Awww what a cute and snuggly fox!

looks so cool ^^

It's not like you can just duck out to the L.A. Fashion District to get all the faux fur you'd need for prices so low, even a Wal-Mart associate can afford it.

I’ll try not to make this reply to long.

A lot have a habit of treating all people who work at Walmart as a bunch of poor paid dumb-shits. No matter what the retail is, it just doesn’t pay good except better than the food service. A couple weeks back some guy was complaining about how someone made a BLT and forgot the bacon, but he made a snide remark that the person must have worked for Walmart at one time. I so much wanted to go off on him, and say that not all of us enjoy the luxury of living off of daddy’s old oil money.

I think that I have notice about many fursuiters is that there are very little of the blue collar working class/factory grunts. Most seem to be those with good paying careers, collage Rah-Rahs, and/or parents with deep pockets. Not going to mention any names but there are those who don’t have a fancy pedigree that don’t even work that manage to somehow get one.

I have good friends who are Rah-Rahs, I sometimes get jealous of them because I never had some of the nice things that they do, nore will I ever be able to afford to get them sort of toys. At the same time one of my rare hobbies sure chews a nice hole in my pocket so I guess we break even

It it would be nice to have a good paying job, but that would mean relocating and loosing the Deer.

It's quite understandable. After all, when I got the material for Comet via the LA Fashion District, I was just beginning my Wal-Mart adventures. (If memory serves, it was around $150 for enough quality material to make two whole suits out of, plus spare parts.) Now, over ten years later, I'm watching the horror of this 'Customer First' program going into effect. And it is definitely work in an economy where jobs are slipping away in the background. Like a higher ranking manager's position, just a couple weeks ago or so. We really lost a few great people in that budget saver. So, I'm not making a mockery posting. I'm speaking from experience.

A number of years ago, when the economy was crashed by some shady loan practices, I got to see a few of those college degree, high paying job types. They 'should have' been set up for life with their specialty employment that needed the years of study. But...when the money situation became harsh...there was Wal-Mart and it's employment offers. Still remember the little discussion that was quite serious about this one guy's plans on working daily at Wally's...and camping out in the alley in the back at night, because the paycheck was barely going to cover housing costs. And when I hear endless rumors that 'Wally' is always trying to find ways of removing 'full time employment', yet has not found that magic formula that keeps the shelves stocked, it makes me tremble. Especially in light of a new age tech on the horizon that should have stayed in sci-fi land...those Humanoid androids that can walk, talk, pick up boxes and help guests with a painted on smile...or hold a gun and kill on the battlefield. (Just needs a software change, I'm sure.) And I would bet the life savings on seeing them show up in ten years or more. After all, the cashier jobs are known to be at risk as the number of self service registers just keeps on growing and growing.

I will admit that the, Customer First Program is a big joke. It was probably created by some University Rah-Rahs that probably never step foot in a store, that got the idea from serving tables at some place like the Cracker Barrel which had some real nutty shit going on when it came to micro managing. Then again a place like that along with most retail is a stepping job till you can find better. What sucks is out where I live there isn't really a large line of good paying jobs. So if you want one you need to relocate, drive huge amounts of miles. As for The Customer First Program it should be renamed let's run off our long term associates. The one real winners out of it are the new hires. We tried that program in my area for two weeks but it really bombed. We were running into bad holes of no coverage and not scheduling enough man hours to take care of the customers. It was more of a case that they wanted on person to do the work of three people. It bombed back in 2012 so what makes them think it's going to work in 2018? Since my area is a service area, we can adjust our schedules, and we went back to our old one. Yea there are a few people pissed off about my schedule, I say fuck them, even tho I'm a class D supervisor, my job is a dirty job because I have to step in to one of my hands place when they decided to call in sick, which seems to be a lot lately.

The location got lost it's CO-managers during the first cut back in 2008 that they did when they raised the bar up on how much we were supposed to make a year. Last year we made enough money to get our COs back but guess what happened, they raised that bar again. Like before they offered the COs to relocate, move up, step down, or to accept a severance package. Personally I think it's just a way to line more cash in Me. McMillionaire’s pocket. I will admit that other than raising the base pay a long with the pay of starting supervisors, the 2% is a big joke, what are they thinking? We got better raises back in the 90s when it was 4% or 5%. This year's, supervisors raises are going to be based on their evaluations, and we still don't know what's going to be, or when it's going to take place.

I've been an associate now going on 25 years most of that time I've been a supervisor. The reason why I haven't moved up in management is because at one time that used to relocate you about 2 hours from your current store. The other thing it takes up a lot of your personal time. I was offered the ACC manager position, but then I discovered it didn't pay much more than I was already making but that was before they raise the base pay for an assistant manager. At times I often thought about going into management but then it always comes across what do I like better work to live, or live to work.

In conclusion working jobs like retail, fast food, the restaurant business, in or factory type grunt work, it's not going to pay the greatest. High-end management is always going to try to figure out ways how they can make most money off their subordinates.

I will also admit that with the tools that they offer us they want us to be mindless drones of following instructions from a TC70 or the MC40s are old and out of date. I just remembered when we used to have to think to do our jobs.

I half jokingly renamed Customer First into 'Rich People Need Money'. And that is a worry-some thing. Especially when the notion that a couple years or less ago, this training representative brought forth this joke of a motivational slide show around. In it, they were talking about ways of making productivity better...by using a soccer mom employer as an example. I wasn't there, as I am not management. (Was offered the chance, but turned it down. And I think that was a wise decision. Another in my department, whom was all Gung-Ho about rising up the ranks, snatched the Deli manager's position the very second he could. After one regional visit and the following afternoon of having most of the managers filling everything in that department...he just vanished like a waking dream.) The example went that this mom's son had 'the big game' coming up after her shift. And with the right 'wink-wink, nudge, nudge' coaxing about her family responsibilities, she could 'miraculously' perform her entire zone...customer helping included...in an astounding 10 minutes! (I believe it was in Stationary, no less.) I only know these details because everyone whom had to attend this joke was sharing all the details, knowing just how imaginary this concept was. And if the top 1% CO's on the East Coast truly believe that BS is even obtainable, then who knows what bridges they could be conned into buying might wind up being.

To quote Sam, "The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say." I am left in doubt that the people at the top are even familiar with such quotes. (There was a similar quote hanging in the break room. But, I don't remember how that one went.)

As for Cussssss...tomer First, here's a quote that fits to counter that. "There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else." With too many gaps in shifts, that is gaps and shelves that don't get stocked. Disappointed customers. And loss of sales. Of course, there is that demon of a counterpoint to think about...after Wal-Mart moved in, how many of the alternative places managed to survive?

The badge on my chest states so proudly about having 10 years under my belt. To be honest, I don't expect to see what the 20 year one looks like. Because, like you just said, Wally expects us to work like mindless drones. And that 'perfect dream' is what some engineering outfits are endlessly working on to bring to the world, right now. I imagine that the only big firewalls that are keeping countless millions in jobs right now are the facts that these robots are A) still in prototype, B) can not yet be trusted not to injure the vital customers, C) would still cost too much on the day they do enter the industrial & commercial world, D) may not quite yet be as reliable as a machine that can work 24/7 without breaking down, E) what would happen to the whole economy of Humanity when so many jobs are lost in a matter of months or years and F)...reasons I can't think of, right now. Just like how we still got cashiers. Because while those self checkout stations are nice and all, they keep breaking down under the regular stress of a 16+ hour work day. If those ever became infallible, we'd probably see the traditional cashier jobs go down to the tobacco lane. And that would be all thanks to state laws.

At least, I have a Plan B in mind, as my area is also quite limited on job opportunities. Been building up quite the music library, recently. Now, if I could only clear a few rather tall hurdles, I could open up a radio station and start selling advertising. After all, come recession, disaster or robotic Apocalypse, businesses that sell stuff will always need to advertise.

I know I'd like to see art of him being used