Rumorsville: 5th Avenue Key Food Employees Can't Shop There

Photo via perfectlivesbrooklyn2011.wordpress.comBack in the day when I waited tables, one of my favorite things to do upon finishing a shift was taking my tips to the bar and cashing them in for a few Malibu and pineapple cocktails (I was in college. Forgive me.). I'd just spent 10 hours on my feet, and before going home to deal with my roommate -- who was no doubt trying to unsuccessfully harvest marijuana plants in our washing machine -- all I wanted to do was take a load off with my fellow employees.

Apparently, workers at the Key Food on 5th avenue don't have this kind of thing to take advantage of. If they want to grab a box of Puffins cereal for breakfast the next day after getting off work, they have to take their asses to another grocery store, because THEY'RE NOT ALLOWED TO SHOP THERE.

The following was recently sent to us by a FiPS tipster:

This is too ridiculous not to share.  According to a cashier at Key Food on 5th Avenue, the employees are not allowed to shop in the store, like, not ever.  Not to get a sandwich on their lunch break, not to shop after their shift, never. Apparently this has been the store's policy for several generations of ownership.  The cashier who told us this was practically salivating over some of our groceries that she could not buy.

That's fucked up, no?

And this isn't even a ban on shopping during work hours, or just after getting off of a shift, either. Key Food employees can't stroll in on his or her day off and buy a bag of bananas. Whaaaat?!

FiPS creator and all-around-superstar Erica spoke with an employee at the Key Food on 7th avenue, who confirmed that she'd heard about the policy at the 5th avenue store, but that the 7th avenue Key Food didn't put the same ban on employee shopping. So this may be a weird, isolated rule put in place by the Monarch of the 5th avenue location.

Now, I know what you're going to say: KEY FOOD SUCKS BALLS. WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO SHOP THERE ANYWAY?

Good point, commenter who speaks in caps that I just made up. You may not like Key Foods. We are all entitled to our own opinions. Doesn't make it any less weird.

Has anyone else heard of this policy?