Esteemed Reader

by Jason Stern, December 28, 2006

Esteemed Reader of Our Magazine: As a teenager I worked at a health food store. The pay was so meager that even my employee discount didn’t count for much toward the expensive organic items in the store. I was required to ride my bike to ShopRite for groceries. My need for more money impelled me to suggest a profit-sharing policy to my boss, the store’s owner. “With a commission I will be incented to sell the store’s products more effectively,” I reasoned. “I will educate myself about the industry and items and become a valuable asset to your business.” He looked at me askance and handed me a blunted flat-head screwdriver. “Clean up raisins,” he said. And walked away. Once I recovered from the shock of having my smart, forward-thinking suggestion ignored, I tried to figure out what he was talking about. After all, what good is a screwdriver for cleaning up raisins? Not finding any scattered raisins by the bulk food bins, I timidly approached the brusque boss in his tiny back office for an explanation. “Raisins on the floor,” he said, without looking up from his paperwork. “Scrape them up.”