Our hero turns to the office computers, hastily closing any programs that were open without saving. Inserting the flash drive that had been plugged into his former boss's computer he began organizing the hodgepodge of documents on the drive. The USB drive started to make a soft noise, our hero flipped a switch on it and it returned to normal.
The story of the drive was a funny one actually, years ago SS was the exclusive reseller of these units which were meant for idiot proof backing up of recent documents and photos. Flip the switch on the back of the USB drive and it would just start backing up recently opened files. The product was cheap and very successful, giving SS an interesting spike in general merchandise sales. Weeks later the product was recalled in a very messy legal suit. Apparently the units were a security risk as they didn't prompt the host computer of what was going on. After learning the details of the recall SS employees would use the returns to play pranks on local businesses.
Despite working at his former employer a couple of years, our hero couldn't really understand the majority of the documents he was opening. Most of the spreadsheets included references to files that weren't available outside of the company network.
A knock at the door interrupts our hero's investigation, it was A and B two former work friends. They were annoyed for a couple of reasons,
1. our hero made no attempt to keep the friendship alive after he left the workplace.
2. our hero had now been given the keys to the store
3. Our hero had shut the time clocks down by closing out of the time manager software.
H "Hey A and B, how've you guys been."
A "How are you here?"
H "I don't know"
B "You shut down the time clocks"
H "Oh, is that a software thing?"
(A helps restart the software and adds hours to the previous week)
A "I'm putting in some overtime for us."
H "So what have you two been up to."
B "You don't care"
H "Pretend I do"
A "I got my MBA, he came out of the closet"
H "Sweet, how's that working out"
A "Not great"
H "Well you want to use that MBA and look over some random business documents?"
(A sits down at computer and looks at folder of files)
A what is this?
H Recently opened documents from a coworkers computer. I'm looking for anything that looks like a discrepancy or just doesn't seem right.... it's random, I'll take anything you get bad juju from.
A I... I don't even know most of this stuff is referencing... you have some recently sent emails in here, some of of the files are corrupted
H Just use what you have, i just need some dirt... anything.
B You ok?
H I'm terrible. Take me for a walk and show me how awful this place has gotten.
Our hero and B go for a lap around the store. They used to do this whenever customers were light back in the day. Hero would carry a mop and B would randomly squirt the ground with a water bottle to give the impression of work. They awkwardly caught up with each other
B "why'd you leave?"
H "because something better came along"
B "and you are back?"
H "I don't know. something better went away. Why did you stay"
B "I don't know. this isn't all I do you know...and I won't be here for long, this place is on its last legs"
Our hero looks to the half stocked general merchandise shelves, many things are missing from the planogram or outdated.
H "it looks like a dilapidated dollar tree over here. grocery looked ok though... have they announced anything."
B "not yet, the founder is on his deathbed, his kids will probably sell the chain or liquidate when he croaks"
SS has tried many things to stay relevant in the age of Wal-Mart and Amazon. Groceries were always solid, but general merchandise always seemed to be investing in the wrong theme. Seeing that people were price sensitive but wanted big screen tv's an early and costly mistake was SS investing heavily in EDTV's, which were flat screen TV's that didn't run in high definition... they somehow looked worse that customers sets at home. SS sensed a frustration with retail return policies so they implemented "no questions asked" return policy. This policy fostered an economy of enterprising individuals to bring old, used or stolen goods to their local SS and get MSRP in return. SS actually had a winner in a cheap tablet that was reasonably sellable, but during it's public announcement at CES the product manager had an epileptic seizure, fell off the stage and died. The Internet mocked the tablet for killing it's inventor (actually it was a malfunctioning presentation light), dooming the product to a firesale and significant loss for SS.
The stories were now painting the picture of a company that had been repeatedly kicked when it was down, while competitors were free to exploit everyone they do business with. Our hero wondered why he was so apathetic about this.
B " You know our the lines leader isn't coming back right? She's been talking about walking out for a while now, she had some interviews or sugar daddies lined up and has been looking for the right time to bolt."
H "What are we going to do then?"
B "Well I'm going to go take a 3rd paid lunch and then cruising in the frozen food section."
H "Is that where that closeted dad's hang out?"
B "Sure. You should stick around though, if you don't have anything else going on."
As B walks off, leaving Hero to seriously consider leaving SS and never coming back. The store intercom interrupts his escape plans with a page, "Hero please report to the service office, we have found some dirt."
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