I work for a competitor of Columbia Sportswear, one of the historically largest mail order companies in the world, based in Maine - try and guess which one - and we do have an employee store but it is basically the Goodwill of the operation. When we have returns, there are four options for disposition based on the quality of the return: 1 - back to stock, 2 - Outlet Store, 3 - Employee Store, 4 - destruction. So while, yes, there are major discounts at the E-Store, you’re likely to get a coat with a broken zipper or a pair of boots with eyelets missing or a shirt that’s faded and has stitching problems, shit like that. That said, we do get a decent discount on anything we buy at our stores, but we do have to go to the store. I can’t wander through the warehouse and pick something out and pay for it at the front desk when I go home or anything.
When You Work For A Manufacturer, Do You Still Have To Go Through Retail Channels To Buy Its Product
I work for a Laboratory in New Mexico, under the aerospace/defense field.
Up until about three years ago, you could buy “salvaged” printers/computers/office supplies/office furniture/lab equipment through the “Employee Salvage” program on the premises. Usually it was good stuff, gently used! A couple of scratches on the worksurface of an old lab workbench? 48" x 28" bench is $5. Are you a ham radio enthusiast in need of an Agilent O-scope? We’ve got one that is an old, 2005 single-channel model for $10. Vaccuum tubes? Dime a dozen. Nice, gently used office chairs? $1 each. Swivel casters are a quarter apiece. Books? Dirt cheap. . .
That all changed when they contracted the salvage work out to a firm down in Albuquerque. Now you have to go to ABQ and bid on lots of office chairs, RSAs, books, etc. I came on board just as that new operation took hold; haven’t been to one of the auctions. I really could have use a nice oscilloscope. 
Tripler
I have to get all of my nuclear weapons through normal, retail sales channels though.
My gf works in advertising. One of her clients is one of the top 3 lawn tractor companies. Years ago they shipped their latest model to the agency for use with photo shoots, then just as a display. When it was time to update the display, they gave the tractor to my gf.
I changed the oil, replaced the battery, filled the gas tank, and it started right up.
The product makes all the difference. Cigarettes are regulated and taxed. Also sold on the black market for profit.
When I worked in a cigarette factory stealing was punished by immediate termination.
And not for stealing a truckload. If you swiped a pack to smoke yourself, you lost your job.
No discounts for us.
I work for a large airplane manufacturer. Even if I could afford one of their products, I’m pretty sure they would not sell me one.
I’ve bought two Fords using the highest level employee discount (Dad is a retiree), the A -Plan (actually the Z Plan now that dad retired). You get a PIN from a special web site and are given a price which is “the A Plan price”. There’s no haggling allowed, you do get whatever current incentives are being done by the dealership. I couldn’t get a cargo cover thrown in with my last Escape because I was using the A Plan and free add ins were considered haggling.
The discount varies by model and year. It only applies to new cars but if you shop at the right time you can use it on this years or last years model. For the two cars I’ve bought the discount was good, at least $1000.
There are also the X Plan. It’s for extended family and friends. It also requires a PIN and is a lesser discount than A/Z but there’s also no haggling.
There’s also the D plan which is for dealers. That’s probably the discount you got. It’s not the same as the A Plan discount.
Thirty years ago in college one friend had a father who worked at Chrysler. At the time, the employee deal was a free one-year lease on whatever car he wanted. At the end of the year, he could swap for another car. I thought this was a good way to ensure good short-term but bad long-term reliability because the employees wouldn’t have experience with an older model.
My ex used to work for the pharmaceutical wing of J&J. They could buy J&J products at basically cost. There was stuff they would just give away too. Also part of their health plan was that if they were on a J&J medicine it was free.
I worked for AT&T post-divestiture, and we could get discounts on phones and the like at AT&T stores using our ID, but not from regular retailers.
I interviews at GTE Sylvania in 1980, and was told that they had an employee store which sold Sulvania products cheap, even though the location was in their defense division, not consumer.
Car companies are advertising that consumers can get employee discounts now. I’ve seen that before. Do real employees get bigger discounts during the promotion?
You mean in some states, right? Not all states have this restriction (e.g. California).
*Ron Jon.
No wait, lemme think…Bass Pro Shops.
Nah, hold on…gimme a minute…ummmmmmmm…A=ha!!! I got it. You work for Eddie Bauer!!!
The only thing Bean manufactures now is the Bean boot, and thanks to idiocy of college students the very limited supply of Bean Boots has made me over $450,000.
As for the Employee store, they don’t only have stuff that’s been returned. I went there with a friend after our last day of peak a few years ago and picked up some boots, but not Bean boots and watched a guy get 4 canoes for $30. I’ve also seen people get in a fistfight over some lanterns.
When I worked at Barnes & Noble, we got 15% off all the time and during the “Official Holiday Season” period :rolleyes: we got another 25%, which meant I bought 15 baskets worth of CD’s at 40% off. That’ll put quite a dent in Sinatra’s **Complete Reprise Studio Recordings. **
Don’t forget the Boat N Totes (canvas bags of simple design). They pump tons of those out too.
Eurggh. Shivers involuntarily I’d forgotten about those.
LL Bean recently changed their return policy. The boots used to be guaranteed for life, now it’s like a year, and you need the receipt. Too many folks buying and selling boots on the net, abusing the return policy.
I knew some management in Ford Credit. similar deal, but they could also replace if the car was damaged: “You want to scratch my car because you hate me? It’s ok, I’ll get another one.”
And, back in the day, I knew some Engineering at GM: Their customers kept the car typically 3 years, then traded in. Were they worried about long term reliability? It wasn’t a criteria.
Which, of course, was on of the reasons why the VW Bug became an iconic youth car: you could buy them second hand, get parts for them, run it for a couple of years, then sell it on to the next generation. It’s more difficult to become iconic when you have a model run of 3 years, and the cars rust out and are junked.
My employer at my site makes deep fried non meat appetizers for major retailers and national restaurant chains. Corporate globally is into potato products and makes all the Mcfries for a global Mcfast food chain. They also do other appetizers we don’t make. 4 times a year I can get up to 8 cases of pre-selected products for really really cheap. Like a few dimes per pound of product. Only deep fried foods my kids eat now are fries and onion rings as the rings are only offered once a year.
My son works at a meat producer that does flavored sausages for major retailers. When they start their product runs, it takes a few dozen packages to get the product count, printing, and sealing lines to mesh. The misruns he gets to buy for less than a few bucks per dozen packages. More often than not there are 2 or 3 for one throwins. He used to work in a cheese plant where everyday he was allowed a 5 pound block of whatever cheese was in the cooler for like $1 / pound.
I work with people that used to work at a national brand frozen pizza plant. Hot fresh pizzas were always in the break room they say. Also buying pizzas for dollars per dozen was not uncommon. Others also worked in cheese plants where grabbing a bowlful of fresh curds or slices off the line on the way to break was not stopped. Where I am, we get to finish the bags that the quality lab pulls off the line and tests. Leftovers go to the break room every two hours. When we are testing or starting a new product or running a favorite, they make sure to grab a few extra (test) samples so we all can try them.
To answer the OP, we cannot just grab a bag at the end of the line to take home. There are ways to get product through channels.
I worked for Ford in the 1980s and bought a new car on the A plan. The deal was that you paid 2% below dealer invoice, and you have to take delivery from a dealer. I assumed the dealer gets some kind of bonus from Ford to do these. The paperwork, financing, and delivery process are so intensive that there is no way the manufacturer can be set up to deliver cars like this. Much easier to write the dealer a check.
A $1000 discount on the A plan? Discounted from what? If that’s MSRP then it’s not even a discount. I’ve heard of people doing better walking in off the street and negotiating. I paid about $4000 below MSRP on my last new car.
Ben & Jerry’s has a benefit where every employee can take home three free pints per day. I don’t know how they administer it.
I’m curious about this. Were the hot, fresh pizzas in the break room the unfrozen product that was being frozen and packaged in the plant? I wonder if it tasted better than the reheated frozen product?
ZipperJJ posted a link to how Ford A- and other- Plans work:
What Melbourne describes are management leases. I’m not familiar with how they work at FCA, but neither GM’s nor Ford’s are free, and you can’t just trade in any time you want to. Being “free” would be a taxable perquisite, and the programs come with requirements. When I was at GM, you were entitled to a lease car as a “level 8”; at Ford it’s “LL6” (referring to salary grade).
I was never entitled to a management lease at GM, but I am now at Ford. The US program provides competitive lease prices if you choose wisely, includes all maintenance, unlimited miles, and insurance. You pay for your own gas (in other regions, a fuel card is provided with a quarterly limit).
Normally you get one car every model year, but because each model has an ordering deadline spread throughout the year and a delivery window spread throughout the year, you could end up having one car for just a few months, and the next one for a year and half. Sometimes there are “two-fer” deals, where you can get two of the same model year back to back.
Also, sometimes there are deals for models that don’t sell well, or that the company wants more exposure on in order to sell even better, and you might get 50% or more off of the normal lease price.
As for long term reliability, sure – that’s a trade off. The company wants us to be knowledgeable about current products, and we’re encouraged to loan our lease cars to other people for extended test drives. On the other hand, it’s not like our lease cars are our only cars. That would be a stupid financial mistake having eternal leases. Most of us also have cars that we own. My Expedition is an '04, and I know a lot about its long term reliability. More than once its corrosion performance has influenced how I implement certain processes on vehicles today.
I work for one of the largest contract manufacturers on the planet. We manufacturer a significant chunk of Apple’s iPhones and iPads. Apple provides a corporate discount that is roughly on par with a student discount. When I tried to buy the XR a month ago, the Apple Store employee was able to find the corporate code, but it was not yet set to apply to the new iPhones. The woman explained that was pretty normal for newly released products. Probably post Christmas I can use that code to get the same discount my kids in school can get.
FWIW, even though my company makes millions and millions of Apple products (and that of just about every other electronics brand), there is no direct way to purchase those products internally. In fact, this is tracked to the nth degree because a) each product costs money, b) prevent piracy, c) quality control, etc. Apple and any other established brand doesn’t want the factory to run an extra 10 minutes per shift that they can’t track.