It’s not my job to advise people to hire lawyers and file big lawsuits. Or to urge a lawyer to grab a client and sue the pants off someone.
But this one time, I’m going to make an exception, even though I don’t know what the legal basis for a lawsuit might be. I’m sure a smart lawyer can figure one out.
This concerns Patricia Benegas, 29, a mother of four, the wife of a truck driver and until recently a cashier in a big Aldi discount food market in Kankakee.
She was on the job Saturday. The store was packed, and she was busy ringing sales on her machine. There were 9 or 10 people in her line.
It’s a hectic job because Aldi stores–a national chain of several hundred–are bare-bones, low-price operations. No deli departments, gourmet foods or other frills. No stock boys. The customers have to do their own bagging.
Suddenly, Patricia felt something jam against her back and a man behind her whispered: “This is a robbery. Be quiet and no one will get hurt.”
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Patricia didn’t know what to do. In her five months working for Aldi, she said, nobody had given her instructions on how to respond to a robbery.
So she instinctively did the right thing, which was nothing. She didn’t scream or struggle. She just turned pale as milk and stood there.
The man grabbed $993 from her register and about $650 in food stamps, ran through the exit, jumped in a waiting car, and he and his driver roared away.
A customer in her line had a pocket phone and called the police, but it was too late.
Some of the people in line said that the thing against her back had been a knife. Another said it might have been a stick. Whatever it was, Patricia was badly shaken but grateful for being unharmed.
The police took her to the station and made out a report. She then went home and told her husband about it.
On Wednesday, a new district manager came to the store for the first time. He called her in and asked her if she was OK after the robbery.
“Then he started out saying he knew I had a good work performance. There wasn’t a customer I didn’t have a smile for. He said there was nothing bad anyone could say about me.”
Then he fired her.
The reason: When the robber stuck the knife or whatever it was against her back, there was too much money in her register.
Because Aldi accepts only cash or food stamps, the cash piles up quickly.
Said Patricia: “We’re supposed to pull the money every hour.” That means she tells the customers to wait; pulls out most of the cash, especially the big bills; wraps them; and gives them to the manager when he makes his rounds.
“This happened at 4:13,” she said. “I had pulled all the $20s, $50s and $100s at 3:30. I know that because we have clocks on our registers.
“But he (the regional manager) said that because of me, the robber would know that there can be a lot of cash in the Aldi stores.”
(It’s reasonable to assume that the robber already knew that he would find cash in an Aldi or he wouldn’t have been there. It’s also reasonable to assume that he knew that the Aldi stores have nothing in the way of a security system for their employees.)
So instead of getting a pat on the back for responding calmly and rationally to being robbed and not getting herself or anyone else hurt, Patricia was canned from her $7-an-hour job.
There are some businesses–banks, for example–that provide employees with psychological counseling after they’ve been robbery victims. And other big cash-flow businesses might have a few security people around.
But Aldi, a nickel-biting company, keeps its costs low by having as few employees as possible.
So had Patricia been stabbed, there wouldn’t have been anyone except the customers to do anything about it.
She said: “I did everything according to the store policy, and I didn’t do anything wrong. I did the best thing I could do in the situation, which was to let him have the money.
“I went home (after being fired) and told my husband: `Why am I so upset? I know I liked the job and being nice to the customers, but it was just a job. So why do I feel this way?’
“My husband said: `You’ve never been fired before. It takes a lot out of your self-esteem. You’ve always done your best, and you’re hurt that they didn’t think you did.’ “
Company officials would not discuss the firing. That seems to be standard policy for Aldi, which was once described by Forbes magazine as being “secretive.”
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The American stores are a subsidiary of Aldi AG, a multibillion-dollar grocery conglomerate in Germany.
Forbes magazine also described Aldi as being successful because it controls costs “ruthlessly.”
Who needs Forbes? Just ask Patricia.