Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Closing time



Looks like Bennigan's, the chain that first answered the question "What would happen if a local neighborhood pub mated with a shopping mall?" is done. Since I'm not really a fan of these kinds of places, especially after my last visit (although, ironically, that one is the only one in Tampa that is still open) I can't say I'm sorry to see them close. However, I definitely feel for the 400 or so employees who lost their jobs with no notice today. Especially since I'm in a similar situation after being laid off by my 9 to 5 a couple of weeks ago. All I can say is it's scary bad out there, folks. I'm kind of bitter about it but wasn't emotionally invested enough in it (as I have been in other jobs) to really be that worked up over it. Sure, I'm worried about paying my bills and that makes me angry but I don't miss the job itself. Let's just say that I'm not going to go there and firebomb the place but if somebody else did, I might be willing to consider taking the rap for it as a gesture of appreciation to the person who did it. Is that passive aggressive enough for you?

A long time ago, I worked in the corporate office for a chain of electronics stores that went out of business. When things were beginning to go south, we (I say 'we' only because I worked there, not because I had any kind of say in the matter) started closing stores. There would be a truck full of guys waiting in the parking lot outside the store at night. They would sit there until the store closed, watching the employees lock up and leave, wait about 10 minutes in case somebody forgot something and came back, and then would move in and clean the store out. Merchandise, fixtures, signage, everything. The next day, the staff would show up to find a gutted store with a padlock on the door. Management wouldn't tell those of us in the office about until after the fact for fear of us calling and tipping the poor suckers off. I think because they were afraid that if the employees knew what was coming they would rip them off. I've seen some pretty scummy things in my time but to this day, that was by far the worst thing I've ever been part of.

2 comments:

Marissa said...

An airline did that in that past 6 months. The company name totally escapes me at the moment, but those people showed up for work; flights. And then the powers that be wondered why they were getting hostile calls.
We're seeing major cut-backs in hours to sales. They keep revamping the sales methods in order to better multi-task/serve. Serve? psh, yeah, right.

Tristan Wheelock said...

only the corporate stores are closing. The franchises aren't included in the chapter 7. Woo hoo we can all still look forward to choking down a Big Irish while surrounded by piles and piles of tacky flare. Yes!