Sprouts Corporate Headquarters
5455 E High St Ste 111
Phoenix, AZ 85054
Dear Sirs and Mesdames:
Here’s a suggestion for you: Why not hire cashiers who possess basic civility and ordinary politeness? Surely these are not SUCH rare commodities that you can’t find any minimum-wage workers who possess them.
This noon I dropped by the Sprouts at Northern & 19tth Avenue, here in lovely uptown Phoenix, hoping to buy some ingredients to make food for my little dog and to make lunch for myself. Found the stuff for the dog food…and found a cashier who…well…I wouldn’t treat a dog the way she treated me. Among the several things I set on her conveyer belt was a package from your deli cabinet department labeled “Penne Pasta NRE Chicken.”
What, I asked — politely enough, I thought — is “NRE” chicken?
She gave me a disgusted glare that suggested she thought I had an IQ in the negative numbers, and grunted “I dunno.”
“Well, EFF you very much, too, dear,” thought I. Because I was pretty nonplussed (to say nothing of hungry!), I bought it anyway — if I’d had my wits about me I would have said “if you don’t know what you’re selling, then don’t sell it — I ain’t buying it.”
I’m sorry that your employees think I’m white trash and that they can treat me accordingly. They’re probably right in their assessment of my roots (though my net worth is something in excess of 1.5 million bucks just now…). But even when you think people are WT, nice folks don’t make that line of thought obvious. Merchants who wish to keep selling to members of the public teach their employees to keep their scorn under control.
Please, please, PLEASE rest assured: I will NEVER go into that Sprouts again. I probably will never shop at the Sprouts at 7th and Osborn, which is an infinitely better store. Nor am I likely ever to shop at the Sprouts at 16th Street & Glendale or the Sprouts at Thunderbird and 43rd, both of which I’m given to patronizing as I drive between destinations.
Done. Finished. Kaput with Sprouts.
oh…the “NRE chicken?” Whatever it is, it’s almost devoid of flavor. Another good reason not to shop there again, hm?
Yrs truly, [Etc.]
re-NRE chicken-Can’t seem to find the meaning on the Internet either.
But then it did take me awhile to find the meaning of WT. My acronyms tend to the financial side like RMD which puzzle my husband.
I remember reading that the guilds in the middle ages restricted membership by controlling the vocabulary. If you didn’t know the words, you couldn’t learn the process.
I guess the guild have been replaced by higher-education.
That is an apt comparison!
NRE or NAE? NAE (No Antibiotics Ever) is the USDA label term for poultry produced without antibiotics. I have no idea what NRE is. I have never seen it on a food label.
Ah hah!!!! It was so obvious! How could I not have known? 😀
no-antibiotics-ever (NAE) chicken is what they meant
https://shop.sprouts.com/search?search_term=penne%20pesto%20pasta%20chicken&search_is_autocomplete=true
Who knew?? 😀
NotREal Chicken
I’ve done cashier work in retail stores and restaurants (currently work at a BBQ place.) My theory is that at least 50% come from poor/working class families, have criminal/drug histories, and don’t know how to interact with customers. Throw learning disabilities into the mix. It doesn’t help when management treats them like s*** and pays them s***. Why don’t they get better jobs? Read my explanation above.
Maybe, just maybe, if the pay was decent and management was decent, a better class of employee could be hired. And if I wasn’t over a certain age, maybe I could get a better job.
The crazy thing is… AJ’s can’t be paying a heckuva lot better, but their cashiers are always kind and lovely and helpful, even when they’re visibly overworked (like during the lunch hour!). Really, the same is true even at the Safeway across the street, where you take your life in your hands to walk across the parking lot. And dontcha just KNOW that Safeway is not making any of its in-store employees rich… The staff and the raggedy Walmart up on the Sunnyslope border are also polite and do their best to be helpful.
Dollars to donuts you’re right: IT’S THE WAY THE EMPLOYEES ARE TREATED. Even PWT will behave decently if they’re treated decently.