It's been awhile since I've written. Every day I think about it, and every day I get distracted or something. It's cold, wet, windy, and sorta miserable here. Some ice is forecast for this evening and through tomorrow. I hate driving on ice. My car is rear wheel drive and we were in a few precarious spots last winter on city streets.
So, did you read about the gas station in Minocqua, Wisconsin? An employee accidently changed the price to 32.9 cents a gallon instead of $3.29 cents a gallon. Uh oh. That's a little bit of a difference. When word spread about the cheap gas, dozens of people flooded the station to fill up. It says: "Word of the bargain spread fast in the rural northern Wisconsin community, with 42 people buying 586 gallons of gas in an hour and 45 minutes." When local police got wind, they called the store manager, who came down and threw the emergency stop on all the pumps. What caught my eye was her statement: "I was very upset that there's that many dishonest people," she said. "They knew there was a problem, and they took advantage of an employee's mistake and I think that's terrible."
So what do you think? Would you have gone down to that station and helped yourself to cheap gas because of a store employee's mistake? Personally, I agree with the store manager. It WAS dishonest for people to do that. I can just hear it now, "...the big oil companies won't miss it...", "...it wasn't MY fault...", "...if you can save a buck or two, why not...", yadda yadda. There IS a standard of decency, even when you deal with "big oil companies". I'm not responsible for what they do, I'm just responsible for my own decisions. And that includes conducting business with integrity.
Let's hear what you think.
2 comments:
OK, I'll try again. At first, when I read this article in the media, I didn't think much of it.
As I thought about it, and especially since you wrote about it, you are correct.
Integrity is soooo important. Dad didn't give us much, but he gave us the integrity of his name. He worked hard to protect it, and was able to pass it down to us. We've done pretty good in protecting it for our families...we just need to be sure that they understand, as we did, the importance of protecting it.
How can we be people of integrity? Micah 6:8....do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.
What people didn't understand is that they weren't hurting the big oil companies as they bought 33C gas, they were hurting the store owner. She had to pay market price for the gas - the losses came out of her pocket. Big Oil got its money long before those customers hit the pumps, the customers just didn't think about it that way. - MJP
Post a Comment