Readers of the Merle Wayne Sneed blog know that Merle Wayne Sneed doesn't like to complain. Especially about his job, which Kurt advised me not to take and who will remind me that he did, should I complain about said job.
I had to work today. That's right, on the Fourth of damn July, Merle Wayne Sneed had to trudge down to the hardware store and spend the day. Merle Wayne Sneed did not stay home with the lovely Mrs. Sneed, who has a real job that provides time off for the holiday. In fact, the ownership of our store doesn't consider the Fourth of damn July to even be a holiday. It kind of makes a guy wonder what would constitute a holiday?
Whether or not the Fourth of damn July is a holiday in the eyes of the ownership is of no practical consequence to Merle Wayne Sneed, because I am a part-time employee anyway. The full-time folks who worked today are the ones who really got jobbed.
Here's what makes no real sense about the store even being open today. When I checked just before closing time, our store had gross sales of about $4,000 for the day. That is probably about 60% of a normal day.
Just last week, we were told in a meeting, that 22 cents of every dollar in sales goes to employee pay and benefits (for those who get benefits). The cost of goods sold amount to about 55 cents of each dollar of sales (my estimate). Sales tax takes another 8 cent bite from each buck. That's about eighty-five cents of each dollar that is eaten up.
If you haven't stopped reading by now, that means that of the $4,000 in sales, about $600 is still available for profit. Except of course there is rent, utilities, insurance, etc. Basically, the store was open today to break even.
The fact is though, keeping the store open was a money-maker. Should the store be closed for a holiday, the full-time employees would have received a day's pay, like they do for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Some of the fixed and variable costs (rent, utilities, insurance, etc) would have had to be paid. So, keeping the store open, even is business is really slow, makes perfect sense, so long as gross profit is greater than the cost of being closed.
Anyway, I wished I hadn't worked.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
5 comments:
You should have said that working on the 4th of July is against your religious sentiments.
It's not like there was a big get-together and BBQ with the grandkids that you missed, right? Right?
i even read the hard math part. i think they stay open because home depot is open too. men like to go to buy plywood and stuff on holidays.
i did not know that you don't like to complain.
And what could be more American than working on a holiday? In a way, it's perfectly representative of the insanity of our culture!
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