Is it okay to be 'sneaky'?

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Charlotte408

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I work for (a major card company). And, part of my job is ordering the cards, stocking them, putting up seasonal displays, promotional activities, etc.

When I first started the job, I noticed that within each section I might have only 1 or 2 ‘Religious cards’ and they were scattered.

For example, in ‘For Him’ I might have a line of ‘Brother’, 'Father, ‘Son’, ‘Uncle’, and scattered randomly might be one or two generic religious birthday cards geared towards a male…

It sort of irked me. I mean, here I have 3 WHOLE sections, devoted entirely to ‘Suggestive Humor’…and some of those cards are pretty riskay.

Well, I’m a working on my Business Administration Major, so I’ve taken a few marketing classes, and I know well enough that presentation makes up a lot of marketing…so…I got a little sneaky…

I started re-grouping the cards so they were all together, forming a semi- section within the bigger one. Then, each section has a hanging light, that illuminates the center of each section, so I made sure that I placed my ‘religious card section’ directly SMACK dab in that light. So when you walk to the section now, all the religious cards are together, eye level, and right in the center lit up- its quite eye catching.

I did this with every section on my aisle. When I do my seasonal aisles, I do the same. There are assigned pockets, but- the last direction given to us as Territory Assistants is that we are the last person to touch the merchandise before customer see’s it, and to use our better judgment.

Not my fault my better judgment just happens to be Christ minded 😃

Well, if I have a card, and it sells at normal rate, I reorder, they will just send another packet out. But, if it sells quickly, and I reorder before reorder point, they will send out more, and even then more of that type of card. I’m at the point now where each section has 10-16 religious pockets!! (out of 106-110 total pockets) Sales are way up!

But today as I was putting some of my stock up, I couldnt help but wonder if, in some way, I was misleading…or…taking advantage…of people, idk, is that weird? Because I know, that, someone might be Christian but if they dont see or even know theres a card available for them then obviously they wouldnt buy it, but likewise, someone who might not necessarily be Chrisitan/religious, might see that card, and, it might speak to them, or fit the occassion…

I was almost feeling like a Pirate of Christ today!! LOL!! I was doing my little reorganization thing and thinking, though, is it wrong? You know how they say if the means to a good end is evil it isnt justified or something like that?? Is it cheating??
 
I think why I tripped out on it today was, I was thinking, is it fair, if…say someone is passively pushed in the right direction? or is that coercion?
 
You were given discretion in this area, no? There isn’t any indication you are selling less cards than you did before? You were never told not to do this kind of thing?

If the answer to the above is no, this is clearly acceptable, in my opinion. Certainly you would not be the first Catholic to sneakily promote the religion! Christ Himself seemed rather sneaky at least,in His parables, or, say, in His conversation with the woman at the well. I think deft is a better word for this kind of thing, perhaps 🙂
 
camerong said:
You were given discretion in this area, no? There isn’t any indication you are selling less cards than you did before? You were never told not to do this kind of thing?

If the answer to the above is no, this is clearly acceptable, in my opinion. Certainly you would not be the first Catholic to sneakily promote the religion! Christ Himself seemed rather sneaky at least,in His parables, or, say, in His conversation with the woman at the well. I think deft is a better word for this kind of thing, perhaps 🙂
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hmm…‘deft’. Thats a new one… 🙂

Thanks, though! I dont know why I was second guessing myself, I was just thinking like…I didnt know if it was wrong, because, maybe they wouldnt have bought it if I hadnt displayed it in such a way…and if thats maybe like…oh whats the word…you know when Cops set up Criminals??? lol…

-entrapment- there it is! lol…Like as if I wasnt giving people a fair chance…or idk, I guess thats silly because all in all they COULD just buy another card. I just felt kind of guilty knowing that I put my hand in God’s bucket of ‘work to do’. If that makes any sense.
 
Deft!! Cameron! That is MY word!! They should have my name following the definition! lol…from the way I clean house…to how I do everything 🙂
 
Rebels for Christ! I think that was brilliant!

But seriously, I get a little irked that there might be times that I would like a religious card and I have to hunt. Now if only they would start making humorous, religious cards…
 
Charlotte408 said:
I But today as I was putting some of my stock up, I couldnt help but wonder if, in some way, I was misleading…or…taking advantage…of people, idk, is that weird? Because I know, that, someone might be Christian but if they dont see or even know theres a card available for them then obviously they wouldnt buy it, but likewise, someone who might not necessarily be Chrisitan/religious, might see that card, and, it might speak to them, or fit the occassion…

I was almost feeling like a Pirate of Christ today!! LOL!! I was doing my little reorganization thing and thinking, though, is it wrong? You know how they say if the means to a good end is evil it isnt justified or something like that?? Is it cheating??
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I don’t know what the arrangement is with greeting cards, I know when I did similar in-store stocking of concessions like hosiery, magazines etc, we were considered as sales reps, and we our our company actually leased the space from the store, Kroger, Walgreens etc. and were expected to stock it an arrange the merchandise to maximize sales, and that might be different for each store on a route. So unless your superiors have given you an arrangement you are required to stick to, you should be free to arrange your cards to best advantage. Depends entirely on what the basis of your business is with your management and with the store.
 
DON’T let the doubt settle in, it could be the devil trying to give you feelings to make you stop. I think what you’re doing is totally fine. You are allowed to do it because you work in that area and are given the freedom to do so, right? And we, as Christians are supposed to bring ‘good news’ to people. You let them see it in a card, 🙂 and there’s nothing wrong in the ‘order’ in which they see it (first thing smack-dab in the middle) I don’t think that’s against the rules… I think you’re so cool. And I’d keep doing it 👍
 
Of course it’s okay! Way to go 😃

I do this too sometimes… if there’s a really sexual cosmo magazine cover at the end of a checkout line, I deftly cover if up with a few less objectionable magazines. Hmm… oh well, I guess nobody’s buying cosmo, let’s order less of those next month 👍
 
Good for you! I dont’ see anything sneaky or devious about it.

Me, I used to arrange decorations at work around the Christmas and Easter seasons so that the religiously themed ones were always the first to catch a person’s eye when they walked in the entrance. And why not? I thought, that’s what Christmas and Easter are about!

Never got any complaints, either. 😃
 
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