Friday, December 10, 2010

Attention Christmas Shoppers

This is a busy time of the year. We're all too often overwhelmed with things to do, not the least of which is buying gifts for family and friends. Amazon and its brethren have helped simplify this effort. I can sit in front of my PC in sweats with a cup of coffee and shop away to my heart's content. (Since the epic - and regrettable - Great Shopping Binge of '08 my wife has strictly forbidden me, under pain of dismemberment worse than death, to shop online while drinking anything alcoholic. But I digress...)

Someone sent me the following email. I usually blow these things off, but this one struck a chord. I did a little checking and verified it. As a result, I am definitely making it a point to buy as many gifts as I can from Sears. We have a couple of major appliance purchases looming in the next several months, and Sears has just moved to the top of the list for them as well.

Hopefully you'll take this into account as you do your Christmas shopping.
How does Sears treat its employees who are called up for military duty?  By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more.  Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up for active duty.

Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years.

I submit, Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution.  I suggest we all shop at Sears at least once, and be sure to find a manager to tell him why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement and feedback it well deserves.

Pass it on.

I decided to check this before I sent it forward. So I sent the following e-mail to the Sears Customer Service Department:

I received this e-mail and I would like to know if it is true.  If it is, the internet may have just become one very good source of ads for your company.  I know I would go out of my way to purchase products from Sears instead of another store for a like item, even if it is cheaper at that store.

This is their answer to my e-mail.

Dear Customer:

Thank you for contacting Sears. The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback.

Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time.

Bill Thorn
Sears Customer Care
webcenter@sears.com
1-800-349-4358

Please pass this on to all your friends.  Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our military!

It is verified by Snopes.com at http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp
Sears goes beyond what's stated in the email, providing a number of programs to support the military. Other firms that also go 'above and beyond' can be found here.

Shop early, shop often, and shop at Sears...

2 comments:

JT said...

Got that same email and did the same clicking to verify. My second job was at Sears, as a teenager. They had an excellent free educational program for employees back then, correspondence courses in a wide variety of business disciplines.

Only problem with shopping at Sears is that I tend to get distracted in the tool section and spend money on myself.

CenTexTim said...

And that's a problem why...?