[TnMomofTwo]

Secret shoppers...not a bad idea. Unfortunately, not necessarily always effective. If each store is open 10 hours a day and has 10 employees working the entire day, that is potential 100 hours of "face time" with customers per store. It only takes one or two minutes of one "bad seed" employee to do what was discussed on the bordersunion website. I liken it to what President Bush or Secretary Ridge says about fighting terror, the terrorists only have to be right once...we have to be right all the time. The Borders Mgmt faces similar prospects...and I think their corporate resources would be wasted on trying to rein in idiots...and our energies would be better spent trying to convert the liberal idiots rather than trying to get them fired or punished or whatever and giving them another reason to cry "I'm a victim"... JMO...

[Repub4bush]

I think someone should Freep the Border's they deem suspicious. Go in find the clerk that looks liberal (easy to spot) and say hey man i need a copy of "Unfit for Command". If they say :oh, we are out". Then say, man I really need for a blog I am doing to discredit the Swift boat guys. Are you sure you can't find me one? I have been everywhere, and i need to get this on the web now!
Make sure you have your handy dandy hidden tape recorder going! :)

[JeffAtlanta]

Secret shoppers...not a bad idea. Unfortunately, not necessarily always effective. If each store is open 10 hours a day and has 10 employees working the entire day, that is potential 100 hours of "face time" with customers per store.

True, the secret shoppers don't catch everyone, but it does instill a sense of supervision. Once the word gets around that the company is going to use secret shoppers and that any employee caught politicizing the store will be fired immediately, the problem will mostly be solved. The management at the store should also be held responsible and let go if the problem becomes chronic.

When I worked for a subsidiary of Delta Airlines, a gate agent was observed violating the selection order of standby passengers by the CEO. The gate agent put some of her at the front of line. When the CEO approached her, he did not identify himself as a Delta employee but did protest that the priority system was not being followed. She basically told him "old man, sit down. This is my job and I'll tell you when you can get on this flight." He went at found a supervisor and told him to take over the gate and promptly fired the gate agent. I always wondered if the story was accurate, but in any event, the episode did keep the gate agents in line.

Since Border's does have a union, I wonder if the collective bargaining agreement expressly forbids the use of secret shoppers.