Its thursday evening and our office elevators (8 of them) frantically stuttered at each floor and offloaded scores of our colleagues on to the ground floor. They were all in a hurry to queue up the narrow spiral exit of the parking block adjacent to the office building.
By the time i left office the elevaors were taking an evening nap. I met William in the elevator. He works as an office boy (yeah they remain 'boys' forever) on the 18th floor. He is not hurrying to go home to rest and then to go out later in the evening to enjoy the weekened.
William like many other low paid expatriates work as counter assistants at a leading hypermarket. No...they are not employed as part time assistants. They 'pay' this retailer to be employed. They pay KD 1 (US$ 3.6) per day to the retailer to help pack the trolley of goods purchased by their customers. William and his colleagues hope to get tips from these customers tired of shopping while attempting to load these huge trolleys (assumably designed by a finance guy to accomodate a lot more than one would have intended to shop).
Next time you see a hypermarket counter assistant skilfully opening the thin plastic bags to load your grocery, think about tipping him. He has paid from his pocket to serve you in the hope of making a little extra on a busy weekend.
Salute to the Hypermarket giant for a win-win strategy - the employee pays for packing goods that are paid for by its customers. In a recession hit market, organisations are looking for new revenue streams - but this seems to be a stretch of imagination rooted in sheer expliotation of a meek marginal population.
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