RITE-AID WE DON'T NEED YOU!

Dear Editor:
I am so upset that I can hardly see straight. For several years I have been complaining about our Rite Aid store here in California City. Often, when they have specials they run out of the products on Thursday night and by the time the weekend comes around they don't have any of the items. I have often asked the workers, even the manager if they could either go to their stock room and bring more product to the front or order more supplies; especially of the items they have on sale. I often get; "Sorry, we're out! The shipment will come in tomorrow." Once I spoke to the manager and asked him why there were no more Cokes that were on sale. He told me, "We ran out!" This was on a Friday. Thousands of people would be coming into the store Friday, Saturday and Sunday but they will not buy because the Coke sale was all sold out. He even had a smile on his face. I didn't know if it was because they had sold out or because he was laughing at my frustration. Then as he walked away, I decided to go to the back room and see what they had. Lo and behold there must have been two tall stacks of Cokes in the back, waiting to be put on the shelves. So I was mad, I called the manager and when he came I said, "You have plenty of Cokes in the back, why don't you put them out?" His swift reply to me was, "What are you doing in my back room? You're not supposed to be there. I can have you arrested you know."

That just set me off and I started to tell him how unprofessional he was. That the corporation had hired him as manager to make sure the clients of the store were satisfied and were able to buy everything they offered. He told me he did not have sufficient personnel to put the item out on the shelves, and he couldn't do it himself because he was the manager and the union would not allow him. That was a bunch of nonsense. I left the store and decided not to buy anything from them anymore.

A few weeks later I returned to the Rite Aid store, and I was shocked to see stacks and stacks of plastic boxes on almost every isle, blocking many of the products that were on sale. Once again, I asked to see the manager to find out why the isles were being blocked by the stacks of products that needed to be put into the shelves and why hadn't someone done it already. I had to go to the next isle to get to the other side of the isle I was on.  He said to me, Lady, you were here complaining a few weeks ago, that's all you like to do. Why don't you go somewhere else to buy?"

Unfortunately, I wish I could. I have limited transportation and often all I need is one or two items and I can walk from my house to the Rite Aid store in about five minutes. So I’m stuck. But when he told me that, I decided no matter what, I will never return there.

Today, unfortunately, I ran out of ice, of toothpaste and my husband was hit hard with some type of flu. I had no choice but to quickly run to the Rite Aid store.

NOTHING HAS CHANGED: They were out of ice! They didn’t have a single bag. I asked the manager why? He said, "We sold out, people bought it all.” I said to him that he should order a lot more, especially now that it is getting warm and people are coming out in droves to our desert. Once again he reminded me that I was just a complainer, that I had nothing better to do. Then I spent several minutes looking for a worker to open the shaving blades cabinet. It seems that all the shaving products are now kept under lock. I needed a $4.79 bag of disposable blades. When the worker finally came she told me that she had to carrythem to the front for me because I could not put them in my basket--affraid I would steal them I guess. When I got to the counter, the blades were not there.

Folks, this town, our city, does not need that kind of company serving us. They are getting away with things because they know they are the only game in town for certain items. They have managers who are incompetent and with terrible attitudes. Even the workers have the same type of attitudes as their managers. It’s like they are laughing at us, while all the while, taking our hard earned money. We need to do something about Rite Aid.

I respectfully ask the Mayor or the City Council to intervene on our behalf and explain to them that they must serve our community better than they have been doing. That often, we don’t have a choice of another retail source unl;ess we can dirve to Mojave, Ridgecrest or Lancaster. In my case, I no longer can count on my transportation, so for me to say “I will never return to Rite Aid,” will seem ludicrous, because somewhere along the way I know I will have to. Isn’t that a shame?

Florence - Cal City

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