Name: Bob Goodrich
Age: 80
Occupation: owner, Goodrich Quality Theaters and WPRR radio
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, MI
Bee-otched For: making minor changes to his company
Age: 80
Occupation: owner, Goodrich Quality Theaters and WPRR radio
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, MI
Bee-otched For: making minor changes to his company
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There's nothing more special in a teen's life than their first job.
Living way out in the sticks of northern Michigan, mine was working on a cherry farm. I would water trees on a water truck and sort cherries in the farm market. The place smelled delicious with its bakery and was always packed in the summertime with fudgies buying them by the truckload it seems.
If you lived in the city, chances were that your first job was probably flipping burgers or... working at a movie theater. Well, one chain has decided to wipe away the dreams for a lot of youth.
Starting the first of the year, Goodrich Quality Theaters raised the minimum age to work there to 18. As a result, all of their 16 year-old employees were fired and 17-year-olds will be fired in June. Allegedly, the reason for GQT firing their teenage workers is because there's a negativity regarding teens selling popcorn and drinks, something they've done for generations.
Now, there's a petition with over 10,000 signatures asking GQT owner Bob Goodrich to reinstate teens. Not only that, some have even filed complaints with the State of Michigan, claiming that what Goodrich did was age discrimination.
Funny how Goodrich is a Democrat and yet he discriminates teens. OK, so what if he were to fire people because they were black? To me, it's the same thing. I'll betcha that many of the teens fired from GQT were all hard workers who did what they were told.
But, this is Bob Goodrich we're talking about here. The same asshole who owns a radio station in Grand Rapids that claims they are a 501(c)(3) organization, even though they're not, plus the fact that they ask people to donate to that station. The same asshole who fired that station's most-popular host simply because he refused to support Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election due to what the Democratic National Committee did to Bernie Sanders. The same asshole who put another asshole on a pedestal at that same station who ran down another radio station in town so badly that the owners packed up and moved that station to Chicago. Oh, and don't get me started on the hosts whom he all fired. Hell, I even matched with one of his former hosts on a dating site who called him an idiot who thinks he's a genius.
Sadly, Goodrich is a miserable old man who never married and never had kids. The only good thing that he has going for him are the theaters he owns that have no real competition, like Cadillac. Hell, his operations are in Grand Rapids and he has no theaters here! The nearest location to GR is the ultra-crappy Ada-Lowell 5, a cinema that has no stadium seating. Simply put, he's allowed his longtime competitors, the Loeks family and their Celebration!/StudioC! Cinemas to kick his scrawny ass.
On this Martin Luther King Day, we need to stand in solidarity with the teens fired from Goodrich Quality Theaters. Yes, they're awkward, but you can't be good at something until you try, try again. Hell, I'll admit, I'm a fan of Meijer's Shop and Scan feature on their app. Why? Because one time, I stood in line for I think 30 minutes because their black, senile cashier had a hard time with his cash register. Yes, old people can fuck up badly, maybe even worse than teens who can process newfangled technology better than old boomers.
Part of the reason why I stand with the GQT teens is because I too, was a teenager once. When I turned 16, the farm market I worked at was sold because of tax reasons and I had to find a new job. Because I lived in a fairly rural part of northern Michigan, my choices of employment were slim pickins. I ended up working as a dishwasher at a popular restaurant near Traverse City. Things were cool until they ended up hiring a middle aged asshole who was accused of child molestation to work with us high school-aged dishwashers. I was pissed. Needless to say, you told him to do something and he wouldn't do it. He thankfully quit not long afterward, but a few years later, he ended up going to prison for two years for molesting a young boy. He was - and still is today - the worst person I've ever worked with. I should have gone someplace else when they hired him since it's fucking stupid to hire a pedophile to work with teens. But then again, the owner's son - who was in his mid-20s - was dating a girl whom I was going to school with, and she was 14.
You see, at my current workplace, we have a lot of turnover in one of my departments. It's a grueling job. Too many times, we've had to deal with temp workers who were lazy, slow and most of the time, didn't even show up. A few weeks ago when our last helper quit, one of my coworkers brought in her son to help us out. He was a very hard worker and didn't disappoint. And guess what? HE'S 16!
The point is, is that Bob Goodrich is very ageist and very miserable. I think part of it is due to him getting owned by Justin Amash when he ran for Congress several years ago. True, I'm no Amash fan. He's anti-women's rights, anti-environment, pro-military, anti-healthcare and even refused to vote in favor of creating a suicide prevention hotline. But look at it this way: he switched political parties because he was one of the first Republicans to call for Drumpf's impeachment. Goodrich, on the other hand was part of the movement to get Drumpf elected simply because he supported Hillary Clinton and has long been an asskisser to the establishment.
Goodrich is simply one of those people who calls himself a Democrat, but has some very anti-Democratic ideas. Firing teens from his company was one of them. Putting money over people is another. Since he's pushing 80, only time will tell how long before he sells his theater chain and sole radio station. With the poor reputation he's leaving behind, the next owner will be that person in a parade who stands behind the elephants with a broom and trashcan.
As George Benson and Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductee Whitney Houston once sang, "I believe the children are our future, teach them well, and let them lead the way."
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Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
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