I am a part time student, and employee at a grocery store. I am a long time lurker here with a bizarre story of my own.
These two quotes were from my manager and the third from his wife. They are so cheap that they put Mr. Krabs to shame. For example, when we are taking out the trash, to conserve and use as few bags as possible, meaning to re-use them.
However, this really got on my nerves a few months back, when I bought an E-bike and started charging at work. My manager saw the battery and started asking about the voltage, the amps, and how long it takes to charge. When I said a few hours, he said “oh, well maybe you can charge it got a couple of hours, I don't want to pay for you to leave it on the charger all day”. It was after this that he said that he has also had issues in the past with people leaving their phones on the charger all day, and said “it's not my responsibility to make sure people's phones are charged”
The average cost to charge an E-bike is 7 cents. I told him this at another time, but he still wanted me to find out what the local rate would be, since electricity is more expensive on the west coast. He then said that if it costs $0.50 to charge it, then he doesn't want to pay me an extra $2 a week to charge my bike. He then said that if it was just me charging my bike, it'd be okay but if every employee of the store charged their ebikes and phones, it would cost the company way too much (nobody else there commutes to work by bicycle, and there's a small group of employees).
Then he went on a rant about how it's about “equal employment opportunity”. His logic behind this was this: since everyone else drives to work, and they see me charge my ebike, they will get jealous and wonder why I get to refuel my vehicle for free at work when everyone else pays for gas. He said that once I figure out the electric rate to charge it, he'll make his decision, but if someone complains about me charging my bike at work, I will have to stop.
I was so furious about this that I was tempted to quit on the spot, but I live in a small town and have no other options at the time.
The manager's wife also made a comment about my education sometime after this, and said “No matter how good you do in school, this job comes first.” I thought “Yeah right, like I'm gonna give up my education for some asshats that won't even let me charge my bike without giving me shit, or have trust issues to the point that employees can't take merchandise into the breakroom without a receipt.”
Well, that's my experience. I would have quit on the spot had there been other options for work around. But I wouldn't have been the first, these guys don't retain employees for long.