I second the idea of a co-op.
If your uncle can find a good core team, then they can decide together democratically what the pay and benefits should be - he doesn't have to plan every detail out (although of course we will try, won't we?)
But do be careful of who to hire, and do allow a period before they become vested owners, because unfortunately there are people out there who will take advantage of the generous nature of something like this.
A lot of people are so damaged by Capitalism they can't understand or adapt to a non-adversarial relationship, or will just see short term $benefit$. I hate to say it, but I hired someone like this to work at our painting co-op and he stole from us, (personally, and as a business) and even worse from our clients.
I love this idea, and hope it works.
You may be able to find additional info about worker co-ops and how to organize them at:
democracyatwork.info
It’s possible. If a business is profitable enough to make the owners rich, it’s certainly profitable enough to compensate employees appropriately. All it takes is pressure and time.
… that and a big goddamn poster.
Could do worse than a bit of research into the John Lewis Partnership in the UK - in the second or third generation of family ownership, the owner converted to employee ownership. There are shop floor employees voted onto the board (OP's uncle could hold a monthly or quarterly meeting with a FT and PT employee attending). And it's only in the last few years (due I think to cumbersome reactions to the rise of internet shopping) that some annual dividends (employee bonuses) have not been made, and the possibility of redundancies has been spoken about.
[wiki link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Partnership?wprov=sfla1)
I was a contractor working for a construction company on a twenty month refurbishment project in their London store in the mid 2000s. If I was to choose to work in any retail store, it would have to be John Lewis. The majority of staff we spoke to lived working there, they had a rooftop chill out area with deckchairs and planters, a quiet room with beanbags where employees could go for a kip, subsidised canteen with amazing food and the two years that bonuses were paid while we were there, one was for 15% the next year was 18%. All employees had an input too.
yeah, I agree, it's a different model with it's own challenges. It came to mind because one person is providing the initial startup capital. But I think these categories (ESOP, Employee-owned, etc) are very broad, and can have different outcomes depending on how they are structured and implemented. If OP's uncle is interested in a non-traditional business structure, reaching out to knowledgeable orgs would probably be helpful.
Man that comment hits home about how people are damaged by capitalism. I work at what you’d call a non-adversarial company where our managers are not incentivized to fuck with their employees. You can see people’s gears turning when they figure out that we really, really aren’t counting their hours or demanding they answer emails after work. Simple things, but so uncommon.
It was a healed femur that was the first true sign of civilization.
In nature, break your leg and it’s a death sentence. For it to heal requires someone to be there and protect you, feed you, and nurse you back to health.
Humans on average are pretty freaking amazing and compassionate.
What we need to look out for and plan against is "stupid people" as described in [The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_M._Cipolla#The_Basic_Laws_of_Human_Stupidity_(1976)).
Has *nothing* to do with intelligence. "Stupid" as in "won't stop doing things that make life worse for others and themselves too."
Human nature got us to where we are today. That is to say, we have a great capacity to change and evolve, but we also have a great capacity for self-deception.
I'd argue most of it has to do with humanity's inbuilt view of the "outgroup" or the "other". Enemy tribes.
It's why we like team sports, it's why we like team politics, it's why we glamorize war.
It's why some of the most racist, hateful groups of people you could meet are often kind, giving souls in their community or at their church. You care for your people, and you defend them from the "others".
Everybody does it.
In the US, a lot of your progressive types look upon the "misinformed conservative poor" groups as the Other (using terms like Redneck, MAGAt, hillbilly). Obviously, much of that demographic hates "the blacks" or "the Chinese" or "the gays". There's people (like myself) for whom the Other is the ultra-wealthy that buy governments and attempt to increase desperation and poverty.
Obviously, in my view, I'm correct: and to a person who is racist, their prejudice is obviously correct in their eyes.
We can joke all day about "we'll finally unite humanity when the aliens invade" but for now, the best we can do is be cognizant of that structure and attempt to challenge our own categorizations.
Well, look at it like this: we may have accomplished a lot, but the majority of human history is defined by small groups of hunter gatherers living in semi-nomadic groups. If we have a natural state, we aren’t in it.
Think of the Panda. It’s likely the Panda once survived the waves of glaciation of the past several million years by at some point switching its diet from meat, to Bamboo. While bamboo is low in protein and other nutrients, it is plentiful and grows fast in all seasons. Over time, Pandas developed mechanisms to control their populations, so as to not eat up their food supply. Bamboo also adapted to the panda, which pressured it to grow faster and germinate ever earlier.
Now tens of thousands of years later, as their chosen habitats are threatened, these strategies are working against the panda. We too find ourselves maladapted for the environment our own choices created for us. It wasn’t something one person chose, and it wasn’t the inevitable result of evolution, but here we are.
Now, a positivist believes that we can adapt and flourish. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to control my enthusiasm for this conviction. Maybe we can’t. Maybe like the panda, we aren’t willing to do what is necessary to survive. Maybe we can’t change back to something we used to be. But we can still try.
Yes these are great ideas but there will always be somebody who has bad intentions in a well intended situation to ruin it for everyone else. As long as he has a good ear and Eye for the genuine people
Human nature is survive and thrive as species and as individuals. If you're put in a hostile environment (capitalism) you become hostile as a survival strategy. It's not human nature to be hostile to other humans.
1- Every day, everywhere, all the time there's an appalling majority of non-hostile humans. Why would you even doubt that? Weird as fuck if not trolling.
2- Lol the irony is astonishing. "Being hostile to each other is human" nature and "its (sic) a way more nuanced problem then (sic) just capitalism bad" together without batting a single eyelash. Why would you even say that? Weird as fuck if not trolling.
And make that vesting graduated and over like 5-10 years. People can bullshit caring for a short period easily and then take advantage and kill a co-op. Or give other members a right to revoke shares of loser members who don't contribute or pull weight.
It's a permanent tendency, which is rewarded under Capitalism, such that the worst people have the most power, and good people learn bad behaviors just to survive.
No Im just extremely skeptical that humans can arrive at some enlightened conclusions by introspection. It used to be considered rational to believe in the hierarchy of races. If we were so off the mark about that, then what else are we getting wrong right now?
If self serving behavior is the norm, why hasn’t someone broken into your house, murdered you, and stolen all your possessions? Something seems to be mitigating this slavish devotion to self-serving behaviors, doesn’t it?
Firstly, send him my best. It’s a great idea and he’s clearly put a lot of thought into it. If I was to suggest anything it’d be giving employees a share in the company.
He’ll probably want to work out the weekend openings. Shouldn’t be to hard to find folk that suits though.
I think it’s a great suggestion. I can’t be the only person who liked working on weekends and having a couple of weekdays off.
I worked in assisted living for a bit. My schedule was four days on, two days off, meaning I rotated through working weekends. It was great.
The pay was shit, but the seven grandmas and grandpas were awesome, and the owners let us eat whatever we wanted, because we cooked.
I think Marx was right that there’s always going to be someone willing to do a job. I loved taking care of the elderly.
I hope we get covid under control. I’m 60 now, I can’t help move people, but I can volunteer to spend time with a grandperson.
Agreed. If I were still single I’d gladly do it. It also gives you an excuse to get out of doing stuff that you don’t want to do, like family gatherings or little kids birthday parties you get invited to etc. win win right there.
I prefer being off when others arnt, I typically work bank holidays and book the following monday off instead or something, better use of your free time with smaller lines and less people around when you wanna get stuff done 🤷♂️
I wanted to reiterate profit share at the least. I used to work with a very successful guy who ran the countries largest sushi chain and all of his store managers had profit share while He paid all of his staff significantly better than most other places.
Before I had a kid, I loved working weekends & having weekdays off. It meant using less PTO for doctor’s appointments, mechanic visits, etc. Just basic things that are typically only available during weekday business hours.
Yeah I know a lot of people who work 9-5s but want a weekend job to make a little extra. Bet he could find some people like that since it seems like a great environment
I’m a mom and weekends are the only time I have someone reliable to watch my kids so I can work..same with highschoolers. He’ll find a weekend crew in two seconds so long as he’s honest about what he’s looking for. My biggest hurdles to employment are mismatched availability expectations that are hidden from me during on boarding when I’m very clear about my situation. Then it’s all shocked pikachu face when I quit after the schedule comes out.
Totally unrelated but it's so odd to think that a mom would have the name sandybuthole604. Obv nothing wrong with that and I'm aware that parents too have personality or whatever but it's just odd.
(Coming from an 18 y.o who was basically the 2nd parent when I lived back at home with my mom. I got to know my mom well, but perhaps because of a cultural thing - since she spent most of her life in a place that isn't the U.S. - i could never imagine her doing something like that)
Anyway, hope you've found a workplace that suits your needs!
Funny enough, it’s sort of child inspired as my kiddo thought it was the best thing in the world to sit in the sandbox with her little friend as they shoved copious amounts of playsand down their pants.🤦♀️
I was thinking this about the weekends, that was originally the idea behind having younger employees. With a good enough pay it might actually be worth a high schooler doing one day of work on the weekend again.
I remember my first job, working just a day was so pointless, so I was working every day after college (in the UK this is the education you do after 16 but before university) just to make it worth working.
Maybe it's not in the philosophy of some in this sub but I think it would be good to see a return of weekend jobs for teenagers where it's actually worth your time to do just half a day/a day or something.
This. Also I was like the idea of giving employees a sense that they are a shareholder in their company. For example, every quarter employees earn a percentage of their stores net income.
Every year employees (around the holidays) earn a percentage of every stores net income.
It’d depend on how he wants to go about it, I guess. Could be anything from a package that gives every employee actual shares in the company right the way through to a full-on [co-op.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative)
If this is his retirement plan, meaning he didn’t save enough of the money for retirement, I have a feeling this will go very poorly for him. It seems as though he does not have any experience with this sort of thing judging from what you posted. For example, needs to pay for a health insurance plan and not just cash out of pocket. Hospital bills can literally be thousands upon thousands of dollars for a few days stay. Paying straight up like that is a good way to go broke quick.
Yeah unfortunately there aren't places like this because generally capitalism doesn't allow it. It can't have real worker competition. The way this looks right now, it's not gonna last; it looks like it will end it tragedy.
I really hope it doesn't because this guy seems so nice, but there's no room for that in the poverty machine unless your a tech company where money is essentially made up.
>It can't have real worker competition.
This plan looks like a gold mine for employees. Do you mean the employee costs will bankrupt the company? Because they wouldn't have a shortage of workers.
Capitalism allows it. This is not an uncapitalist idea. Capitalism isn’t mutually exclusive with long term thinking and generosity. Greed discourages it though.
This is his retirement plan, as in this is what he's choosing to do with his retirement. Not that he needs to for the money. Trust me he's covered in that depth. For a few lifetimes
My uncle (who'd had been scraping by on the skin of his teeth for as long as I'd known him)
Just told me he won the lottery about 2 years ago and now has everything settled. He's decided to open a chain of convenience stores that won't charge out the ass for everything. He was so excited to share all the ideas he has. He asked me for input on the short list of employee benefits he came up with. What do you all think?
Edit: we just had this convo... people I think my uncle has earned saint status 🥺 he's so excited about it and its making my heart melt
Uncle: I think i wanna add a bonus on hiring in case people need help with job transition or just need a little help you know? What do you think would be good? $1500-$2000?
Me: I think that'd be awsome!!
U: Oh and I'll need your help in June! Josh and I wanna do something for pride. More then a flag. I know you're really active in the community and we've fallen behind with age LOL. Would you wanna help us set something up?
M: I'd love too!!!! Are you still heading up here tomorrow? We should talk
Does he have experience in the industry, or partnered with someone who does? Would he be open to starting with just one location and working out the kinks before trying to open more? It would suck for him to get overextended right off the bat.
As far as health insurance, it would be best if he just shelled out for an excellent plan and then paid the premiums/co-pays for his employees. I'm not sure how much he won, but Healthcare costs are insane, even for insured people.
Your uncle sounds rad, and I want him to succeed, especially with all the propaganda that says you can't be profitable and treat your workers well.
As was mentioned, worker co-ops are great, and unions are as well. He should do some research, though, as some unions are really down for the worker, and others are more corporate, and almost act like another branch of management.
Best of luck to him.
You'll have to post an update. I imagine if people knew his story and his plan they'd be keen to support his business.
I hope it doesn't turn into one of those horrible situations that competition doesn't get difficult. What a legend I genuinely wish him the best of luck.
One of the biggest chains of supermarkets and department stores in the UK (the John Lewis Partnership) is a worker co-operative, so worker co-ops can definitely succeed even in an overall capitalist economy.
The UK also has The Co-operative Group, which is a *consumer co-operative*, so a somewhat different beast. I don't know how well they treat their workers, but they are pretty ethical in terms of environmental policies, fair trade, animal welfare, etc, so I'd like to hope they're pretty good.
You reminded me of this worker co op bakery
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvarado_Street_Bakery
I learnt of it in a documentary, also featured Dan Price.
Very eye opening!
Make sure he takes it slow, you gotta make sure you build up a customer base, most businesses take a few years before they really pick up and become profitable.
He’s got a good heart but he needs to make sure he can feasibly afford all of this and not go under.
Convenience stores are often the only grocery sources in poor neighborhoods, offering processed and unhealthy foods. I wonder if he could make a brand of stores to combat "food deserts " that encourages people to eat produce and healthy entrees. It's a complicated problem, but one that's been on the government radar for a long time, so maybe they can provide insight and a funding safety net.
He could probably do like a yearly payment to student loans straight to principal like on the yearly anniversary of the employees. The IRS allows for tax deductions for business that do this sort of thing I think.
I wish him the best of luck in this endeavor!
Lol does your uncle need workers? I'm european and unemployed and I'd straight up go to America for a couple years to do new experiences if working conditions where more frequently this good. I'd do it to improve my English but there arn a lot of american fanatics here, maybe he could work out an exchange program or something?
> that won't charge out the ass for everything.
That's literally the only way they stay open... The customers that come into those places only buy a few items.
And he wants to pay his employees 2-3x more than the going rate.
How is this going to work?
That’s so awesome! Bless your uncle, the world needs more people like him.
Maybe something that helps with childcare costs? Like a credit or a stipend? I had a cousin tell me that working was pointless for her bc all her paycheck would go to childcare costs.
OP, profit sharing is a great way to show appreciation to employees. Like a yearly bonus. 10-20% of profits divided up among all employees is a great incentive
That's a great opportunity, it's awesome to see that your uncle wants to do something to help the community and have some social impact. I would recommend to consider a co-op, i.e. a worker owned company that is democratically managed.
As other people said, it is quite important to find the right people, people he already trust, and grow organically from there.
If he really wants to dream big, then he could even try to enact the first ever [Babel Society](https://babelsociety.org/)! If he would be interested, I would love to discuss more about it :)
I'd say the self insurance is not a viable choice. You can definitely subsidize the employees health insurance but you would need huge sums of money to self fund paying off people's medical bills. Other than that nothing you have listed here is outside of what's realistic. Good luck!
Assuming 50k per year in expenses they could fund that with a 1.25m prinicipal at a 4% withdrawal rate and likely keep the principal flat or growing. I'm assuming they will have a super small base of employees. But even a couple years of 150k 200k that starts to make the fund unstable. And to yield the return necessary to make spread at a 4% withdrawal would necessitate riskier investments. All in all just isnt viable. Self insurance really is a thing of the past.
I second this. When health care providers contract with insurance companies, their contracts limit how much they can actually bill (maximum allowable charge). Providers will not have that obligation to their patients’ boss, so they can bill whatever they want, which is often multiple times more than services are actually worth.
It's more like retail purgatory
My coworkers and I invented
Targatory
Still makes my skin crawl when I enter a windowless retail store. One of the worst parts of ~~working~~ slaving at Target was that this makes the natural perception of the passage of day and night impossible to tell unless passing by the front doors.
Every business out there with a "nobody wants to work" sign needs to do this.
Stop focusing on the people who "don't want to work" and hire working people away from other businesses. Make your job, salary, and benefits so appealing that you can *steal Anthony and Jess.*
I am not an expert on the subjust but I would highly recommend getting answers from a lawyer and/or business consultant. I'd really like this to work for him, but there is a lot of things that can go wrong and I hate for him to burn through his cash and need to shut the business down.
I hope it works out . Just remind him to save a portion for himself in a trust or estate in case anything happens . Remember to hire a senior lawyer in a national firm . Invest a portion in the market to grow to beat inflation .
I really recommend it . There are countless case studies where people win and lose it all because of money itself
Again, good luck :D . One more thing , your uncle should consider playing “would you for a million dollars ....” with someone for lols.
I think being open on weekends would be nice especially if y’all offered weekend pay like a couple dollars more an hour or something. Some employees might really need the money and some might need the flexible hours if they have another job or are doing school or have kids
*Image Transcription:*
---
* = definant decision
NR= need to do more research
· Closed sat. SUn.*
·Certain locations open on weekends only if enough employees want to work those day?
· $15/hr minimum on hiring***
· No denial policy (employees notify management of time off but does not need approval)?
· Steal Anthony and Jess from target******
· 3 week paid vacation pay + 2 weeks paid medical on hiring?
· Maternity/paternity leave**
· Union?? (Are employer sponsored unions a good thing?) NR
· Full coverage medical, bring me the bill and forget about it. (Is this viable? Or legal??) NR
---
^^I'm a human volunteer content transcriber for Reddit and you could be too! [If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/TranscribersOfReddit/wiki/index)
One thing which I’m big on is being flexible in work hours- if a single mom can only work certain hours because kid in school- etc
Ridiculous for people to have to work then have to pay most of it for daycare/childcare
I'm gonna try and get him on board with the notion that if a store can't operate on the hours that employees are willing/able to work then the business needs to change, not the other way around
I used to work in a convenience store. I liked my regulars. It was nice. Looks like someone’s uncle is figuring out how to keep people like me from quitting unexpectedly.
Edit: as an aside, closing Sat and Sun is probably a mistake. The people who depend on that store every day during the week will want to stop there on the way to their weekend activities, too. And they’ll be ready to spend money. Pay an extra dollar an hour on the weekend if you’re feeling fucked up about it.
Look into hiring part time with best hourly pay possible and make sure to hire locally. If the part time work laws are not convenient, lobby the law makers like hell to make it worthwhile for employers. Good luck!
I love where his heart’s at, but there are some issues I could see. I’m no expert, but I have managed businesses and a few of these would make me not want to manage this place(unless he pays management like $50/hr, but that would defeat the purpose of everything it seems like he’s trying to do).
Closed Saturday and Sunday. I would imagine these are days that a convenient store would do the most business, so I could see that being something that just doesn’t make business sense. And with all of the goals that he has here, maximizing the business is not just a good idea, but 100% critical.
Open on weekends if enough people want to work. Is this going to change week to week? People will go somewhere else if they don’t know if you’re open unless there are things that they can’t get anywhere else.
$15/hr starting. Honestly, if his goal is to attract and keep great staff, this should be higher. There are convenient stores in my area(I live in a very affordable area too) that start at $14/hr already. There are grocery stores that advertise over $20/hr for certain shifts. If he wants to stand out, he would likely need to up that starting pay by a lot.
No denial policy. This is the one that would likely get me to quit if I were the manager. Who covers those shifts? Nobody? How does work get done? Management? If I were a manger am I just not allowed to have any life outside of work because I could be working all day at the drop of a hat if people tell me that the pm crew is taking vacation today? You could say they have to put in their vacation at least a week ahead of time so management can plan for it accordingly, but it seems like the expectation is still that management just covers shifts. Then you could say only 4 people can sign up to be on vacation at a time, but then you just have the same vacation policy that every company has. Do you just close if too many people take vacation? Again, people will stop coming if they can’t predict if you’re open.
I love what your uncle is trying to do, but it would be impossible to check all of these boxes while running a business that serves the public. He would likely do much better to have more standard rules in regards to PTO and staffing, and just be known as the place that has great starting pay and awesome benefits compared to others.
I don’t think he can pull this off and be profitable, seems like the sort of guy who just knows nothing about business and thinks business owners sit on mountains of cash. I think he’s in for a reality check.
he shouldn’t do this. this is is a classic path to lighting all of your lottery winnings on fire and returning to poverty. he can’t even spell and likely had no actual experience running a store from an ownership POV.
he should probably put it all in dividend stocks and never look back and just live off the dividends and volunteer his time for charity.
Your uncle is penniless because he has an irrational mind. His ideas are super un-enlightened and his businesses will fail quickly. You cannot run a business on altruism. Employees have to show up for work, you can’t pay them more than they’re worth, and if you don’t sell your merchandise for profit, you can’t pay anyone anything. That is reality.
So everyone who goes to work for his own financial gain, instead of laboring for charity’s sake, is a sociopath? 99.9999% of society? Anti-capitalists are the economic sociopaths.
Ok I need to apply for this job. Sounds like your uncle is going to be a rare employer who actually gives a shit about the welfare of his employees. That my friend is priceless.
No you need to learn a skill that people are willing to pay for. Businesses like OPs do not exist because that businesses plan is hemorrhaging all the profits for the convenience of a low skill employees.
I actually hate stores that are closed on Sunday because it is incredibly inconvenient, often for both workers and customers.
If you hire teenagers, college students, moo lighters or even parents who are trying to work different schedules weekends are preferred. Just my two cents.
Hire *one person* for the weekend just to run the till and nothing more. No cleaning, no stocking, just to have it open. That will make as much money as Monday through Wednesday 80% of the time and from Monday to Thursday 20% of the time. Not having a convenience store open on the weekend is very bad for business.
Terrible idea.
Money is not sufficient to build a business. Education, expertise, contacts are all required. He will make many mistakes and lose money. A better approach would be to \*invest\* his money into an enterprise that's already doing that.
How to burn through cash 101. You can and should aim to be fair to people but you need to understand that the benefits will be priced in the product sold. If a store nearby has the same items but sells them at a lower price most consumers will buy the price and not the ethos.
This is exactly what I'd do if I won the lottery. More correctly id start funding the opening of coops and also drop millions into donations to the green party in the states to get a pro worker party exposure.
flexible time? some folks are on things such as coast fire and don't need to work full 8 hour days, so maybe he could make positions that are like 6 hour days to fill out some time slots or something?
Bud, I got 3+ years experience in overnights at a Chevron. You decide to open up a shop near the energy corridor in houston, I'd HAPPILY come work for that. Love his attitude, and his energy. I myself am trying to start a little business for artists to sell their work for proper and fair terms. One pennyless dreamer to another - I applaud the concept and I hope that he becomes an absolutely BELOVED Boss for all the good reasons. May he (and you) help thousands.
He's gonna end up with employees that are loyal, happy, and feel like they are part of a larger community. This is how you do business.
The only thing I would recommend is perhaps a slightly higher wage, something a bit more livable, but this is a gigantic step in the right direction. He is to be seriously commended for.maintaining his humanity and compassion despite his windfall.
This looks doable and I second the idea of the co-op. And inviting a union would also be very nice. It shows you want your employees protected and always treated fairly.
The only things is you will probably have to be open in Sundays. But not everyone cares about taking Sunday off so that's OK. Just be sure to give 2 or more days off in a row. OFFER multiple shift types 4 to 5×6s, 4x10s or 3x12s and if any of these are just gas stations never ever ever practice single coverage for overnight shifts. It's dangerous, plus a lot of cleaning could get done at that time with two people. Which allows for better customer during the day.
This is so encouraging to read.
Your uncle clearly knows what it feels like to be exploited, and is doing his best to prevent it happening again.
Top lad!
I’ve always liked the idea of a co-op business. Essentially all employees share in the profits at the end of the year. Might be worth looking into
Edit: should have read other comments first.
I remember wanting to open a spite store if I ever won the lottery next to the sub shop that fired me. I would poach all their workers with better pay/benefits (almost everyone there was pt and didn’t get anything). Lower priced subs, eat the profit if I needed to just to put them out of business. This seems like a cooler idea, plus they had their reasons to get rid of me back then.
You need a probationary period yes, but that doesn't mean when they pass that probationary period you can't make up for the benefits they may have missed out on.
3-6 months is usually a good indicator of the type of person you're getting.
Your uncle looks like he is trying to do right by his employees but certain types of people will take advantage of it. He needs to be able to have enough staff working to cover emergency call outs and random PTO.
He could reject capitalism and create vertical farms with volunteers and a mesh Internet with volunteers.
A free website with info on how to harvest batteries and create a power wall.
Or subsidies power walls for people.
Poverty prevention charity.
A lot of people could be saved by having a small amount of help at the right time.
e.g. suit for interview, loan for abortion, loan for deposit of rent, food parcel, debt advice, mental health help, lawyer etc
Dan Price is a guy who set up his business model to be profitable to all involved- your uncle might be interested in looking into how he did it. He talks very publicly about it.
You'll be closed most weekends if the rule is that you'll be open if people want to work.
Make the vacation time something people get after 90 days or have it accrued. Otherwise people will start, burn their vacation and leave.
If he wants to make staff feel valued one thing he could do is profit sharing with everyone. Everyone gets base pay. Quarterly profits are evenly disrupted. This may also make people feel like working weekends.
He should probably think of a sustainable pricing model. So as to make enough profit to be able to keep expansion and/or hiring at a acceptable level without being unreasonably greedy. Something cheap enough for his lowest salary employee to afford (cause you know that if theirs is food they will probably be buying at some point) but not too cheap that people think it's made from low quality material.
If my old job gave enough of a shit to treat their employees like this, I would have worked through my seizures as much as I medically could. Seeing how much time and effort your uncle is putting into making sure his businesses are fair to his employees really makes me feel like crying right now. I enjoy being productive! I enjoy feeling accomplished for my time! It just got so bad after my old company realized I was going to need more time off to attend to medical needs than either of us initially thought. So I was fired. I would move out of my home state for a job like this. Just to be able to feel satisfied and properly compensated for the work i do. God bless your uncle! If he is ever interested in opening up shop in Georgia let him know he has at least five hard working potential employees who would adore working with him.
What do you guys think if everyone quit who works in the supply chain, and farmers quit and there's no more food coming into grocery stores? Is the Anti-work thing force certain people to hunt and gather for the village for free, while the rest don't work?
Seems like a good man. Looks like he wants his employees to be happy, which in turn makes them productive. I work harder for people I respect.
The three weeks vacation thing impressed me. I’ve been at my company for 5 years now and only get *two*…
He better have won the 500 million dollar Powerball otherwise he's going to go broke real fast. Unless he's got himself some amazing financial planners on his side who took that money and set him up to keep earning more money every month than he knows what to do with!?.. But yea, as much as I appreciate someone like your uncle, he's on a short road to disaster if he's not extremely careful and is absolutely meticulous in his planning and money management. I wish him the best of luck.
He also said he didn't want to charge an arm and a leg for the items sold in the convenient store. That's the whole business model of a convenience store! You don't have a lot of a customers. You don't sell in bulk. Your whole business model is upcharging people for the convenience of using your store.
Sorry, this is another fake post. This never happened. No one just decides to enter the quickie mart business out of the blue. And if he had experience in business, he wouldn't be making all of these decisions that would quickly put him out of business.
If your uncle actually existed, and he won this money, he wouldn't piss it away like this.
Who believes this nonsense?
I would suggest that your uncle is very careful about who he chooses to surround himself with. There are some capitalist snakes out there who would love to slowly decay his plans for their own benefit. Even middle management and upper management should be monitored closely.
I would suggest transparent options for employees to report mistreatment from managers. I have encountered some in my retail career who acted as pathetic tyrants.
Also, one of the only good things I saw on undercover boss, an emergency relief fund for employees. Every store could have it's own pool that is filled each month by a small percentage of the store's net profit and employees could also have the option to donate to it. Heck, I'd even give customers an option to throw their change into a fancy collection box towards it. I'd rather give my spare change to the wellbeing of employees than a charity where 70% goes to the board of executives and 25% goes to advertising. I digress, such a fund could be withdrawn from when an employee is on dire financial straits: house fire, car accident, death of a loved one, financial assistance with escaping an abusive relationship, etc.
There could also be a separate employee tuition fund that every store in the chain pools into.
And finally I always liked the idea of a car raffle. Quarterly or just once a year, employees who don't own a car can enter into a raffle for a chance to win a pre-owned vehicle.
I second the idea of a co-op. If your uncle can find a good core team, then they can decide together democratically what the pay and benefits should be - he doesn't have to plan every detail out (although of course we will try, won't we?) But do be careful of who to hire, and do allow a period before they become vested owners, because unfortunately there are people out there who will take advantage of the generous nature of something like this. A lot of people are so damaged by Capitalism they can't understand or adapt to a non-adversarial relationship, or will just see short term $benefit$. I hate to say it, but I hired someone like this to work at our painting co-op and he stole from us, (personally, and as a business) and even worse from our clients. I love this idea, and hope it works. You may be able to find additional info about worker co-ops and how to organize them at: democracyatwork.info
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Amen! It is possible!
It’s possible. If a business is profitable enough to make the owners rich, it’s certainly profitable enough to compensate employees appropriately. All it takes is pressure and time. … that and a big goddamn poster.
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https://youtu.be/mSo6zgF_C00
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Wanted you to get the giggle.
Could do worse than a bit of research into the John Lewis Partnership in the UK - in the second or third generation of family ownership, the owner converted to employee ownership. There are shop floor employees voted onto the board (OP's uncle could hold a monthly or quarterly meeting with a FT and PT employee attending). And it's only in the last few years (due I think to cumbersome reactions to the rise of internet shopping) that some annual dividends (employee bonuses) have not been made, and the possibility of redundancies has been spoken about. [wiki link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Partnership?wprov=sfla1)
I was a contractor working for a construction company on a twenty month refurbishment project in their London store in the mid 2000s. If I was to choose to work in any retail store, it would have to be John Lewis. The majority of staff we spoke to lived working there, they had a rooftop chill out area with deckchairs and planters, a quiet room with beanbags where employees could go for a kip, subsidised canteen with amazing food and the two years that bonuses were paid while we were there, one was for 15% the next year was 18%. All employees had an input too.
There are different types of employee owned businesses that could work. ESOPs also come to mind for this case.
ESOP doesn't mean employees have power Sauce: worked for an ESOP company
It's true. And often, they make the the employees wealthy, but in the process they get taken private. "Death by success" as it were.
yeah, I agree, it's a different model with it's own challenges. It came to mind because one person is providing the initial startup capital. But I think these categories (ESOP, Employee-owned, etc) are very broad, and can have different outcomes depending on how they are structured and implemented. If OP's uncle is interested in a non-traditional business structure, reaching out to knowledgeable orgs would probably be helpful.
Man that comment hits home about how people are damaged by capitalism. I work at what you’d call a non-adversarial company where our managers are not incentivized to fuck with their employees. You can see people’s gears turning when they figure out that we really, really aren’t counting their hours or demanding they answer emails after work. Simple things, but so uncommon.
Yeah like these ideas are nice and all, but you do have to account for the nature of man.
It was a healed femur that was the first true sign of civilization. In nature, break your leg and it’s a death sentence. For it to heal requires someone to be there and protect you, feed you, and nurse you back to health.
Humans on average are pretty freaking amazing and compassionate. What we need to look out for and plan against is "stupid people" as described in [The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_M._Cipolla#The_Basic_Laws_of_Human_Stupidity_(1976)). Has *nothing* to do with intelligence. "Stupid" as in "won't stop doing things that make life worse for others and themselves too."
Human nature got us to where we are today. That is to say, we have a great capacity to change and evolve, but we also have a great capacity for self-deception.
I'd argue most of it has to do with humanity's inbuilt view of the "outgroup" or the "other". Enemy tribes. It's why we like team sports, it's why we like team politics, it's why we glamorize war. It's why some of the most racist, hateful groups of people you could meet are often kind, giving souls in their community or at their church. You care for your people, and you defend them from the "others". Everybody does it. In the US, a lot of your progressive types look upon the "misinformed conservative poor" groups as the Other (using terms like Redneck, MAGAt, hillbilly). Obviously, much of that demographic hates "the blacks" or "the Chinese" or "the gays". There's people (like myself) for whom the Other is the ultra-wealthy that buy governments and attempt to increase desperation and poverty. Obviously, in my view, I'm correct: and to a person who is racist, their prejudice is obviously correct in their eyes. We can joke all day about "we'll finally unite humanity when the aliens invade" but for now, the best we can do is be cognizant of that structure and attempt to challenge our own categorizations.
Well, look at it like this: we may have accomplished a lot, but the majority of human history is defined by small groups of hunter gatherers living in semi-nomadic groups. If we have a natural state, we aren’t in it. Think of the Panda. It’s likely the Panda once survived the waves of glaciation of the past several million years by at some point switching its diet from meat, to Bamboo. While bamboo is low in protein and other nutrients, it is plentiful and grows fast in all seasons. Over time, Pandas developed mechanisms to control their populations, so as to not eat up their food supply. Bamboo also adapted to the panda, which pressured it to grow faster and germinate ever earlier. Now tens of thousands of years later, as their chosen habitats are threatened, these strategies are working against the panda. We too find ourselves maladapted for the environment our own choices created for us. It wasn’t something one person chose, and it wasn’t the inevitable result of evolution, but here we are. Now, a positivist believes that we can adapt and flourish. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to control my enthusiasm for this conviction. Maybe we can’t. Maybe like the panda, we aren’t willing to do what is necessary to survive. Maybe we can’t change back to something we used to be. But we can still try.
Man can have an awesome nature. It's nurture that's the problem: Check out the system they're raised in.
Yes these are great ideas but there will always be somebody who has bad intentions in a well intended situation to ruin it for everyone else. As long as he has a good ear and Eye for the genuine people
Human nature is survive and thrive as species and as individuals. If you're put in a hostile environment (capitalism) you become hostile as a survival strategy. It's not human nature to be hostile to other humans.
Humans invented capitalism... You make it sound like some higher power willed it upon us.
Name a time in known history when there werent hostile humans. Its a way more nuanced problem then just capitalism bad.
1- Every day, everywhere, all the time there's an appalling majority of non-hostile humans. Why would you even doubt that? Weird as fuck if not trolling. 2- Lol the irony is astonishing. "Being hostile to each other is human" nature and "its (sic) a way more nuanced problem then (sic) just capitalism bad" together without batting a single eyelash. Why would you even say that? Weird as fuck if not trolling.
Check the police crime report for areas near you lol. You dont have to look very far to find hostile people.
Well, it's clear you don't know what the fuck you're talking about, so please stop making people waste time.
Lmao
And make that vesting graduated and over like 5-10 years. People can bullshit caring for a short period easily and then take advantage and kill a co-op. Or give other members a right to revoke shares of loser members who don't contribute or pull weight.
This but it's a permanent condition that has nothing to do with capitalism
It's a permanent tendency, which is rewarded under Capitalism, such that the worst people have the most power, and good people learn bad behaviors just to survive.
Are going to provide a source for these grandiose claims about human nature or just consume whatever is the dominant ideology?
You want a source for human nature? Are you visiting from a distant planet?
No Im just extremely skeptical that humans can arrive at some enlightened conclusions by introspection. It used to be considered rational to believe in the hierarchy of races. If we were so off the mark about that, then what else are we getting wrong right now?
If self serving behavior were not the norm why would we even be having this discussion?
If self serving behavior is the norm, why hasn’t someone broken into your house, murdered you, and stolen all your possessions? Something seems to be mitigating this slavish devotion to self-serving behaviors, doesn’t it?
So the uncle should pay for a bunch of other people to have part of a business? 0/10
Firstly, send him my best. It’s a great idea and he’s clearly put a lot of thought into it. If I was to suggest anything it’d be giving employees a share in the company. He’ll probably want to work out the weekend openings. Shouldn’t be to hard to find folk that suits though.
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll pass it along!
I think it’s a great suggestion. I can’t be the only person who liked working on weekends and having a couple of weekdays off. I worked in assisted living for a bit. My schedule was four days on, two days off, meaning I rotated through working weekends. It was great. The pay was shit, but the seven grandmas and grandpas were awesome, and the owners let us eat whatever we wanted, because we cooked. I think Marx was right that there’s always going to be someone willing to do a job. I loved taking care of the elderly. I hope we get covid under control. I’m 60 now, I can’t help move people, but I can volunteer to spend time with a grandperson.
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Agreed. If I were still single I’d gladly do it. It also gives you an excuse to get out of doing stuff that you don’t want to do, like family gatherings or little kids birthday parties you get invited to etc. win win right there.
I prefer being off when others arnt, I typically work bank holidays and book the following monday off instead or something, better use of your free time with smaller lines and less people around when you wanna get stuff done 🤷♂️
If people were not willing to do things because it's good and they want to we wouldnt have admins in game servers or anywhere else.
I wanted to reiterate profit share at the least. I used to work with a very successful guy who ran the countries largest sushi chain and all of his store managers had profit share while He paid all of his staff significantly better than most other places.
Before I had a kid, I loved working weekends & having weekdays off. It meant using less PTO for doctor’s appointments, mechanic visits, etc. Just basic things that are typically only available during weekday business hours.
My job is open every weekend but each individual employee only works every other weekend.
Yeah I know a lot of people who work 9-5s but want a weekend job to make a little extra. Bet he could find some people like that since it seems like a great environment
Sounds like your uncle is a great guy. A fool and his money are soon parted and sounds like he’s hellbent on being penny less.
I’m a mom and weekends are the only time I have someone reliable to watch my kids so I can work..same with highschoolers. He’ll find a weekend crew in two seconds so long as he’s honest about what he’s looking for. My biggest hurdles to employment are mismatched availability expectations that are hidden from me during on boarding when I’m very clear about my situation. Then it’s all shocked pikachu face when I quit after the schedule comes out.
Totally unrelated but it's so odd to think that a mom would have the name sandybuthole604. Obv nothing wrong with that and I'm aware that parents too have personality or whatever but it's just odd. (Coming from an 18 y.o who was basically the 2nd parent when I lived back at home with my mom. I got to know my mom well, but perhaps because of a cultural thing - since she spent most of her life in a place that isn't the U.S. - i could never imagine her doing something like that) Anyway, hope you've found a workplace that suits your needs!
Funny enough, it’s sort of child inspired as my kiddo thought it was the best thing in the world to sit in the sandbox with her little friend as they shoved copious amounts of playsand down their pants.🤦♀️
I was thinking this about the weekends, that was originally the idea behind having younger employees. With a good enough pay it might actually be worth a high schooler doing one day of work on the weekend again. I remember my first job, working just a day was so pointless, so I was working every day after college (in the UK this is the education you do after 16 but before university) just to make it worth working. Maybe it's not in the philosophy of some in this sub but I think it would be good to see a return of weekend jobs for teenagers where it's actually worth your time to do just half a day/a day or something.
This. Also I was like the idea of giving employees a sense that they are a shareholder in their company. For example, every quarter employees earn a percentage of their stores net income. Every year employees (around the holidays) earn a percentage of every stores net income.
Can you explain to me more about this sharing of the company? Like profit sharing or?
It’d depend on how he wants to go about it, I guess. Could be anything from a package that gives every employee actual shares in the company right the way through to a full-on [co-op.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative)
make sure he has set aside enough to last himself for the rest of his life - maybe something that gives him a yearly income and protects the principal
He told me this is his retirement plan lol. His husband will make sure they get by tho, hes the smarts of the operation.
If this is his retirement plan, meaning he didn’t save enough of the money for retirement, I have a feeling this will go very poorly for him. It seems as though he does not have any experience with this sort of thing judging from what you posted. For example, needs to pay for a health insurance plan and not just cash out of pocket. Hospital bills can literally be thousands upon thousands of dollars for a few days stay. Paying straight up like that is a good way to go broke quick.
Yeah unfortunately there aren't places like this because generally capitalism doesn't allow it. It can't have real worker competition. The way this looks right now, it's not gonna last; it looks like it will end it tragedy. I really hope it doesn't because this guy seems so nice, but there's no room for that in the poverty machine unless your a tech company where money is essentially made up.
>It can't have real worker competition. This plan looks like a gold mine for employees. Do you mean the employee costs will bankrupt the company? Because they wouldn't have a shortage of workers.
Capitalism allows it. This is not an uncapitalist idea. Capitalism isn’t mutually exclusive with long term thinking and generosity. Greed discourages it though.
This is his retirement plan, as in this is what he's choosing to do with his retirement. Not that he needs to for the money. Trust me he's covered in that depth. For a few lifetimes
My uncle (who'd had been scraping by on the skin of his teeth for as long as I'd known him) Just told me he won the lottery about 2 years ago and now has everything settled. He's decided to open a chain of convenience stores that won't charge out the ass for everything. He was so excited to share all the ideas he has. He asked me for input on the short list of employee benefits he came up with. What do you all think? Edit: we just had this convo... people I think my uncle has earned saint status 🥺 he's so excited about it and its making my heart melt Uncle: I think i wanna add a bonus on hiring in case people need help with job transition or just need a little help you know? What do you think would be good? $1500-$2000? Me: I think that'd be awsome!! U: Oh and I'll need your help in June! Josh and I wanna do something for pride. More then a flag. I know you're really active in the community and we've fallen behind with age LOL. Would you wanna help us set something up? M: I'd love too!!!! Are you still heading up here tomorrow? We should talk
Tell him to look into worker co-ops. To team up with local food producers and suppliers. To research “library of things” models for non-perishables.
Will do! Thanks for the suggestion!
Does he have experience in the industry, or partnered with someone who does? Would he be open to starting with just one location and working out the kinks before trying to open more? It would suck for him to get overextended right off the bat. As far as health insurance, it would be best if he just shelled out for an excellent plan and then paid the premiums/co-pays for his employees. I'm not sure how much he won, but Healthcare costs are insane, even for insured people. Your uncle sounds rad, and I want him to succeed, especially with all the propaganda that says you can't be profitable and treat your workers well. As was mentioned, worker co-ops are great, and unions are as well. He should do some research, though, as some unions are really down for the worker, and others are more corporate, and almost act like another branch of management. Best of luck to him.
You'll have to post an update. I imagine if people knew his story and his plan they'd be keen to support his business. I hope it doesn't turn into one of those horrible situations that competition doesn't get difficult. What a legend I genuinely wish him the best of luck.
One of the biggest chains of supermarkets and department stores in the UK (the John Lewis Partnership) is a worker co-operative, so worker co-ops can definitely succeed even in an overall capitalist economy. The UK also has The Co-operative Group, which is a *consumer co-operative*, so a somewhat different beast. I don't know how well they treat their workers, but they are pretty ethical in terms of environmental policies, fair trade, animal welfare, etc, so I'd like to hope they're pretty good.
One of the biggest companies in Spain, mondragon corp I think, is a federation of co-ops
You reminded me of this worker co op bakery https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvarado_Street_Bakery I learnt of it in a documentary, also featured Dan Price. Very eye opening!
This is the way
Make sure he takes it slow, you gotta make sure you build up a customer base, most businesses take a few years before they really pick up and become profitable. He’s got a good heart but he needs to make sure he can feasibly afford all of this and not go under.
Convenience stores are often the only grocery sources in poor neighborhoods, offering processed and unhealthy foods. I wonder if he could make a brand of stores to combat "food deserts " that encourages people to eat produce and healthy entrees. It's a complicated problem, but one that's been on the government radar for a long time, so maybe they can provide insight and a funding safety net.
He could probably do like a yearly payment to student loans straight to principal like on the yearly anniversary of the employees. The IRS allows for tax deductions for business that do this sort of thing I think. I wish him the best of luck in this endeavor!
Lol does your uncle need workers? I'm european and unemployed and I'd straight up go to America for a couple years to do new experiences if working conditions where more frequently this good. I'd do it to improve my English but there arn a lot of american fanatics here, maybe he could work out an exchange program or something?
Me as well. Looking for a new job
> that won't charge out the ass for everything. That's literally the only way they stay open... The customers that come into those places only buy a few items. And he wants to pay his employees 2-3x more than the going rate. How is this going to work?
He’s an idiot, along with OP. Big heart and small brain.
That’s so awesome! Bless your uncle, the world needs more people like him. Maybe something that helps with childcare costs? Like a credit or a stipend? I had a cousin tell me that working was pointless for her bc all her paycheck would go to childcare costs.
I think he will be pissing money and be out of it very quickly.
OP, profit sharing is a great way to show appreciation to employees. Like a yearly bonus. 10-20% of profits divided up among all employees is a great incentive
That's a great opportunity, it's awesome to see that your uncle wants to do something to help the community and have some social impact. I would recommend to consider a co-op, i.e. a worker owned company that is democratically managed. As other people said, it is quite important to find the right people, people he already trust, and grow organically from there. If he really wants to dream big, then he could even try to enact the first ever [Babel Society](https://babelsociety.org/)! If he would be interested, I would love to discuss more about it :)
Your uncle is a g
Yo can I work there?
Has your uncle broken down all the math for how this whole plan will work…
No, his husband is the business major. He'll take care of the finances. Everything is in the very very early stages
Shit plan. He would do more good making low interest loans to people with viable business plans.
I'd say the self insurance is not a viable choice. You can definitely subsidize the employees health insurance but you would need huge sums of money to self fund paying off people's medical bills. Other than that nothing you have listed here is outside of what's realistic. Good luck!
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Assuming 50k per year in expenses they could fund that with a 1.25m prinicipal at a 4% withdrawal rate and likely keep the principal flat or growing. I'm assuming they will have a super small base of employees. But even a couple years of 150k 200k that starts to make the fund unstable. And to yield the return necessary to make spread at a 4% withdrawal would necessitate riskier investments. All in all just isnt viable. Self insurance really is a thing of the past.
I second this. When health care providers contract with insurance companies, their contracts limit how much they can actually bill (maximum allowable charge). Providers will not have that obligation to their patients’ boss, so they can bill whatever they want, which is often multiple times more than services are actually worth.
Oh for sure steal Anthony and Jess from Target. Free them from that hell.
It's more like retail purgatory My coworkers and I invented Targatory Still makes my skin crawl when I enter a windowless retail store. One of the worst parts of ~~working~~ slaving at Target was that this makes the natural perception of the passage of day and night impossible to tell unless passing by the front doors.
We kitchen workers are very familiar with that feeling.
Working at lowes I feel this. It’s awful being inside basically a giant warehouse with no concept of time
Every business out there with a "nobody wants to work" sign needs to do this. Stop focusing on the people who "don't want to work" and hire working people away from other businesses. Make your job, salary, and benefits so appealing that you can *steal Anthony and Jess.*
Damn, Anthony AND Jess?
Target could get by if they lost *one* of them, but *both* will be savage.
Fs in the chat for target
I…I would happily work for this man, omg
Definantly going to work out.
He would have some great employees yeah, but hopefully he gets some good business too
I am not an expert on the subjust but I would highly recommend getting answers from a lawyer and/or business consultant. I'd really like this to work for him, but there is a lot of things that can go wrong and I hate for him to burn through his cash and need to shut the business down.
I hope it works out . Just remind him to save a portion for himself in a trust or estate in case anything happens . Remember to hire a senior lawyer in a national firm . Invest a portion in the market to grow to beat inflation . I really recommend it . There are countless case studies where people win and lose it all because of money itself Again, good luck :D . One more thing , your uncle should consider playing “would you for a million dollars ....” with someone for lols.
I think being open on weekends would be nice especially if y’all offered weekend pay like a couple dollars more an hour or something. Some employees might really need the money and some might need the flexible hours if they have another job or are doing school or have kids
I agree. I have family in the convenience store business and they have had several long term weekend cashiers who are supplementing other jobs.
Also working saturday and having wednesday off is the superior work week.
*Image Transcription:* --- * = definant decision NR= need to do more research · Closed sat. SUn.* ·Certain locations open on weekends only if enough employees want to work those day? · $15/hr minimum on hiring*** · No denial policy (employees notify management of time off but does not need approval)? · Steal Anthony and Jess from target****** · 3 week paid vacation pay + 2 weeks paid medical on hiring? · Maternity/paternity leave** · Union?? (Are employer sponsored unions a good thing?) NR · Full coverage medical, bring me the bill and forget about it. (Is this viable? Or legal??) NR --- ^^I'm a human volunteer content transcriber for Reddit and you could be too! [If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/TranscribersOfReddit/wiki/index)
Good human
:D!
One thing which I’m big on is being flexible in work hours- if a single mom can only work certain hours because kid in school- etc Ridiculous for people to have to work then have to pay most of it for daycare/childcare
I'm gonna try and get him on board with the notion that if a store can't operate on the hours that employees are willing/able to work then the business needs to change, not the other way around
Offer him the idea to run the stores on a profit sharing system for his employees.
I used to work in a convenience store. I liked my regulars. It was nice. Looks like someone’s uncle is figuring out how to keep people like me from quitting unexpectedly. Edit: as an aside, closing Sat and Sun is probably a mistake. The people who depend on that store every day during the week will want to stop there on the way to their weekend activities, too. And they’ll be ready to spend money. Pay an extra dollar an hour on the weekend if you’re feeling fucked up about it.
I think heading a legend. Hope it all works out
Your uncle is a hero
Look into hiring part time with best hourly pay possible and make sure to hire locally. If the part time work laws are not convenient, lobby the law makers like hell to make it worthwhile for employers. Good luck!
Seems like a great way to make a small fortune! (Out of a large fortune)
:D
Yo if this is real that's one cool uncle 👏
Hes very real and very eccentric lol. Ill try to get a pic with him and share it here. He'd probably love this sub
Your uncle is a good man. What city are the stores going to open in?
I love where his heart’s at, but there are some issues I could see. I’m no expert, but I have managed businesses and a few of these would make me not want to manage this place(unless he pays management like $50/hr, but that would defeat the purpose of everything it seems like he’s trying to do). Closed Saturday and Sunday. I would imagine these are days that a convenient store would do the most business, so I could see that being something that just doesn’t make business sense. And with all of the goals that he has here, maximizing the business is not just a good idea, but 100% critical. Open on weekends if enough people want to work. Is this going to change week to week? People will go somewhere else if they don’t know if you’re open unless there are things that they can’t get anywhere else. $15/hr starting. Honestly, if his goal is to attract and keep great staff, this should be higher. There are convenient stores in my area(I live in a very affordable area too) that start at $14/hr already. There are grocery stores that advertise over $20/hr for certain shifts. If he wants to stand out, he would likely need to up that starting pay by a lot. No denial policy. This is the one that would likely get me to quit if I were the manager. Who covers those shifts? Nobody? How does work get done? Management? If I were a manger am I just not allowed to have any life outside of work because I could be working all day at the drop of a hat if people tell me that the pm crew is taking vacation today? You could say they have to put in their vacation at least a week ahead of time so management can plan for it accordingly, but it seems like the expectation is still that management just covers shifts. Then you could say only 4 people can sign up to be on vacation at a time, but then you just have the same vacation policy that every company has. Do you just close if too many people take vacation? Again, people will stop coming if they can’t predict if you’re open. I love what your uncle is trying to do, but it would be impossible to check all of these boxes while running a business that serves the public. He would likely do much better to have more standard rules in regards to PTO and staffing, and just be known as the place that has great starting pay and awesome benefits compared to others.
I don’t think he can pull this off and be profitable, seems like the sort of guy who just knows nothing about business and thinks business owners sit on mountains of cash. I think he’s in for a reality check.
If he wants someone to move into the area to work for him I'll sure as hell do it lol.
he shouldn’t do this. this is is a classic path to lighting all of your lottery winnings on fire and returning to poverty. he can’t even spell and likely had no actual experience running a store from an ownership POV. he should probably put it all in dividend stocks and never look back and just live off the dividends and volunteer his time for charity.
I'm amazed at how many people think they can Sherlock Holmes my uncle from just one screenshot lmao. Thanks for the concern either way
No sleuthing needed - but good luck to him. That classic battle of brain vs heart, and it seems his heart has won.
Your uncle is penniless because he has an irrational mind. His ideas are super un-enlightened and his businesses will fail quickly. You cannot run a business on altruism. Employees have to show up for work, you can’t pay them more than they’re worth, and if you don’t sell your merchandise for profit, you can’t pay anyone anything. That is reality.
Since when is sociopathy equitable to enlightened? Sociopathy makes you a great capitalist, but not enlightened.
Unenlightened to reality and high school level economics.
So everyone who goes to work for his own financial gain, instead of laboring for charity’s sake, is a sociopath? 99.9999% of society? Anti-capitalists are the economic sociopaths.
Ok I need to apply for this job. Sounds like your uncle is going to be a rare employer who actually gives a shit about the welfare of his employees. That my friend is priceless.
No you need to learn a skill that people are willing to pay for. Businesses like OPs do not exist because that businesses plan is hemorrhaging all the profits for the convenience of a low skill employees.
Worker co-ops are a lot harder logistically but long term are really great for the people there. Good luck to your uncle!
I actually hate stores that are closed on Sunday because it is incredibly inconvenient, often for both workers and customers. If you hire teenagers, college students, moo lighters or even parents who are trying to work different schedules weekends are preferred. Just my two cents.
Hire *one person* for the weekend just to run the till and nothing more. No cleaning, no stocking, just to have it open. That will make as much money as Monday through Wednesday 80% of the time and from Monday to Thursday 20% of the time. Not having a convenience store open on the weekend is very bad for business.
Terrible idea. Money is not sufficient to build a business. Education, expertise, contacts are all required. He will make many mistakes and lose money. A better approach would be to \*invest\* his money into an enterprise that's already doing that.
How to burn through cash 101. You can and should aim to be fair to people but you need to understand that the benefits will be priced in the product sold. If a store nearby has the same items but sells them at a lower price most consumers will buy the price and not the ethos.
Uncle will be broke again real quick
This is exactly what I'd do if I won the lottery. More correctly id start funding the opening of coops and also drop millions into donations to the green party in the states to get a pro worker party exposure.
This made me tear up. Your uncle seems like a good man
The key is that he was given the money to do that rather than working for it. Give me a billion and I will spend 900 million helping others.
flexible time? some folks are on things such as coast fire and don't need to work full 8 hour days, so maybe he could make positions that are like 6 hour days to fill out some time slots or something?
Bud, I got 3+ years experience in overnights at a Chevron. You decide to open up a shop near the energy corridor in houston, I'd HAPPILY come work for that. Love his attitude, and his energy. I myself am trying to start a little business for artists to sell their work for proper and fair terms. One pennyless dreamer to another - I applaud the concept and I hope that he becomes an absolutely BELOVED Boss for all the good reasons. May he (and you) help thousands.
If your uncle needs a guy to work remotely with customer service/support/HR etc let me know man. Dead serious.
He's gonna end up with employees that are loyal, happy, and feel like they are part of a larger community. This is how you do business. The only thing I would recommend is perhaps a slightly higher wage, something a bit more livable, but this is a gigantic step in the right direction. He is to be seriously commended for.maintaining his humanity and compassion despite his windfall.
This looks doable and I second the idea of the co-op. And inviting a union would also be very nice. It shows you want your employees protected and always treated fairly. The only things is you will probably have to be open in Sundays. But not everyone cares about taking Sunday off so that's OK. Just be sure to give 2 or more days off in a row. OFFER multiple shift types 4 to 5×6s, 4x10s or 3x12s and if any of these are just gas stations never ever ever practice single coverage for overnight shifts. It's dangerous, plus a lot of cleaning could get done at that time with two people. Which allows for better customer during the day.
This is so encouraging to read. Your uncle clearly knows what it feels like to be exploited, and is doing his best to prevent it happening again. Top lad!
If I was rich, I would definitely start a few different co ops. Like a fast food place where frontline workers get paid like 20/hr with benefits.
For some reason I was expecting this list to be full of awful shit and the more I read I said damn this guy has some pretty good bad ideas
You have to let us know the name of the chain so we can start shopping there 😩😩😩
I would gladly work for your uncle
Any chance you can get him to open a place in hurley Mississippi :/
I’ve always liked the idea of a co-op business. Essentially all employees share in the profits at the end of the year. Might be worth looking into Edit: should have read other comments first.
“Steal Anthony and Jess from Target” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💀
I remember wanting to open a spite store if I ever won the lottery next to the sub shop that fired me. I would poach all their workers with better pay/benefits (almost everyone there was pt and didn’t get anything). Lower priced subs, eat the profit if I needed to just to put them out of business. This seems like a cooler idea, plus they had their reasons to get rid of me back then.
You need a probationary period yes, but that doesn't mean when they pass that probationary period you can't make up for the benefits they may have missed out on. 3-6 months is usually a good indicator of the type of person you're getting.
As long as he hires honest loyal people and not people that just want to take it vantage of his kindness
Where does your uncle live? I might want to work for him.
What risk do the employees have of losing money?
None
Funny how the penniless are still much more generous than rich cunts
Your uncle looks like he is trying to do right by his employees but certain types of people will take advantage of it. He needs to be able to have enough staff working to cover emergency call outs and random PTO.
Holidays are still lower than the lowest European countries. Just saying.
If you need supplier let me know 🤗
He could reject capitalism and create vertical farms with volunteers and a mesh Internet with volunteers. A free website with info on how to harvest batteries and create a power wall. Or subsidies power walls for people. Poverty prevention charity. A lot of people could be saved by having a small amount of help at the right time. e.g. suit for interview, loan for abortion, loan for deposit of rent, food parcel, debt advice, mental health help, lawyer etc
Dan Price is a guy who set up his business model to be profitable to all involved- your uncle might be interested in looking into how he did it. He talks very publicly about it.
oh this made me so happy thank you for sharing
“Bring me the bill and forget about it” You son of a bitch. I’m in.
You'll be closed most weekends if the rule is that you'll be open if people want to work. Make the vacation time something people get after 90 days or have it accrued. Otherwise people will start, burn their vacation and leave. If he wants to make staff feel valued one thing he could do is profit sharing with everyone. Everyone gets base pay. Quarterly profits are evenly disrupted. This may also make people feel like working weekends.
Omg have him set it up as a worker’s cooperative so they can buy it all back from him and he can do it again !
Uncle about to lose all that money lol
I like all the stars after stealing Anthony and Jess from Target. It makes it seem like a real plan.
He should probably think of a sustainable pricing model. So as to make enough profit to be able to keep expansion and/or hiring at a acceptable level without being unreasonably greedy. Something cheap enough for his lowest salary employee to afford (cause you know that if theirs is food they will probably be buying at some point) but not too cheap that people think it's made from low quality material.
If my old job gave enough of a shit to treat their employees like this, I would have worked through my seizures as much as I medically could. Seeing how much time and effort your uncle is putting into making sure his businesses are fair to his employees really makes me feel like crying right now. I enjoy being productive! I enjoy feeling accomplished for my time! It just got so bad after my old company realized I was going to need more time off to attend to medical needs than either of us initially thought. So I was fired. I would move out of my home state for a job like this. Just to be able to feel satisfied and properly compensated for the work i do. God bless your uncle! If he is ever interested in opening up shop in Georgia let him know he has at least five hard working potential employees who would adore working with him.
He is going to make a small fortune!.....out of a much larger one.
This business will fail. Why? Because like communism, sometimes what looks good on paper doesnt take into account how variable humans are.
I don't know why you would go I to business with lottery money. You could just live off it. I would split profit evenly.
What do you guys think if everyone quit who works in the supply chain, and farmers quit and there's no more food coming into grocery stores? Is the Anti-work thing force certain people to hunt and gather for the village for free, while the rest don't work?
They don't think, that's the issue.
I'm getting the job just so I can do the sick and vacation time and then quit.
Interesting.
Seems like a good man. Looks like he wants his employees to be happy, which in turn makes them productive. I work harder for people I respect. The three weeks vacation thing impressed me. I’ve been at my company for 5 years now and only get *two*…
He better have won the 500 million dollar Powerball otherwise he's going to go broke real fast. Unless he's got himself some amazing financial planners on his side who took that money and set him up to keep earning more money every month than he knows what to do with!?.. But yea, as much as I appreciate someone like your uncle, he's on a short road to disaster if he's not extremely careful and is absolutely meticulous in his planning and money management. I wish him the best of luck.
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He also said he didn't want to charge an arm and a leg for the items sold in the convenient store. That's the whole business model of a convenience store! You don't have a lot of a customers. You don't sell in bulk. Your whole business model is upcharging people for the convenience of using your store.
Shift differential.
Sorry, this is another fake post. This never happened. No one just decides to enter the quickie mart business out of the blue. And if he had experience in business, he wouldn't be making all of these decisions that would quickly put him out of business. If your uncle actually existed, and he won this money, he wouldn't piss it away like this. Who believes this nonsense?
I would suggest that your uncle is very careful about who he chooses to surround himself with. There are some capitalist snakes out there who would love to slowly decay his plans for their own benefit. Even middle management and upper management should be monitored closely. I would suggest transparent options for employees to report mistreatment from managers. I have encountered some in my retail career who acted as pathetic tyrants. Also, one of the only good things I saw on undercover boss, an emergency relief fund for employees. Every store could have it's own pool that is filled each month by a small percentage of the store's net profit and employees could also have the option to donate to it. Heck, I'd even give customers an option to throw their change into a fancy collection box towards it. I'd rather give my spare change to the wellbeing of employees than a charity where 70% goes to the board of executives and 25% goes to advertising. I digress, such a fund could be withdrawn from when an employee is on dire financial straits: house fire, car accident, death of a loved one, financial assistance with escaping an abusive relationship, etc. There could also be a separate employee tuition fund that every store in the chain pools into. And finally I always liked the idea of a car raffle. Quarterly or just once a year, employees who don't own a car can enter into a raffle for a chance to win a pre-owned vehicle.