ACMoore Corporate Greed

[tchk]

I got an email last evening, while the blizzard was raging, when the white-out outside our house was so bad that you could not see across the street. The email? From ACMoore, the craft store- encouraging people to shop today!!! The city is officially shut down, all non-essential workers have been told to STAY HOME, but hey- getting some extra yarn or some scrapbook supplies is definitely necessary- NOT!!!! I guess the management of ACMoore doesn't care if their employees take their life in their hands trying to get to work as long as their stores are open.

This causes such a ripple effect. Public transit workers must risk to get to work and drive through dangerous areas because idiot employers insist their employees must get to work. Police, fire and paramedics are stressed because they must deal with the results of those on the roads- and the results are often tragic. Those brave souls who are trying to clean our roads are hampered in their efforts by people already ON the roads before they are ready to be used.

Are there people who should try to get to work? Certainly! Hospital workers should make every effort because there are folks who have been working round the clock through this and they need relief. Power company employees should be trying to get to work- too many folks out there have no electricity and some used that electricity for heat. But the idiots on the roads, and those whose bosses are idiots and are on the road for fear of losing their jobs due to stupid and callous employers, are only making things more difficult for those who really NEED to be out there.

ACMoore Corporate Headquarters is located in New Jersey in the Philadelphia suburbs. There is still a State of Emergency in both states; in Pennsylvania the Governor has activated the National Guard to help deal with the crisis. I am focusing here on ACmoore because they were the ones who sent me the email- and they are the ones who are located RIGHT HERE where the situation is the most dangerous.

Personally, I am trying to find out the names of all the companies which are totally NOT essential and yet are forcing their employees to come to work today. I will NOT be buying from or dealing with those companies again. Any company which thinks its profits are more important than its workers safety is not a company that I am willing to spend my money with.

There used to be a time when things like major weather events brought people together. Now it seems it brings out the worst in some companies- and those companies should be held accountable for their greed. I don't know about anyone else, but *I* will be doing that.

[craftdoc]

I think that must have been a general email to their mailing list - not necessarily aimed at the disaster areas where it is unsafe to travel. I received it yesterday as well, and am not in the area affected by the big storms. We missed the first storm completely and just got about 10 inches the second time. We are used to much worse and our street crews can handle it - we are at about half the snow that we had last year by this time.

[row4d]

Pretty sure that's just a mass e-mail that gets sent everywhere there are folks subscribing to their mailing list. I live in TX now, but never canceled my e-mail subscription -- they don't even have stores here, and the closest one is several hundred miles away! ;)

[53queenbee]

Rachel! I did not know you lived here now! I am in Carrollton. Welcome to Texas!

[Anne Ryan]

I would have to think their marketing emails are created many months in advance of sending. Please know this really shouldnt be considered greed as much as it should be considered unintentional. All marketing communications are scheduled months out without having any idea as to what the weather is like outside.

[StampinHappyInCT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anne Ryan

I would have to think their marketing emails are created many months in advance of sending. Please know this really shouldnt be considered greed as much as it should be considered unintentional. All marketing communications are scheduled months out without having any idea as to what the weather is like outside.

Well, when the subject line of their email reads "Snowed In? Hurry In for the Savings at A.C. Moore!" it does raise some suspicion.

[cjsbaskets]

Wow, I never even thought that this was anything but a routine mass e-mail sent by a company to promote their business, regardless of weather conditions. I would hope that people have enough sense to stay home when the weather creates unsafe conditions no matter how great the sale.

[tchk]

Text of the email (the picture won't copy):

Cabin Fever? Snowed In? It's time to get out. Hurry in and Save. Thursday 2/11- Saturday 2/13. Click here for coupon.

The coupon (40%) is called "Cabin Fever Coupon".

At the bottom of the email you find this:

This message was sent from A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts, 130 A.C. Moore Dr., Berlin, NJ 08009.

From the ACMoore quarterly report: About A.C. Moore: A.C. Moore is a specialty retailer of arts, crafts and floral merchandise for a wide range of customers. The Company currently serves customers through its 133 stores located in the Eastern United States.

Just to confirm- my friend works at an ACMoore in this area. She was called last night and told that if she did not come to work today she would be fired.

You all can make excuses for them if you want, but they will never see one more penny of my money!

[scatterjoy]

I seldom read these things but ACMoore Greed caught my eye...How nieve of any of us to think that they are not in business and have always got their marketing team working on promotions and stores Open. Let's take a little accountablility as to our own actions, if it's bad weather and we don't have to have emergency groceries, medical attention, etc. STAY HOME. They are doing their job and we need to be doing the right thing too...STAYING HOME ! Stay home : craft, laugh with the kids, eat leftovers, and except some accountability for doing the right thing. I pray for you all to BE SAFE, WARM, and HAPPY TODAY! Greeting from Florida...wish you were here! Scatterjoy whereever you go!

[laura6]

i worked at Starbucks, and yes, we were open all year- Christmas Day, New Years Eve and Day, Snow, lots of snow.... whatever. we were always open. On Sept 11, 2001 we closed early (1PM, and mind you I worked in Manhattan), and the day of the big East Coast blackout, we closed almost 30 minutes after the power went off....
can i just say though, that i actually enjoyed working on the big snow days... we had no managers, almost no customers, and so it was like hanging out and getting paid to do so. We just gave away pastries we knew we'd nevr sell (our tips were great LOL).
And by the way, i don't see how you could be fired for missing just one day of work (regardless of which day that happens to be). I know most jobs have a series of warnings before they fire you for absenteeism.
But yeah, if you are boycotting stores that are open in cruddy weather.... Starbucks is one of em. (I worked with a girl from down South who said during a twister evacuation, her old Starbucks had told them to stay open!)

[ceramicat1]

They may have tweaked the tile of the email to reflect the overabendance of snow and cold weather, but this is the Presidents day weekend coming up and they usually do run sales then.

I got the email and we don't have any snow on the ground right now.

[laura6]

oh, yeah, and the 24-hour Walgreen's Pharmacy stores are LITERALLY 24 hour a day- even on Christmas.... come to think of it, during a post-blizzard, we brought Walgreens some boxes of cake.... so I know they open on the snowy days too....

[NYstamper]

I have worked in retail for 25 years and if there is one thing I learned is that they seem to take the motto of the post office(about no weather stopping the delivery of mail) as their own. They are all the same. However as one poster stated, if it is yucky out, stay home, but I am always amazed at how busy the store gets even when school is closed... parents bringing their kids to the store. Not me, I would rather stay home and stamp or read or watch a good movie with my family.

[teenastamps]

I worked at Roses Department Stores years ago, and we were working on pre-inventory stuff in the office, and there was a gas leak and the Operations Manager called and told us in the office to get out because of it, to go outside...because the Fire Marshal said to GO now. I promptly left for outside, but not before the office trainer told me that "you can go outside if you want to, but I (office trainer) am going to stay here and WORK because we have INVENTORY tomorrow!!! I said, well, the FIRE MARSHALL said to get out NOW...and I am GOING.

You have to understand that just a year or so before that, an entire building on the next block was leveled due to a gas leak!!! The Roses even had to replace it's plate glass windows it was so bad...

Anyhow...

Once I got outside with everyone else, here came the fire marshall...in his big fire coat and uniform...and GUESS who he had by the ARM...LEADING her out of the building??? Yessssssss....the OFFICE TRAINER!!!

She came by me with a sneer on her face and said, I am LEAVING, it's OBVIOUS I can't get any work done HERE!!! I am going to "nearby city" where I can get some WORK DONE...

LOL!!!!!!

My life is more valuable than a few hours paperwork!!!

GRRRRR!!!!!!

I even had to explain to her when I left out that it was my RIGHT as a US citizen to leave if I wanted to and I was going!!!

I finally quit that job...too much stress....best move I EVER made!!!

[nottoocreative]

As for the email, I don't think that's a reason to boycott anyone--it is simply marketing (and they probably assumed there'd be snow in Feb, so that title could still have been written ahead of time)...you still have a choice.
As for pressuring your employees to come in when it's unsafe, that might be a different story--but I would want to know more than one person's version of events. Perhaps it is that one person's manager who's a jerk, and not a corporate policy. Who knows? It's rather quick to jump to boycott status based on one event, IMO...
But of course you are fully within your rights to boycott any store you so desire, if it makes you feel better! Just some food for thought...

[squirter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tchk

The city is officially shut down, all non-essential workers have been told to STAY HOME, but hey- getting some extra yarn or some scrapbook supplies is definitely necessary- NOT!!!! I guess the management of ACMoore doesn't care if their employees take their life in their hands trying to get to work as long as their stores are open.

This causes such a ripple effect. Public transit workers must risk to get to work and drive through dangerous areas because idiot employers insist their employees must get to work. Police, fire and paramedics are stressed because they must deal with the results of those on the roads- and the results are often tragic. Those brave souls who are trying to clean our roads are hampered in their efforts by people already ON the roads before they are ready to be used.

Are there people who should try to get to work? Certainly! Hospital workers should make every effort because there are folks who have been working round the clock through this and they need relief. Power company employees should be trying to get to work- too many folks out there have no electricity and some used that electricity for heat. But the idiots on the roads, and those whose bosses are idiots and are on the road for fear of losing their jobs due to stupid and callous employers, are only making things more difficult for those who really NEED to be out there.

There used to be a time when things like major weather events brought people together. Now it seems it brings out the worst in some companies- and those companies should be held accountable for their greed. I don't know about anyone else, but *I* will be doing that.

I totally agree with what yu posted!!! Especially the "ripple effect"....that is so true!! I work at Michaeols and I am floored by the people who come in during a major snow storm....little old ladies who need some supplies....people just "out with nothing to do" "I was bored at home"It's becasue of numbnuts like that that stores stay open!! Businesses can't make THAT much money on days like that. It's just plain wrong.

[mays331]

I work at AC Moore and we closed the store early, and stayed closed the following day. We were not threatened to be at work or else! We were allowed to use a sick day if we wanted to get paid for the day off. I have worked there for 9 years and have never heard of anyone being told to be there or else. That is only done in cases where someone has bad attendance or is known for missing work. You would not beleive the amount of people who come out in the storms for a dollar item!! I say they are crazy as we sell nothing that is a necessity. Those that can get to work, do. Those that can't or choose not to, don't. It's not a big deal either way.

[cleekNHA]

I am sure that there are individual store and individual employee circumstances. In these types of situations, it is very difficult to make generalizations about a particular store and a particular employee. I am sure that AC Moore employees work hard and do the best possible for their customers.