When is a raise Not a Raise?

Your hypothetical question for the day: When is a raise not a raise? When it's in the Frito Empire. As a route sales rep, my pay is 100% commission on this route. It's a flat rate 11% on sales. So when Frito raises the price on chips, I get a raise. Hypothetically. The problem is, when the prices go up, the sales go down. oh dear. so there's not really a raise until customers get so dang hungry for potato chips they just eat it. or there's a snow scare. For some reason, snow in the state of Missouri has the ferocious potential of a rabid pit bull. Now, this is different from an ice storm, like the one in '07 that killed electricity to house for 13 days. But snow seems to make everyone go crazy to get stuff. yikes! there's an inch of snow, we need potato chips, STAT!!! works for me, Go Frito!

So when the price on chips is so high that sales stall and go into a tail spin, what does management do? Logic would say, if costs have gone down, just as fuel costs.. then the price of the chips should go down. ahhh, but that was pitched to the route folks as a raise, so Frito can't take away the so called raise, even though it depressed the hell out of sales, which lowered the income, therefore, a raise that's not a raise. Makes sense in Frito land. So the next step? make the bags bigger and keep the price the same until the hungry slobs pay for the chips without the 20% bigger bag label. The American consumer really is as dumb as a post. me included.

next blog, my vision of Frito, "Crazy Land" with a giant thank you to Will Ferrell in Zoolander - - that's where I am..... Craaazy Land.