The customers march in with zombie-like stares and are met and greeted by corporate automatons with manufactured smiles. Money is passed to and fro.

So you like the convenience of your electronics outlet store owned by a colossal corporate mechanism?

As a tiny cog for this well-oiled machine, I can fill you in on a few observations.

Fearing being imprisoned in the Ministry of Love, I’ll be using an alias for my place of employment. Let’s call it Big Brother.

When I was hired the first issue of business for Big Brother was to shovel corporate propaganda down my throat. I learned things like how to solicit the customer into signing up for a Big Brother card without leaking its true cost to the customer, $10.

Videos, handbooks and tests taught me how much I care about the customer by feeding them a steady diet of half truths to drain a few more dollars out their already shallow bank accounts.

Once the week of morality re-programming came to an end, it was time to hit the sales floor with what I had been taught. Big Brother trained me nifty responses to questions like: “Why do I have to pay $10 to sign up for the Big Brother card?”

I reply with a monotone voice, “It is a basic administrative fee.” Big Brother commands: “Any further questioning should result increased ambiguity within each response. If this fails, report them to the Ministry of Truth.” I can’t figure out if Big Brother is aware of the contradictory stance it holds on its code: customer care first. The customer wants to go to the store and buy as much as possible for as little as possible. Big Brother’s goal is to increase customer spending per visit.

Somehow the company feels it can rise above these conflicting aspirations. The absurdity of it all comes to light when I realize I am a brainwashed automaton who serves a blindly obsessive consumer-programmed culture. The customers march in with zombie-like stares and are met and greeted by corporate automatons with manufactured smiles. Money is passed to and fro.

When the buzzing Big Brother light outside the store is turned off, we all head home to distract ourselves with the technological wonders we worked so hard to earn.

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