Values

Sunday, August 13, 2023

Yesterday evening my horse fence appeared normal for the first time in years. Gone were weak areas of fencing that I had reinforced creatively with visible, catawampus post supports and weird wiring. The capable Gustavo had intently and creatively reworked bad spots, restrengthening them to soundness.

This week, Gustavo will return and repair the remaining spots of weak fencing.

It’s back to work for me today, with an early clock-in time.

While shopping several times for fence repair supplies the other day, I ran into a little drama. A cashier calling himself “Mr. Bill, ” checked me out twice, undercharging me both times.

The first time his giveaway was small–two 20-cent pencils. He tossed them to me, saying, “Happy Birthday, just take them.” To my surprise, he added, “Today’s my last here; I’m quitting. What can they do, fire me?” I left with the pencils that Gustavo needed, feeling confused over what to do about 40 cents of unpaid merchandise.

Later that day and shopping again, I loaded eight bags of concrete onto a platform cart. I tried to avoid Mr. Bill’s register, but his opened up first. A customer behind me refused to push ahead of me. He insisted I go to the empty register and started pushing my concrete to Mr. Bill.

When Mr. Bill said, “Four bags,” I didn’t correct him but wondered how much product he was giving away.

After the bags were loaded in my vehicle, I moved it and parked, re-entered the store searching for the manager on duty. I described what Mr. Bill was doing, showed my receipt, and asked to pay for four concrete bags and two pencils. The manager looked serious, thanked and checked me out. As I was leaving, he began focusing elsewhere, probably on Mr. Bill.

I had never before interacted with Mr. Bill. Who could know what motivated him to steal from the store blatantly? I embrace a good organization’s values and one biggie is employee honesty. A giant business like Home Depot with hundreds of locations, suffers greatly from the smallest thefts. For example, five dollars of loss multiplied across all its locations adds to millions.

Besides economics in general, the huge reality of theft is that it’s a key driver of higher prices.

Dear Friends: T’was a big day, repairing fence and squealing on a co-employee. Diana