West Seattle PCC rehires fired checker

MomSeattle · DadSeattle · SPI · MySeattlePix · My account

Local

US/World

Sports

Business

A&E

Life

Comics

Photos

Opinion

Blogs

Buy Ads

NWsource

Wednesday, October 22, 2003

West Seattle PCC rehires fired checker

By SUSAN PAYNTER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

Fired PCC grocery checker Tommy Smith will be back at his West Seattle check stand this Sunday, no doubt smiling at shoppers even more than usual.

And, judging from the deluge of mail that followed the friendly clerk's dismissal after forgetting to pay for a cup of store coffee, the customers will be grinning back.

Smith was reinstated with back pay on Monday. And PCC management sent a letter to all employees announcing a change in policy following last Wednesday's column about the firing and the perception that PCC is no longer a friendly place to shop or work.

"We want you to know that our management team has paused to think about the severity of our policy and has concluded that it is overly harsh for certain circumstances, including Tommy's," the letter from chief executive officer Tracy Wolpert said in part. "The particulars of this case have caused us to review our policies and to change how we enforce them."

On Monday night chief financial officer Randy Lee explained that, from now on, busy employees who may simply forget to pay for a cup of coffee or a jar of juice before drinking it will be suspended for seven days but not fired unless there is a second offense.

Still insisting there was more to the situation than they are able to discuss, Lee and PCC spokeswoman Trudy Bialic claimed that management had already been discussing a change in disciplinary policy "weeks" before word of Smith's firing burst a dam of shopper outrage.

"And we came to the conclusion that people shouldn't lose their jobs just because they've forgotten to pay for something once. That there was a better punishment, for lack of a better word," Bialic said.

The store really did go the extra mile to make things right in this case, she said.

Lee hopes people understand that the financial drain caused by a spike in product theft can drive any store to take severe measures and maybe they overreacted. He also hopes to make the case that PCC has not lost its way despite having to tighten up a once legendary laid-back style of doing business in order to survive in today's marketplace.

And from the tone of most of the 110 e-mails and dozens of calls and letters I received, spurred by the story of Tommy Smith's coffee cup, countering that perception may not be easy.

A few readers wrote in defense of PCC, citing competition from bigger, even harder-eyed, bottom-line grocers. The view that PCC can remain the folksy store it used to be is simply nostalgic, a handful said.

But the overwhelming majority agreed with Steve Murray, who wrote, "Like many Seattleites, I used to think of PCC as a warm and fuzzy 'good' institution where I could feel that my patronage was helping the world in a very small way. Now I know them to be a retail sweatshop worse than Wal-Mart."

Many said they had decided to turn in their PCC membership cards even before the firing of Tommy Smith: "PCC's humanity has been eroding for years, even before (the competition from) Whole Foods came onto the scene," former 30-year member John Giovine wrote.

And more than 80 others agreed, many saying they have noticed how stressed PCC checkers seem to be these days: "Whenever I go now, it seems the people who work there are really unhappy, rushed, and grumbling," Karen Crewe wrote. "The friendliness and helpfulness of old is long, long gone."

"It could be any store now. Any place where employees would get in trouble for talking to you about the kids and cats," T. Taylor wrote. "I see supervisors with arms crossed in front of their chests behind each cashier and no one is smiling."

Several, including Dan Eskenazi and Diane Leveque, wrote directly to PCC management saying they will be shopping anywhere but PCC "until Tommy Smith is returned to his fair and rightful job. ... We spend hundreds of dollars monthly at the West Seattle Store, money you won't see until Tommy is back."

Well, they got their wish and Smith is at least one employee who will be smiling.

"I'm rehired. Once again an employee," Smith said Monday night, gratified that store policy also had been made more flexible and humane.

Smith says he is "cautiously optimistic," that things will work out. He's now on the reduced and relatively regular schedule he had sought in order to maintain medical appointments to treat his muscular dystrophy and diabetes. And he's eager to meet and greet all his old customers and to ask about their kids and cats.

"I just basically went in last Friday to say my final goodbyes to everyone," Smith said. "Now, I'm baaaaaack!"

More headlines and info from West Seattle.