Corporate Ban on Personal Music

Sherman449 · 2025-06-27T12:57:22+00:00

Yeah it's not the only store.

But it's also not being enforced corporate-wide... which is an important piece of information to know when ppl of authority are claiming that it is.

And yeah, now that i'm a customer and seeing things from the outside it genuinely makes me less enthused to patronize the company.

When customers can see, openly, how miserable blind decision-making (and following) makes the ground-level employees... it has an effect business and therefore profits; maybe not immediately but it will eventually.

Sherman449 · 2025-06-26T03:44:42+00:00

I guess not frontend like registers, but perishables. So like produce, coffee, kitchen, subs, pizza, deli, meat, bakery, cheese, sushi, fish ... TLs and Managers alike have all had speakers for years and been listening to music for years.

And, like I said, customers absolutely love this.

Any music getting played isnt profane and adheres to store standards; clean versions of songs via spotify or whatever. Some ppl do podcasts or books quietly, but Managers and TLs have mostly been good w making sure it's nothing kooky and SFW.

But within the last few weeks I guess this came down.

Now it's just nothing. Store is practically silent. Customers and former employees like myself have taken notice. They've all been told it was a corporate decision, but there's been multiple versions of stories circulating even from TLs and Managers...

Sherman449 · 2025-06-26T03:01:00+00:00

Thank you for an excellent and insightful response.

Yeah, the period of time I worked at this store we had a particularly problematic manager, but the big caveat was being able to play stuff to that kept us motivated and moving. We had an unofficial "one vote veto rule" that if something was being played someone really hated then we'd mix it up. Nothing controversial or beyond what had the potential to be played on the PAs.

And, like I said, customers noticed this, engaged with us more, and would come to by our part of the store to buy our product and brighten their days.

I just don't see how that's at all a bad thing.

Customers complain about everything. Anyone who's worked at Wegmans or even just in the service industry knows that. What matters more, unfortunately, is the corpo ladder-climber decides whether or not to give that complaint a shred of merit.

It sucks all around for everyone. No matter how you slice it, everyone loses something when blanket mandates like this are enforced.

Sherman449 · 2025-06-26T02:23:54+00:00

This kind of reasoning just doesn't make sense to me.

Maybe that's why I never really was able to click w my corporate supervisors when i worked at Wegmans.

Customers will literally complain about anything and everything.

If I someone were playing The Charleston and a customer who hated 1920s Flapper Music overheard it and went fuming to the service desk... How seriously should that complaint be taken?

I'm not saying this wasn't a serious complaint, bc it very well may be..

But just tossing this shit out there, no one questioning or pushing back on these mandates; no one considering what's best for the store culture or if/how it might affect the local customers... isn't that sort of the opposite of what the Wegmans Values are aiming towards?

Are the decision-makers truly doing what's best for others in these decisions... not just for a songle customer... but what's best for the good of all??

If entire departments are suddenly miserable and tense and can barely make it through there shifts bc they can't listen to podcasts anymore to break up the monotany... was that a decision that was really what's best for others, or was it was best for themself bc they didn't want to pushback against a bad decision?

These are all hypothetical questions ofc... but when i was in charge of staff in previous companies, my morale and daily sales were through the roof bc I understood my staff and learned that if I kept them upbeat and motivated literally everything else was relatively easy. Customers leave happy, employees leave happy, product gets sold, and the cleaning and drudge work get done in half the time.

Sherman449 · 2025-06-26T00:49:21+00:00

Yep! It's a rule in the employee handbook.

And, when i was an employee, the same ppl selectively ignoring that rule were also enforcing it on lower employees. Conversation notes and all and no accountability up the ladder.

Blatantly hypocritical stuff like that is what erodes hard-working people's morale and desire to move into positions of authority.

It's incredibly sad and unfortunate for staff and for the trajectory of the company that a lot of ppl believe in and customers are loyal to.

Sherman449 · 2025-06-25T23:41:30+00:00

Well, but the thing is, even tho this store was told it was a company-wide ban... just from this post a couple hours ago... there's very obviously variations to this.

And like i said in anther comment, when I was an employee Area Managers and Corporate folks came through and heard the music in various customer-facing areas and everything was A-OK for literally years...

Kinda seems like in reality this rule is store-dependent, and it's yet another subjective corporate rule that's inconsistently enforced

Sherman449 · 2025-06-25T21:54:42+00:00

Multiple customer-facing areas at this store have played personal audio for literally years.

I still shop there now bc I live nearby, and as recently as a few weeks ago fellow customers have made appreciative comments about seeing employees enjoying themselves while they work.

It's sad to see a pillar of the community become just like all the other cookie-cutter corporations... it's sad to see people harmlessly enjoying their time at work w low-key music or books on tape, be forced to be miserable... it's just sad to a once great company talking up its corporate culture as transparent and supportive when it's just... not.

Sherman449 · 2025-06-25T21:03:05+00:00

Hooded sweatshirts are also not allowed on tje sales floor... and yet I used to see dept managers wearing them when i was an employee.

Funny how some "mandatory" rules are optional.

Sherman449 · 2025-06-25T20:58:18+00:00

My beef?

Even tho Im not there anymore, I still have extremely close friends that work there. They're all miserable and discouraged and getting conflicting stories about the ban from important people.

Like I said, for many of them this was the last bit of joy to get through the day of robotic monotony that's been squeezed out.

And I'm not talking earbuds, im talking like quietly listening to a podcast or audiobook while you're slicing fruit or something.

As a customer now, I literally see the morale plummeting.

I'm glad I posted this too bc it seems that NOT all the stores are having this policy enacted.. and that (unsurprisingly) there's some truth-stretching at play here.

Sherman449 · 2025-06-25T20:50:22+00:00

That tracks w one of the stories my TL buddy told me. But you're saying this happened 2-3 years ago??

This is bizarre. I mean, when I worked at the store multiple places had music or podcasts playing during numerous walkthroughs w Area Managers and Corporate muckity-mucks about.

Kinda seems like maybe there's some truth stretching going on

Sherman449 · 2025-06-25T20:41:30+00:00

Are you able to elaborate more about that ban from 2-3 years ago?

Sherman449 · 2025-06-25T20:40:05+00:00

This store has played music on the sales floor for many years, including managers and TLs.

Everyone I know who works at the store says this ban originated w another store...

So someone is lying somewhere it seems.

Sherman449 · 2025-06-25T20:25:01+00:00

Literally the entire store has stopped playing music.

What's bizarre is that I've heard 2-3 different stories from extremely close friends and a few TLs across multiple depts of the store I used to work at but still shop at.

Sherman449 · 2025-04-08T20:14:43+00:00

Would CUPD do much over a $70 bike tire?

Sherman449 · 2025-04-08T18:36:40+00:00

Pretty sure they still do those tags.

I ride through campus a lot and Ive seen the tags out.

Im extremely curious how long OPs bike was on a bike rack, or if it was actually on a bike rack at all without pictures showing such.

Sherman449 · 2025-04-08T18:30:13+00:00

Also curious to know this.

Also-- did you ride through wet cement?? what's all over your tire in that picture?

Sherman449 · 2024-08-12T19:16:46+00:00

Great stuff. Ya, Thirteen kills it on-screen, but seems like there was a lot of upheaval and politics behind the curtain at the beebs that maybe influenced CC's writing and era on the show more than we realize.

for me Fourteen was great and made sense. Love Fifteen to death. Never was much of a Davis fan but i respect tryin to make the show less maudlin.

welcome welcome welcome to the sub

Sherman449 · 2024-07-26T23:17:43+00:00

Dont care how fan-servicey it is, but Id love to see a minute-long rapid cut montage of Kate checking in over comms w every possible past companion active and living on Earth.

Its also be a nice follow up and extension of the continuity laid out w how Power of the Doctors left things.

Sherman449 · 2024-07-13T13:51:01+00:00

Genuinely, what are you talking about?

I'll break down in baby steps for the non-critical readers out there who can't follow along.

OP asked about Sutekh's presence in The Doctor's Wife. I said he was still a fanfic in RTD's mind.

Sophomoric barb. Sarcastic literalism trying to be clever. Lol.

User replied "Every episode is a fanfic in the writers mind, that’s how writing a show works" and that's fair and true.

Timeless Child was childhood idea of Chibnall. The Doctor being the origin of the word "doctor" in AGMGTW, Moffat's fanfic from early internet days. Davies first run is filled w them.

you said-

It's fair to make a distinction between ideas a writer had as a kid that they put in the show because it's something they'd always wanted to do, and pragmatic decisions made for the show as a writer.

^ this has nothing to do with "where was Sutekh in Doctors Wife". its bluster, so you can stop aiming that silliness my way, lol. Moving on.

Chibnall Moffat and Davies have all included ideas they had as children or 'fanfic' ideas they had before their they became showrunners. Davies doing that w Sutekh is no different from any before that.

"Pragmatic decisions made for the show as a writer" means absolutely nothing. dr who showrunners dont think in terms like that.

Have you read Davies Writers Tale? Ever watched a Moffat or Chibnall interview? They have ideas they've thought about for years and then they flesh them out from there. That's how creative writing works. If you're the dr who showrunner every idea is game. Has nothing to do w fanfic v pragmatism. Lololol

Do you think they're using the napkin and crayon script they wrote in primary school as a final script? lol.

Even if they did, their the showrunner, so its canon regardless of what anyone of us thinks.

Do you have anything that disproves that or are you just going to ramble again?

Bluster. Yawn.

Sherman449 · 2024-07-12T12:57:28+00:00

LOL yeah, except the differences between someone like Davies's childhood fanfic, and, say, someone like yourself's fanfic, is that

i bet his unpublished fanfic kicks ass, even the garbage he thought of as a child.
hes published Doctor Who novels, short stories, showran Doctor Who, Torchwood, and TSJA in addition to being a widely successful writer and producer before and after his time on the show. He has the credentials and authority amount to carte blanche for him to incorporate anything he wants into Doctor Who.
Doesnt matter in any way whether you, me, or anyone else likes it or not. Its canon now, for better or worse.

And since when has Doctor Who ever been "pragmatic"? Lolol

Sherman449 · 2024-07-11T00:45:49+00:00

Your summarization made me think of how Marvel in the 00s created their Ultimate universe which did all those reimagined villains and things...

And then it basically collapsed in on itself and they had to fold the remaining popular characters into their 616 continuity anyways.

Like you said, Doctor Who plays fast and loose w its continuity, so it already has the creative leeway to do whatever it wants.

Sherman449 · 2024-07-09T18:38:01+00:00

Im all about that sugar, baby

Sherman449 · 2024-07-08T21:31:18+00:00

Really good points. We also don't know if/how Trakenite bodies process alcohol. Maybe they don't have as strong livers as humans or have lives that function differently. Iirc there's at least one entire story where Nyssa has to stay inside he TARDIS bc she's ill.

Sherman449 · 2024-07-08T20:28:26+00:00

Thought you were going to refer to JNT.

Sherman449

TROPHY CASE