Costco ethical dilemma

Quote: Wizard

The question for the poll is what should I have done in this situation, ethically speaking?

Do you think Costco wants ethical customers or will treat them better.

I'd have found someone and said I have a small order and really do need to get the head of a line or abandon this cart even with its perishables.

Some stores have 99 check out lines and a customer slides his credit card TWICE, once at entry on the check out line and once when he finished the check out process. If their computer thinks the check out took too long, they give him his entire order for free, no matter what its size.

Walmart spots an unattended cart...clerks restore perishables immediately and restock other items promptly. That is costly and it annoys someone who left his cart for some perfectly good reason and comes back to disappointment and anger.

I would not worry about the ethics... if managers and ordinary employees can't make decisions as to what they want... make your own decision.

Quote: FrGamble

Do you like to feel bad or torture yourself? Why do people like to wallow in their mistakes even when they can be set free? It seems almost self masochist to me. Here you have an employee more than willing to help you out and take away your problem and yet you would rather somehow feel bad about this situation a little longer. Be free and shop smarter in the future.

I think it is the job of an ethical person to torture himself. My philosophy, which I read out of a fortune cookie, is "Judge others leniently, judge yourself harshly."

In this case we have a store that is obviously understaffed and it would be difficult to even get any employee's attention. Before this happened, I tried to buy some sunglasses at the optical department (where they keep the good ones under lock and key). After waiting ten minutes for attention there I gave up and went about my other shopping.

Say I do find somebody to ask for forgiveness. Chances are I'll waste a lot of time finding somebody and he/she will be rushed and not want to hear my story. Such a low level employee, I submit, wouldn't be in a position to grant forgiveness. Yes, he is acting as an agent of the store, but he isn't the one to pay to put the stuff back. In fact, if anything, he benefits from it because it is giving somebody extra work to do, hopefully at overtime pay.

It reminds me of something Cocktail Doll says about stiffs who make long excuses for why they are stiffing. She has no patience to stand there with a tray of drinks listening to their stories. Her advice is, "If you're going to stiff me, just stiff me." Likewise, I don't want to waste anybody's time with the story of my day and why I can't put the stuff away myself.

In closing, I still don't agree with the "ask for forgiveness" option. It seems morally flaccid to me. If you're going to sin -- just be honest with yourself and do it.

I avoid Costco and other warehouse stores for both this reason and I cannot bring myself to pay someone to shop in their store.

That being said, you should put back the perishable especially frozen items because they will partially defrost and be damaged goods for whoever buys them. In a way Costco is to blame for people feeling this way because their lines are just horrible. (Let this be a lesson to those who say service will not decline if we force a $15 minimum wage!) Sam's and the defunct PACE were just as bad.

If you made a mess, clean it up.

The best thing to do would be to help your fellow customers and the store by replacing the items you gathered. Abandoning your cart takes an employee away from their bagging duty to rehelve, slowing the checkout.

Quote: Ayecarumba

The best thing to do would be to help your fellow customers and the store by replacing the items you gathered. Abandoning your cart takes an employee away from their bagging duty to rehelve, slowing the checkout.

I thought they did such restocking after the store closed, except it it is perishable items, which was not the case with my cart.

Quote: Wizard

I thought they did such restocking after the store closed, except it it is perishable items, which was not the case with my cart.

When I was in the grocery business this was called "go-backs" and were done during general down-time. Union rules prohibited the baggers from doing them.

Quote: Wizard

My philosophy, which I read out of a fortune cookie, is "Judge others leniently, judge yourself harshly."

Try: Judge others harshly, Judge yourself not at all.
and Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto You.

Quote: Wizard

I think it is the job of an ethical person to torture himself. My philosophy, which I read out of a fortune cookie, is "Judge others leniently, judge yourself harshly."

Funny. I would have thought it was "No teapot is too small for a tempest" ;)

Quote: Wizard

"Judge others leniently, judge yourself harshly."

When I used to travel a lot for the government some people would brag about padding their travel claims. Others would be honest to the point of being anal.

One guy bragged to me that he lied about us being on a ship for two weeks and collected full hotel and meals per diem resulting in a pad by several thousand dollars. In comparison the per diem on board a workboat was $2 a day so you could buy candy from the vending machine.

That was too much for me, as padding an expense account by thousands of dollars might bring a review of all claims from the office.

Quote: Fleastiff

Try: Judge others harshly, Judge yourself not at all.
and Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto You.

Genghis Khan or Donald Trump?