Bob Lonsberry on plastic bags and electronics stores
Mar 30, 2007 Cool Links, In The News
Bob Lonsberry’s columns are usually worth the read anyway, but his latest two are both spot-on. First, yesterday’s column featured a suggestion that the rest of the country follow San Francisco and phase out plastic grocery bags:
A long time ago, when people lived in caves and obesity was rare, if you bought something at a store they put it in a paper bag. The leader in this field was the grocery bag. It was brown paper, neatly rectangular, sturdy and strong.
When you bought groceries, some 15-year-old making $2 an hour loaded them neatly into one of these paper grocery bags. Back in those days, they actually loaded the groceries in a way that made sense. They put the bread on top, for example, and the cans on the bottom.
Those were the days.
Groceries were easy to carry. Unloading your car was a lot easier, and with a little smoothing and folding, the bags were reusable at home.
Then somebody realized paper was made out of trees.
So they complained and demonstrated and wrote letters to the editor. Paper bags were bad, they claimed, because they contributed to deforestation. Apparently unaware that trees grow back, the environmentalist people came up with a better idea.
That’s right, bags made out of crude oil.
Then, today’s column slammed Circuit City and suggested a boycott for laying off the better, higher-paid workers and offering to rehire them cheaper.
On Wednesday, the bosses at Circuit City stores all across the country called workers in and read to them from a script provided by corporate. In this script, the employees were told that they were being fired.
For being good.
Not because they goofed up. Not because they weren’t capable. Not because they had done anything wrong.
But because they were paid too much. Circuit City said: You’re not worth what we pay you.
So you’re fired.
And we’re hiring immediately to fill your position, but at a lower wage. You are welcome to reapply for your old job at a lower hourly wage — in 10 weeks.
Now give us your nametag, punch out and f-you very much.
Go read them both.
