Autozone.....Really..??

kenmac · Dec 6, 2012

jinman said:
The problem with boycott is it hurts the employees in local stores.

Doesn't make any sense.If I choose to shop at Advance instead of AZ ,It hurts the AZ employes ?? If I choose to shop at AZ instead of Advance.Doesn't it hurt the Advance employes ? Or ,if I choose to shop at NAPA instead of Advance, Doesn't it hurt Advance employes ???

chad22 · Dec 6, 2012

I usually shop at Autozone. But now. NO WAY. They've lost my business. I will purchase my Auto Parts Elsewhere.

Chad

Pharm · Dec 6, 2012

I sent autozone a message early this morning but no reply.

joemd11 · Dec 6, 2012

Unfortunately this seems to be the philosophy of corporations today. They just don't want their employees to do ANYTHING that could POSSIBLY result in negative publicity or financial liability. Wasn't there a Wally-World employee fired for stopping someone for attempting to walk out with a flat-screen tv? I guess it is cheaper and safer to take the loss and spread it among the paying customer. It is what it is.

Markcuda · Dec 6, 2012

In a town of 7300, we have a Auto zone and a NAPA, I go to AZ way more than NAPA.
Not any more, I'm jumping on the boycott band wagon.

MossRoad · Dec 6, 2012

I have no idea what the law is in VA.

Most likely, the company probably has the legal right to tell its employees that they cannot bring a firearm onto company property.

The guy has obviously been bringing the firearm onto company property (their parking lot) despite the policy.

Therefore, he got fired.

Do I agree with it? No. But most likely that's the case.

Or, it could be like Indiana, where you can have a gun locked in your car in your employer's parking lot, but you can't take it out of your car. In Indiana, there is a law that prevents employers from banning guns in their parking lots except for certain types of businesses, like government offices, schools, etc... my employer leases a parking lot from a church for its employees to park in. That church has a day care and preschool, therefore, I could not bring a firearm into the parking lot even locked in a box and locked in my trunk and even if I had a permit to carry.

As someone else mentioned, boycotting Autozone will do nothing but hurt the employees that still work there. Voice your displeasure to their management.

KubotaOwner · Dec 7, 2012

1. - It was against company policy and therefore a condition of employment.
2. - Employee violated company policy.
3. - Employee was fired.

You can write Autozone and try to get them to change their policy, but the company chose to impose the rule in all likelihood because they determined their potential financial liability was lower if they imposed this rule. If they didn't fire the employee, it would tell all the other employees they don't have to follow company rules. The employee should be proud that he prevented injury or death of the co-worker and also accept the consequences of violating the company rules. If he felt strongly that he should be allowed to carry on the job to protect himself and others, he should have sought employment elsewhere. Boycotting Autozone will simply penalize the remaining employees.

edlegault · Dec 7, 2012

This story would be really different if the "hero" had instead stayed in the back room and the robber shot/killed the manager. The "hero' would then be talking that "if only he had gone out to his truck and retrieved his Glock..." Sounds like a different outcome of something like Luby's (did I remember correctly) restaurant in Texas years ago...

mikehaugen · Dec 7, 2012

edlegault said:
This story would be really different if the "hero" had instead stayed in the back room and the robber shot/killed the manager. The "hero' would then be talking that "if only he had gone out to his truck and retrieved his Glock..." Sounds like a different outcome of something like Luby's (did I remember correctly) restaurant in Texas years ago...

and you can pretty much guarantee that if he shot/ killed the manager he was coming to the back room to get him. I understand the stick to your policy thing and that yes, he did in fact violate a policy, but I have also seen corporations both small and large (much larger than autozone) look the other way for these extreme circumstances. Some would be surprised what a company can sweep under the rug. I highly doubt this would make all other AZ employees start thinking it would be ok to smoke weed in the back room now, or carry an oozie while at the register.

I also don't think anyone that would have had knowledge of this (mostly local people since it wasn't that big of a story before all of this), would have had any complaints or would have contacted corporate to voice their outrage for keeping this guy employed. If they are trying to avoid bad publicity, it sure backfired on them.