Food For Never

It looks like once again it's time for a little story. Last year my wife was laid off from working at Purse-onality in Gardner Village. It slows down around there after Halloween. My wife happened into a job in a round about way. To shorten the story as much as I can I'll just say she found a job. It is a company called Food Forever. They sold food storage and were just starting up. They hired Natalie on the spot and had her work a few hours after her interview. At first things seemed dandy. She was working nights, but we could handle that. Natalie helped around the store and after a week the owner came to her and told her that he wanted her to put together a seminar in St. George for that weekend and that he was making her over the St. George area. Needless to say my stressed out wife slapped together a seminar in less than twenty four hours and with help from friends and family in St. George we were able to round up around 25 or so people to be there. Not bad for having almost no notice. The owner paid for our gas to get there (but that was it). We stayed with my wife's family (keep this in mind for later). Everything went surprisingly well for something slapped together with almost no warning. The owner was rather pleased and had no trouble enlisting me as some free labor. I went initially to support my wife and I was enlisted in hauling a lot of things in and out of the building where we had this little seminar. I wouldn't normally have a problem with this other than I felt like I was the slave he could crack a whip on. My wife brought in over 3 g's of sales to the store from that seminar (that's over $3,000). In the seminar the owner promised my wife in front of everyone there that she was going to get commission off of anything that was sold. He also said any orders would go through her and that she was over southern Utah. (Wait a minute he just told us St. George!)

So after all this we went on our marry way. After all was said and done the owner was pleased with my wife's efforts in St. George and told her to put together something in Cedar City. This is where I stomped my foot and decided this was all a load of crap. Problem number one that I had was that my wife was told that she was doing all of this. She was never asked anything it was just a command not a request. Second problem was she was getting paid nine bucks an hour only when she was in the store. This accounts for nothing done outside the store (Putting together seminars, calling people, etc.). Problem three she was treated more like a slave than an employee. The owner told her what he wanted and it was never questioned by anyone. This goes for anyone that worked there. There is a lady there that works around 80 hours a week and gets a flat nine bucks an hour. No benefits, no paid holidays, just screwed over and over and over again because that's how desperate she is. So desperate in fact that she takes the owners side no matter what the cost. Fourth problem I have is that the owner knows how to play people. When my wife went to quit the first time he knew how to work her. He promised her he'd work with her and pay her for going to St. George and that they'd work out a commission system. Two weeks later when nothing had happened (and after a few other things went on that further pissed me off) I went in from work to talk to the scum myself. The weasel never showed up. So I went back to work and told my wife that she was done there.

So on December sixth she called and told them she was done. The owner was (supposedly) bummed out (because he knew he lost a very cheap slave). My wife was told she would get her last paycheck on payday. They got her a check alright but it never cashed. We tried over and over and finally went into Food for Never and complained. The excuse was it was the banks fault (LAME). They said they were in the process of changing banks and that they would get her a check, oh and by the way can we have the list of people in St. George? I had my wife use it as leverage. She told them they could have the list if they gave her what they promised: The hours she worked + the ten hours promised going to St. George + the commission. The owner trying to work his magic again played the guilt card saying he couldn't believe my wife would push for legal matters and that they didn't have commission in place yet and they paid for all expenses to St. George (which if you remember from above was gas only) and (insert all sorts of excuses here), but the thing that rips my shorts the most was he said "And we still paid you when your husband was in the store and made you unproductive but we didn't say anything about that". Oh really? Last I knew anytime I was in the store I was helping her close.

Well guess what? Today is exactly two months since my wife quit. They promised her (again for about the tenth time) that they would get her check to her today. If it doesn't happen today we'll figure out who needs to get involved so that she is finally paid (Labor Commission). All we asked for is the bare minimum, we aren't even asking for the commission. How ridiculous is that? How are they paying current employees if they can't pay one that hasn't worked there for two months?

In conclusion I will say I shaved quite a bit out of this story so it doesn't end up as a novel. When my wife first started working there I believed heavily in the store and their product. I still believe that they have some good things to sell and some good ideas but I cannot support someone that sucks this bad. If they can't scrounge up a lousy $300 to pay an employee that hasn't worked for them for two months I don't think that they deserve to be in business. Come to think of it I never do remember seeing a business license anywhere...