraps placed on my leg.  In the future, I will discuss my downhill health all courtesy of Staples and their ignorance.

 

What makes me madder than anything is how Fox News is portraying this.  Last week on Fox Business Network, former Office Depot CEO Steve Odland blasted Obama for his comments regarding Staples.  Apparently, Odland still has shares in his former company and certainly don’t want to say anything bad about his future stock gains.

 

This leads me to what Melissa Francis said on the Fox News program, “The O’Reilly Factor” last week.  Her comment was that Staples is only doing this because it has to be accountable to shareholders only.  Of course,  as I pointed out in my last post that the only real winners in the proposed merger are the shareholders.  The employees of both companies are the real losers and more will lose their jobs if the proposed merger happens.   Like Odland, Ms. Francis is a cheerleader for Staples and a hater of Obama by calling Obama spreading of lies.

 

If only she read this blog, she would know that the real lies are being spread by Staples.  Maybe Obama reads this blog and knows that Staples are liars and finally calling them out.  Highly doubt that but certainly would make this blog special if that was true.

 

One last point, I want to make about all this is that the reason why Obama discussed this in the first place is that he wants to put the final nail in Mitt Romney, a significant shareholder of Staples.  I don’t know if he still owns stock with the company, but if he does he will certainly receive a huge windfall if the merger happens.

 

For those people who don’t realize everything, Fox News is skewed toward Republican support (anti-Obama) and pro-Staples.  Unfortunately, I see a lot of spinning here in the “No Spin Zone” of “The O’Reilly Factor”.

 

Thankfully you will never get spinning on this blog.

 

Not today

 

Not tomorrow.

 

Never here at all.

 

 

 

Earnings Slips Again, But the Money is Free Flowing

Well, here we are at the end of another quarter and yet another big disappoint from Staples.

 

Is anybody surprised that the company continues to miss the sales estimates quarter after quarter?

 

I certainly am not the least bit surprised.

 

Of course, as they have done for past quarters, they blame the weather.

 

How long are they going to continue to blame something that never changes?

 

Seriously, it is time to admit the truth.

 

YOUR SALES SUCK AND NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE THAT!!

 

Do I make myself clear on that one?

 

What really irritates me on this is that other companies use the same lame excuse as well.

 

Certainly, places like Home Depot and Lowe’s can blame the weather in places where a lot of building takes place.  It is understandable in that regards.

 

Target and Sears can’t really blame the weather either as they also continue to have suffering sales.

 

So what is really wrong here?

 

The answer is that Staples is clueless about their future.

 

When I read the transcript to their last earnings report, they stated that they didn’t have the information about the back-to-school season yet.

 

Ok, if this is not the most obvious lie in the world than I don’t know what is.  They claim that they won’t know the plans until early July.  To make matters worse, they say that no company is ready for back-to-school this soon.

 

Excuse me.

 

I remember back in the Woolworth days, we started getting all the back-to-school merchandise in before the old school year was over.  In fact, we even started having some of the flyers start trickling in as well for the season.

 

In fact, when I worked for Staples, the same thing was happening there as well.  To say that they don’t know is either providing that Chairman/CEO Ronald Sargent is either an idiot or just blind to see what his company is really doing.  Of course he must take his lead from Obama as he is clueless as well on what is going on in the world around him.

 

Now on another front, Staples is handing out bonuses to their executives for “trying to turn around the company”.

 

Of course, this is dumb as well as sales continue to drop and slump to lower levels every quarter.

 

As an example of the payouts, pinhead Sargent got a $300,000 bonus for a total compensation of $10.8 million, a 40% increase over the past year.  This is at a time when the employees get fewer and fewer, while the fat cats at the top get more than plenty to live on.

 

So overall, Staples continues to slip all around, while freely handing out its profits to the top brass.

 

This all leads me to think that this company is definitely on the road to failure.

 

What will they blame next quarter, Godzilla, anyone?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Raising Maine’s Minimum Wage to $8.50 is a BAD IDEA

When I was thinking about what to write today, I saw this breaking news item:  Maine wants to raise the minimum wage from its current $7.50/hr. to $8.50/hr.

Now, of course, some may be saying “big deal”.  However, this little cost could add as much as a few hundred dollars every week to payrolls that are already stressed in this weak economy.  Doesn’t anybody think that this will lead to more cutbacks in jobs and possibly higher unemployment?

Another downside to this is that some employees who have been with a company for a while will see absolutely NO change in their wages so those workers will have less of a pay gap from their fellow employees.

I saw this happen during my time at both Woolworth and Staples.  It seemed that new employees and recent hires were aggressively getting more money than I was.  Not that they surpassed me, but their gains were much more accelerated and it was troubling that they should get increases when I didn’t.

This brings me to my point:  With so many companies like penny-pinching losers like Staples give out raises that are usually under 25 cents, why would they ever want to see an increase of a $1 to their part-time employees and their remaining new full-time employees?

Also consider wait staff at restaurants.  These people would also see a boost in their minimums just to make it to that level if they don’t get the money in tips.  I see the strong possibility that food prices at restaurants will go up substantially to compensate for the difference, as if things like Obamacare won’t cost companies more than companies can afford.

Overall, I am all for the increase, but it is a business killer and may force some companies to not hire new employees.  This is just another excuse for companies to keep huge profits and screw the employees just like Staples does.

Customer Service – The Newsweek Way

Editor’s Note:  I am publishing this same post to all my blogs this week as I feel that it is that important on just how stupid a company can possibly be.  Enjoy my frustration:

 

Imagine the following scenario:

 

Mom:  “Here son, have some more broccoli”

Son:  “But mom, I don’t like it.”

Mom:  “I will give you even more tomorrow because I know you enjoy it so much.”

Son: “I don’t want any more.”

Mom:  “But you really want more.”

 

This is exactly the type of scenario that has been created over the last couple of weeks with me against Newsweek.  Ever since the start of the new digital issue, I have been very disappointed with the new format.  Here’s why:

 

There are 8 different platforms to access Newsweek from.  Since I don’t own a Kindle, Nook, iPhone, or Windows 8 computer, I am left with 2 ways to access the magazine.  The first way is to use the web browser and view the magazine online.  Well, I tried that on the first issue and could not get past the first page ad.  To add insult to injury, the small print could not be changed to a larger font.  I tried Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox with the same results.  I just couldn’t get past the first screen.  Given that screen took about 3 minutes to load, I wasn’t going to try to load a different issue to see if it would get any better.  Sadly, this approach made my broadband connection look like an old 56k modem connection.  And, no other webpages load perfectly so apparently it is something wrong with the Newsweek site.

The other way to get the magazine is to use the Zinio Reader, which I have used in the past.  I don’t like this approach because every time I use the program, it wants to download ALL my magazines even though I don’t want to.  The size of the magazines are not of small size either as some of them could take up to 100mb per issue.  Certainly no compression here and nor economical either.  Of course, I decided that this was not the way to go either so I decided to cancel my remaining subscription of 3 months and wanted a different print issue as said on their website.

So I decided to use their email system to request a cancellation.  A week went by and I heard nothing at all from them.  I then sent out a second request asking again of my alternatives.  After a week, I finally got the following response exactly as shown below:

 

Dear Mr. Brown,

 

 

 

Thank you for your email. We have received an overwhelmingly positive response to the new all-digital Newsweek.

 

 

 

We’re sincerely sorry for the wait time, and to make up for any delay in service, we have added two months of free access to your subscription.

 

 

 

In the meanwhile, please try the following help links, which have resolved most of the issues for other subscribers.

 

 

 

Login problems:

 

 

 

Can’t login to Newsweek:

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/apps-and-mobile-faq.html#login

 

Don’t know my password (or requested new password and didn’t get one):

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/apps-and-mobile-faq.html#update

 

Not sure where to read Newsweek? Click for help with your device:

 

iPad

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/apps-and-mobile-faq.html#ipad

 

Kindle Fire, Fire HD 7″, Fire HD 8.9″

 

http://www.thdailybeast.com/apps-and-mobile-faq.html#kindlefire

 

Other Kindle

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/apps-and-mobilefaq.html#kindle

 

PC or Mac Computers & Laptops

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/apps-and-mobile-faq.html#desktop

 

Nook

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/apps-and-mobile-faq.html#nook

 

Android Tablets & Phones

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/apps-and-mobile-faq.html#android

 

 

 

If you do not want to receive the digital edition, please call us at 1-800-631-1040 to cancel for a refund.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

 

Newsweek Customer Service

 

 

All of the blank spacing above is their doing, not mine.  Not only did they not answer me, but also they were giddy over how well they were doing and even extended my subscription by 2 months!  How is that for not helping the customer properly?  It should be apparent that whoever sent this letter not only didn’t read my letter, but also used a cut-and-paste answer approach to my problem.  This is NOT how you do it people!!

You actually read the person’s letter and respond accordingly, not just send out any old canned response just to get rid of the customer.   To make matters worse, they want me to CALL and cancel my subscription instead.  Anybody who has ever called one of these numbers know that the people who answer the phones are from India and have no real comprehension of the English language whatsoever.  I refuse to talk to people who are clueless with what I say given that they are already clueless with what I have written.

Now I have sent out a THIRD request to cancel the subscription and want an email sent back with my alternatives listed.  I did that back on Monday, 4 days ago, and have yet to hear back from anybody, not even an acknowledgement that the company received my letter.

Of course, I am writing all this to let everyone know just how stupid a company like Newsweek actually is and how disrespectable they are to their subscribers.  I will NEVER renew my subscription with them EVER!!  They are just one example of a poor business model.  I really wonder if they are really overwhelmed with positive responses or just ashamed to respond to the hundreds of people like me angry at their lousy service model.  Web-based magazines will never cut it with me – give me old-fashioned paper anytime.

Shame on Newsweek for their lousy customer service. Let’s all cancel everything from Newsweek and never look back.  They deserve to fail once and for all.

 

 

One Big Win and One Huge Loss

Well, the elections are over and it was a 50/50 split for me.

Obama got back in which was a good thing.

Unfortunately, Maine decided to approve the gay marriage law.  It’s sad to say that now we will have to work to repeal this law and make the state livable again.  It is so bad that the people of the state were fooled into approving this bad law.

However, one thing that really bothered me when I went to vote yesterday was the sheer number of people who were registering to vote for the first time.  This line never had less than 15 people in it at any time I was there at the voting location.  What really bothersome was how were these new voters being processed?  I did not see anyone around to input data into a computer much less anyone with a computer.  How were these people prevented from multiple votes at different locations?  Since these people looked like college age people (and many looked gay), I really think that people who should not be voting in the first place persuaded the voting.  Can we say crooked voting?  I believe it is.  All we can do now is unite to repeal the awful law and become the state where “Life Should Be” and not “Gay Life Is”.  I can see many people being very angry given how close this referendum was and much discrimination will still exist no matter what the law says. Let’s start the repeal process NOW and get this on the ballot as soon as possible!

Vote Against Romney

Tomorrow is a the biggest day in political history in a long time.  It is important to vote against Mitt Romney to protect society as we know it.  Unless you really want to go back to what caused the problems in the first place, we must keep Romney out of the presidency.

Do the right thing and keep the multimillionaire and his friends from destroying our society again.

Vote early and vote often.

Thug Politics

It seems as though all the politicians are acting like they have a stick up their butts.  Just today, Maine Governor Paul LePage wants to call a special session of legislature to possibly do something that nobody in the state will love.  This is on top of other thug statements made in the last week or so.

Examples include:

• Vice President Joe Biden calling that citizens will be “in chains” if Romneyis elected President.
• Super PAC for Obama which airs an ad for a man whose wife had died because he lost his job and thus his health insurance because Romney shut down his company.

Both of these examples represent the type of extreme lengths that the Democrats will go to retain the White House.  However, I believe in both of these cases, there is more truth than falsehoods in the statements as has been reported by media outlets.

The reason I believe this is that big business and Wall Street have controlled the way politics are run without any consideration of the general public.  If these groups considered the general public, they would not be spending millions of dollars to defeat each other’s candidate.  These people would be spending their money on hiring workers and not wasting it on political campaigns.  But then again, individuals mean nothing to corporations.  Just ask any unemployed person like myself and they too would blame people like Romney for their unemployment.

Even though both sides could be blamed for being thugs in these turbulent times, it is the general public who will have to decide which thug better agrees with their own beliefs.  May the lesser thug win!

Commentary: Herman Cain and Staples Management Both Bad

When I first heard of Herman Cain and of his background, the first thing I thought was how similar this guy probably is to a Staples manager, more specifically my last manager Shawn Nichols.  Have I ever been correct about them.

They both share the need to lie, which is obvious given both of their backgrounds.  Both also deny any allegations that were thrown at them.  Cain denied relationships with women and immediately either said he who nothing of them or put out a scathing report against them.  He is the type of person who says “I am bad, but you are much worse”.  Certainly this type of lies has all but killed the Cain run for the Presidency and for good reason.  Nobody believes his denials and certainly the more women who come out the worse it is for him.  He should just kill the campaign once and for all and save the taxpayers money.

Herman Cain and Former Staples Manager Shawn Nichols are compulsive liars, both don’t know the real truth of anything about people.  They both need help.

Former Staples manager Shawn Nichols had a similar reputation of lying and doing so constantly.  In future posts, I will discuss in details his many lies.  The worse thing about somebody like him is the constant harassment, which he posed against me.  Sadly, he got away with it only because there were no witnesses.  The problems I did have witnesses for were ignored in my claim against Staples.  The biggest lies I had to deal with was the reason(s) I was terminated.  And yes I do mean reasons.  One of many excuses/reasons for my termination had to deal with issues that happened over 10 years ago!  If there was a problem 10 years ago, how did I stay with the company for so long?  Certainly, Mr. Nichols and Staples was looking for anything that could possibly be used as a reason for termination, no matter how stupid.  What’s worse is that people ACTUALLY believed Staples and thus denied my fight!  But in reality, I know the real reason for my termination and that is…..<stay tuned…it will be a big surprise>!

Nichols was forced out of Staples and Cain should be a man and leave the presidential race.  Both are compulsive liars who have delusional views of reality and the people in their world.  Sadly, both love to crush everyone who they hate and hope that more people don’t come out of the closet to haunt them.  Overall, I wish Nichols and Cain the worst as both should share a jail cell.  They can spend their hours comparing lying techniques….they will NEVER get bored!

The Way I See It – Obama and LePage Got It Wrong

After hearing President Obama’s jobs speech last week, I came to the conclusion that he is going about this whole thing the wrong way.  Certainly, one could play a great drinking game every time Obama said “Pass This Bill”, but the real problem is not lowering corporate taxes, but increasing them.  Yes, we need to take money away from big companies that have been hoarding money and taking it overseas.  The government should be punishing companies for not hiring and only lower taxes when they REALLY hire the unemployed.

Extending unemployment benefits won’t fix anything either, as states like Maine top out benefits at 72 weeks.  It would not matter if Obama extended the benefits forever, they will still limit them to 72 weeks.  So people who really need help will never get it and would just be more tax dollars wasted.

Cities and towns should also stop giving tax breaks to big businesses as they take their money out of the country and contribute nothing to local economies.  Since most employees live out of the towns in which businesses are in, they don’t help town economies either.  So lets end the corporate welfare and raise those taxes and punish big business once and for all..!!

As far as LePage goes, he states that Maine has only 24,000 unemployed and 21,000 job openings.  Sadly, he is once again, misinformed about both numbers.  The last state statistics say that over 50,000 people are unemployed and possibly more jobs are available (or possibly even less depending on how often job banks are updated.  It is sad that LePage thinks that training is all that is needed to produce a fix to this odd game of musical chairs. If LePage was really thinking (I have previously stated that he doesn’t), he never would have painted this fake rosy picture.

I am hoping that Obama’s job bill fails and LePage stop saying stupid things, but hey 1 out of 2 wouldn’t be completely bad.  And that’s the way I see it.