- Multinationals -

You ain't paranoid if someone's following you.

In Reply to: taco bell bullying posted by a. clements on July 06, 1998 at 11:41:13:

Here in Richmond VA the Taco Bells have started limiting to 5 the number of sauce packets you can get with an order. Whose bright idea was this?
But to get to my main point about corporate bullying - Last year the local big grocery chain, Ukrop's, tried to bully one of the radio stations into taking Howard Stern off the air. They also strong-armed other businesses into going along. Now I personally think Howard Stern is a sleeze and don't listen to him, but I DO NOT think it is appropriate (or even legal) for a grocery store to determine what I can or can't listen to on the radio! Stern threatened to sue for a restraint of trade violation and the whole thing was eventually settled out of court (Stern essentially won), but I still don't like it that they tried. Unfortunately they are considered the "in" place to shop by many in this city - they are high-profile "do-gooders" among other things. Personally I don't shop there. I think their prices are too high. Also they won't sell alcoholic beverages of any kind and aren't open on Sunday. (These things may have originally been the result of sincerely held beliefs, but I have to think that now they are just corporate decisions and instances of profiling and an overbearing "holier-than-thou" attitude.) And they immediately jumped on the "drug testing in the workplace" bandwagon when that wave came through.
One other thing I may as well mention - They were the first store in the area to initiate the "valued customer card". Does this mean if I don't sign up for one of their little cards I'm not a valued customer? And just what do they do with the database they generate this way anyway? If a store's owners are as much into controlling what others do as the Ukrops seem to be I CERTAINLY don't want them keeping a file on me! (Buy too many eggs and watch your insurance rates go up. Paranoid? Maybe. But "You ain't paranoid if someone's following you.")

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