• @[email protected]
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    2832 months ago

    shouldn’t the federal minimum wage apply to everyone who is doing work in the US? This seems like fraud

      • @[email protected]
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        Outsourcing is the problem.

        The owners take advantage of our commons, tear up our roads, and succeeded because of domestic infrastructure, only to refuse to pay full price for labor and allowing even those wages, in lieu of the taxes they bribe our government to enact loopholes to dodge, to “trickle down” domestically as their always bullshit yay market capitalism talking points lied?

        It’s absolutely clownshoes that outsourcing labor/manufacturing is allowed, not because of domestic shortages for a skill, but to explicitly pay pennies on the dollar for the employees you need and screw the country you don’t want to pay taxes to despite record profits even harder.

        It’s insane. But we let the owner class dictate whatever they want here, and our well bribed government will even sell it for them by calling it “something something freedom” while never mentioning social consequences, accountability, or responsibility. We aren’t so much a country as a piggy bank and cudgel for the global owner class.

      • @Croquette
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        392 months ago

        That the neat thing, you don’t.

        Here, for certain industries (might be all but I don’t have first hand accounts of that), the contractors must make sure that the companies/freelancers they employ pay their taxes, otherwise, they are on the hook for it.

        Do the same. If a company outsource work, they should prove that they pay the same as they would in their region, and if it not, be hit hard by fines and/or jail time.

        But one can only dream I guess

      • @[email protected]
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        2 months ago

        Should apply to that as well if they’re interacting with the US market. All the way through subcontractors to the end employee. No hiding behind contracting local companies.

        • polonius-rex
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          -142 months ago

          i don’t like outsourcing either, but realistically the machine of capitalism isn’t going to allow you to be rid of it in its entirety

          honestly i don’t even know if getting rid of multinational organisations is on the whole a good thing, and that’s the only way i can see of getting rid of outsourcing

          • @[email protected]
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            292 months ago

            Outsourcing entirely being gone isn’t realistic… But there’s a huge difference between moving an entire team of say developers to India and having a worker teleconference in to be a cashier. Anyone directly interacting with a customer or end user in any capacity should be paid the same as a local employee in the location they’re “working”.

            A Telecashier is fucking stupid and ridiculous.

            • @[email protected]
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              292 months ago

              Remember when we learned that Amazon’s “just put it in your cart to buy” algorithm was really just a bunch of people in India watching you shop on the store surveillance system? That was, like 3 months ago maybe??

            • polonius-rex
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              22 months ago

              yesssssss, but i don’t know how you’d make a legal distinction between those two

              then again i’m not a law talking guy so what do i know

          • @[email protected]
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            132 months ago

            but realistically the machine of capitalism isn’t going to allow you to be rid of it in its entirety

            Who said anything about that? We’re just talking about putting tariffs on outsourced labor to correct for negative externalities.

    • @[email protected]
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      102 months ago

      This practice is rampant across industries and only getting worse. We must demand an end to it through legislation.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 months ago

      We may not agree with it, but this is exactly the same thing as an overseas call center. They’re not physically located in the US and are not subject to any laws here.

    • @[email protected]
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      -112 months ago

      $3 is loads more than the Philippines minimum wage. I think it’s $8-$10 per day.

      Also, y’all are thinking of what $3 buys in the US. The purchasing power is far different. $3 buys a lot over there.

      I’ll ask my wife when she gets home, but I bet $3 is equivalent to $10-$12 in the US.

      • @[email protected]
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        732 months ago

        Also, y’all are thinking of what $3 buys in the US. The purchasing power is far different. $3 buys a lot over there.

        You misunderstand. We aren’t unaware or ignoring the purchasing power difference, that’s obvious, everyone knows currency differs. The issue is and always has been the outsourcing to increase profit in general, regardless of country or purchasing disparity. There is no reason to use a teleconferenced cashier for a retail location other than minimizing employee pay, not just by paying the minimum required here but literally taking a local job and shipping it overseas so you can instead pay what would be a clear poverty wage here, while undoubtedly having record profits like all these companies end up with.

        • @[email protected]
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          -12 months ago

          We aren’t unaware or ignoring the purchasing power difference, that’s obvious, everyone knows currency differs. The issue is and always has been the outsourcing to increase profit in general, regardless of country or purchasing disparity

          This makes it sound like your problem isn’t someone getting hurt; it’s someone doing well.

        • @[email protected]
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          -22 months ago

          Everyone complains about small businesses being driven out, especially in NYC. Their two biggest costs are rent and labor, so of course they try to minimize both of them.

          • @[email protected]
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            12 months ago

            You know what’s cheaper than hiring a cashier and teleconferencing them from the Philippines?

            The owner running the cash register. You know, like nearly every non-chain restaurant in the country.

        • @[email protected]
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          So, there actually is a reason to do this beyond pay, but clearly pay is the actual reason they do it.

          A restaurant has a set amount of staff. What happens if a few are sick and they have trouble finding someone to fill in?

          A remote agent like this could be from a larger organization being contracted out and you’d never have to worry about not having someone to be available.

          Edit: 1 person could even be managing multiple stores where they queue the person to assist you as it detects you approaching. Less ideal would be ‘someone will be available in 45 seconds’ type queuing.

          • @[email protected]
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            212 months ago

            Or they just hire enough staff to run the business in the first place. Something that used to just be how you operated a business. If the business wants to gamble on regularly operating without enough employees to cover multiple sick calls then they need to deal with the results of that decision.

            Pull from other locations to cover, or God forbid, a manager actually covers a shift, or just close the location for a day if they cannot cover it. You know, what every business that operates with employees deals with.

            You’re making excuses and trying to find a justification for a fucking disgraceful, greedy choice by the owner of this business.

            • @[email protected]
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              No I’m not, you’re just jumping to conclusions. I clearly said it’s obviously about the pay.

              The actual idea has potential merit like it or not. It doesn’t have to be scummy. It could be a US based corporation that pays US employees the same or more than what they’d get paid to be there in person.

              The employee as I said could be managing more than 1 store, thus be providing more valuable work, and thus earning even more than they’d be earning at the restaurant, or 711, or wherever.

              And they could be doing it from the comfort of their home making for a happier employee.

              It just turns out that the way this has been implemented has been terrible and exploitative.

              Edit: it could even be numerous ipad based kiosks around a mall where you could talk to someone and ask questions about the mall, without having to find and go to the info booth that’s in a single spot (that could also have an actual person there for those that want that). There’d always be someone available since there’d be multiple people for multiple malls all trained on each mall.

      • @[email protected]
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        222 months ago

        I mean, yeah probably. That’s not the point. The point is that it’s a race to the bottom for people living in higher cost-of-living places.

      • @[email protected]
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        132 months ago

        I really don’t care how much buying power they have over there. A fair days work here in the US should be paid in turn.

        • @[email protected]
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          02 months ago

          And flood the islands with US currency? Seems that would lead to massive inflation and hurt the people not working “in” the US.

          • @[email protected]
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            12 months ago

            So what your saying is they should be paid less because their currency is trash? That’s a logical fallacy.

          • @explodicle
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            22 months ago

            No, you can always advocate for someone to get paid more regardless of your knowledge of conversion rates.

      • @[email protected]
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        102 months ago

        Okay. Imagine the purchasing power of someone who made the NYC minimum wage of $16/hr.

        Maybe pay people for their time, not what the exchange rate “might” be.

        • @[email protected]
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          -22 months ago

          If I’m paying NYC minimum wages, I’m getting someone from NYC, in NYC.

          Sorry lady from the Phillipines. You’re out of a job because they put in this new “outsourcing must be at local wage rates” law.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 months ago

        Depends on the region, lowest is about 350 php or 6 usd per day. Most of the call centers are in the big cities however where wages are a bit higher and they well enough to be thought of as a decent job.

  • @[email protected]
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    I would just unplug the camera and computer. Every day. Even if I wasn’t buying anything.

    Fuck this business.

    • @[email protected]
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      632 months ago

      https://nypost.com/2024/04/09/us-news/nyc-restaurants-use-zoom-cashiers-from-philippines/

      adding that she splits tips with her manager and kitchen staff at the restaurant.

      They don’t even let her keep her entire tips. The whole situation is fucked. Somebody mentioned in the article also brought up a great point…

      “Today, this is a Filipino woman behind a screen, controlling a POS system — but it’s not crazy to believe that probably in the next six to twelve months, this could be an AI avatar doing all the same things,” he said.

      What a shitty future we have.

      • @[email protected]
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        192 months ago

        From the article, Sansan Chicken, Sansan Ramen, and Yaso Kitchen, all in NY. (Since nobody has said it yet)

      • @[email protected]
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        62 months ago

        Well yeah. When you eat at a restaurant, and tip, generally you’re not intending to tip the solely the cashier.

        Before chanting along with the hate chant just think for a second. When’s the last time you tipped a cashier, with the intention of the tip going to the cashier and none of the rest of the staff?

        • @explodicle
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          132 months ago

          I never intend for them to go to the manager.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          Um…yes I do. If I enjoy the service of one particular waiter, I expect that the tip (at least the majority of it, let’s say around 75-90% if not 100% of it) goes to the waiter who served me. If I’m tipping a cashier, I just give him a few bucks and tell him to pocket it discreetly.

    • lurch (he/him)
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      432 months ago

      Zoom ID and pass are in the image tho 😄

    • fmstrat
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      12 months ago

      Was about to say the same. Up vote instead.

    • @[email protected]
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      942 months ago

      It’s not only legal it’s effectively encouraged. Capitalism is a race to the bottom, regardless of consequences.

        • prole
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          92 months ago

          They don’t help, sure, but this shit happens anyway in capitalism. It’s an inevitability.

          • @[email protected]
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            -112 months ago

            Yeah it sucks how money flows to the people who can use it most under capitalism, without anyone having to force it to happen.

            • prole
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              52 months ago

              Is this how you think capitalism works? Yikes.

        • @[email protected]
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          They’re being paid minimum wage. It’s not a great job.

          Edit: And apparently they split their tips with the people working in the restaurant too, so I really feel like this is just exploitation.

            • @brbposting
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              32 months ago

              If this is right:

              Looks like the absolute max is less than $10, and the absolute minimum is less than six dollars.

              • $5.24 (306 PHP)
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              • $9.76 (570 PHP)

              How come agricultural laborers get shafted? An immediate guess is the government trying to keep food costs down.

    • @[email protected]
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      82 months ago

      People should just not go there. But it’s america and they probably have 1dollar chicken nuggets or something.

      • @[email protected]
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        62 months ago

        I would probably just turn around if I saw and understood what I was looking at. Definitely wouldn’t go back a second time.

      • @[email protected]
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        252 months ago

        They are not physically in the US, and probably work listed as some sort of overseas contractor. Whatever wages they earn are from their employer who contracts for the restaurant.

        That’s probably how it works.

  • The Pantser
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    1072 months ago

    At that point why even have a cashier? Just put a POS and have people swype to enter like a subway.

    • @[email protected]
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      762 months ago

      Because then you can’t show the world that you’re a piece of shit who enjoys exploiting cheap labor.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 months ago

        $3 is good pay over there, buys way more than our $3. Bet people are scrambling for those jobs. Good money when the daily min wage is $8-$10.

        For example, my wife’s ex took her family and friends to the fanciest restaurant they could find. $120 (including tip) for 16 people.

        Americans are the ones exploited here. McDonalds is pumping money out of the country and taking our jobs.

        • @[email protected]
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          62 months ago

          There’s a movie called Eurotrip. Its about 3 college aged kids taking a road trip through Europe.

          I forget what country they get to, but it’s a run down mostly Indian country. They stay at a hotel, and the bell hop handles their bags. They try to give him a tip, but realize they only have like 17 cents. So he gives him a nickle, and says “Its not much, but maybe having some American money is novel.”

          The bellhop is shocked. Made to look like he’s angry. So the bellhops boss is just walking by. This is after his interaction with the main characters are done. His boss starts yelling at him. And he yells “FUCK YOU! YOU SEE THIS??? I GOT A NICKLE!!! I OPEN MY OWN HOTEL!!!” And the boss is horrified. He says something like “For a nickle, that hotel will be the nicest in (whatever country they were in).”

          Your comment reminds me of that scene.

        • @[email protected]
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          -22 months ago

          Your take away here is that Americans are the real victims? If we are talking about countries, theres not many that have caused as much suffering and death as America. We just do it for money instead of religion.

          America exploits the rest of the world, full stop.

          • @[email protected]
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            12 months ago

            America exploits the rest of the world, full stop.

            South America, west Africa, some of the Middle East, yea. Rest of the world, not that much. Out of any conquering army, the US installed regimes have been a bit above the Soviets. Japan and West Germany did great, SK had a tyrannical dictator, so was Chiang-Kai Shek- though the US nowhere near installed him. But neither the Kim’s nor Mao were much better. South Vietnam was propped up by the US but created because of the French. Ho Chi Minh may not have been that bad, and his replacements were ok. Pol Pot was very bad though. Lets not talk about the Soviet invasions of Poland, Budapest, and Prague. And even before that how they forced out previous democratic governments. Basically all the Soviet regimes in Europe sucked(Tito may have been ok, but wasn’t Soviet). Not to mention actions in Mongolia and Central Asia.

            If we were to mention British, French, and Spanish empires too. I’d say US world order is a bit above average compared to other world orders- especially in more recent years. Definitely not defending a lot of CIA actions abroad and FBI actions domestically.

            • @[email protected]
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              22 months ago

              Plus the addition of hindsight bias being applied to what used to be morally grey actions.

              I do wish we would just be more honest as a country.

    • @[email protected]
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      -42 months ago

      Sometimes it’s nice if someone gets a job, and sometimes people like to talk to a person while they’re paying.

      • @explodicle
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        22 months ago

        I would rather use a POS terminal than try to talk to someone over zoom with no headphones. If it’s not a human in person who can just say “hmmm the computer is broken here’s your sandwich” then it’s worse.

  • @[email protected]
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    This shit has got to be outlawed. Companies are doing this across the board. Literally skirting labor laws, outsourcing jobs that should be going to us citizens, all to just continue pouring more money into the tops pockets. When will we have all had enough?

    • @[email protected]
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      It’s a simple enough solution in this case. They are performing the work of employees, so for all intents and purposes, they are employees. They are directly interacting with US customers at a physical location within the US. Their place of work is that physical location, even if they are not physically present. They need authorization to work in the US, and the minimum wage laws applicable to that location applies to these workers.

      All that is missing is the lawsuit under existing labor laws, which they will probably lose.

      • @[email protected]
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        62 months ago

        Sounds like something the Department of Labour could legislate… Or could have.

        But the supreme court just ruled that this falls under the courts jurisdiction and there’s a snowflakes chance in hell that a case pushed high and far enough will result in those ghouls will rule in favour of labour interests.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          Yeah, I don’t think SCOTUS would side with an IRS or Labour Department rule requiring businesses pay minimum wage. But you’re forgetting the “racist” angle: the courts would love nothing more than to support a State Department determination that they are “immigrant workers” and require a work visa.

  • @[email protected]
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    702 months ago

    I would not shop here. If I saw this, I would turn around and walk out. Go somewhere that they value work.

  • Hossenfeffer
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    642 months ago

    This feels cyberpunk. Some netrunner will hack the system and give free meals away because fuck the corpos, right?

    • @[email protected]
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      I don’t think you need a netrunner to plug a mouse into the pc behind the monitor and hit “Leave” on the (I assume) Zoom call.

      Even easier, unplug the ethernet cable.

      • Hossenfeffer
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        162 months ago

        Whoa, slow down there, Einstein, I don’t understand your hacker jargon!

      • @[email protected]
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        22 months ago

        Or turn off the monitor and bounce lol. If you don’t have employees to fix things, systems are hilariously easy to break.

      • @[email protected]
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        -12 months ago

        plug a mouse into the pc behind the monitor and hit “Leave” on the (I assume) Zoom call.

        “If someone’s consistently lucky, it ain’t luck”

  • @[email protected]
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    522 months ago

    Are there movements in the US or globally to force all business into worker coops? Unions are good but I think this is their ultimate limitation, that employers can just offshore their jobs

    • @31337
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      Argentina has somewhat of a history of workers seizing their factories. I think it would be extremely hard in the U.S. due to the well-funded police. Generally, I guess the movement would be “anarcho-syndicalism.”

      Edit: misremembered worker factory takeovers in the past as occurring in Venezuela instead of Argentina.

      • @[email protected]
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        By that hyper-simplistic “logic” people shouldn’t be forced into prison if they murder someone.

        Clearly some kinds of forcing in some situations are “good”, and if some are good but other not, that means the real discussion is all about “when is forcing right and when is it not?” something that childlike “logic” of yours doesn’t even begin to address.

        • @[email protected]
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          -42 months ago

          Forcing to defend the lives of others, is very different from forcibly taking what belongs to others

          • @[email protected]
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            92 months ago

            The meme is right, the claim of belonging is complete bullshit. Your toothbrush and your home belong to you, a business involving multiple people belongs to everyone involved. The idea that it doesn’t is narcissism and evil.

            • @[email protected]
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              -72 months ago

              Your toothbrush and your home belong to you, a business involving multiple people belongs to everyone involved.

              You’re free to believe what you want, I’m personally a Lockean property rights enjoyer.

          • J Lou
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            12 months ago

            It rightfully belongs to the workers. The firm is basically a vehicle for appropriating the positive and negative product of production. The just basis of property is getting the positive and negative fruits of your labor (i.e. the labor theory of property). In a capitalist employer-employee relationship, the employer gets solely holds the whole product while workers are denied their claim to it despite it being a result of their labor.

            @aboringdystopia

      • @[email protected]
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        142 months ago

        Forcing is absolutely good. We force companies to do all kinds of things, in terms of corporate governance (publicly traded companies must have their finances audited, for example), ownership (banks used to be prevented from buying stock so that they would not avoid calling in bad debt), and how they do business (collusion between big tech to keep salaries down for example).

  • @[email protected]
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    482 months ago

    Having no actual person guarding your business is a recipe for theft. If this catches on it will be so much easier to steal from places. I’m ok with this

    • @[email protected]
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      332 months ago

      You shouldnt ever try to protect the cash register at your place of work. They give 0 fucks about you and will have a job posting up before your body is cold.

      • @[email protected]
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        112 months ago

        I remember working in a store and a guy walked through the scanner at the door and it went off, the other employee looked at me and was like “that guy stole something, hey?” And I was just like “yep” and we went back to whatever we were doing lol

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          the scanner at the door and it went off

          Every time in my life I’ve ever seen a door scanner go off, it’s been a false positive.

          I’m not saying that they can’t give good results too, just saying that I’m surprised that store’s employees didn’t just unplug them after the third time it happened.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          This is the way. Ive seen the “security” do the same shit, they don’t get paid enough to throw down over a can of doritos either lol

      • @[email protected]
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        32 months ago

        Retail jobs will tell you this too as they want as little liability as possible.

        Plus the registers only usually have a couple hundred bucks max at one time.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 months ago

        Can confirm, if they give any appearance of being human, even for years on end, it’s a lie, they are complete psychopaths and will throw you into the fire not even to save themselves, just to feel slightly less insecure.

    • @[email protected]
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      82 months ago

      The recommended course of action in a robbery is to follow instructions and hand over anything they ask for. If they grab product and walk out of the store, don’t try to stop them. This is actually less of an insurance liability than having an actual person there.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 months ago

        Yes but in general people are less likely to steal if there is a person standing in front of them watching. I’m not even talking about robbery just people stealing a candy bar or whatever. If it’s just sitting out with no one around people will take it.

    • @[email protected]
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      62 months ago

      A 17 year old kid paid minimum wage who gives zero fucks about the company isn’t a huge deterrent either. As long as you don’t put them in risk steal from corpos all the time

  • @[email protected]
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    452 months ago

    Japanese Fried Chicken? JFC

    Looks like this is “Japang”. Terrible reviews online and described as actually a “ghost kitchen”.

    • @[email protected]
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      252 months ago

      Ghost kitchens for those who don’t know are basically “restaurants” for online takeout orders. They don’t do in person service.

      • NoIWontPickAName
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        152 months ago

        It’s more they use spray existing kitchens to do so.

        The Denny’s around here is a ghost for like 3 different places

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          Yes sorry you are correct, forgot that critical piece. They often service multiple “places”