I was invited to pre-Memorial Day BBQ at my former bosses house yesterday and as I was parking a very nice and loud newer Corvette Stingray pulled up behind me and parked as I was already walking up the driveway.
Took a minute to go around and meet everyone, eventually coming to the uncle that owned the car – we'll call him Steve.
About an hour into socializing and drinking, Steve begins to tell me the story of how he's worked hard all his life and was working at a pet store for the last 20 years up until right before Covid when the elderly couple who owned the store decided it was time to hang it up. He told them he was interested and they sold it to him at a steal with one of the requirements being they get to still 'work' there part time.
He said business has been booming since the pandemic. Profits from the year right before the pandemic to present day are up probably 75% which seemed high to me until he brought up the Stingray spec's (roughly $100k with the packages he got and the aftermarket additions) as well as the super nice house on basically his own peninsula about an hour north of where we currently were for $800k (pre-market inflation times, probably closer to a cool mill and a half these days).
Sounded like he was a decent fellow and got along well with the owners, and then we got on the subject of him looking to hire one or two additional workers to help since the part time help from the elderly former owners was not enough to keep up with the new demands. First thing out of his mouth as he shook his head:
“Nobody want to work anymore, its crazy!”
That caused me to raise an eyebrow – I had an idea of the answer coming, but still I asked “Well how much do you guys start off at – probably like $15 or $16/hour for new hires?”
I shit you not this guy looked me dead in the eye and said “No, I have the postings for $10/hour – it's just basic labor. All these people are expecting so much money to start out it's ridiculous.”
Mentioned to him how there are companies out there starting out at $14/hour+ to start that are still having a hard time filling positions because of the type of work and other opportunities available that the pandemic created with people either retiring, dying off, or people that decided to start their own small business like the one he took over.
He started huffing and told me eventually the leeches on the unemployment will have to go back to work (facepalm) and they'll trickle down eventually to fill those roles he has posted.
At this point I realize talking to this guy is causing me to lose more brain cells than the beer I am currently drinking so as soon as someone got his attention I made my escape back to my partner.
You'd think that someone who was working for the same pet store for the last 20 years probably not making the -greatest- money would be more understanding of the current market and struggles. Unfortunately he went down the other path of 'Fuck you, got mine' which will probably end up biting him in the ass when he loses what little help he has now and refuses to up the job postings salary.