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Movie Gallery
Former Movie Gallery Managers Expose Corporate Greed, Sexual Harassment
Editor's note: The following letters were submitted by former managers and employees of Movie Gallery stores.
February 2005 - Manager Trainee misled by Movie Gallery - "They treat their employees terribly."
I was a manager at a Movie Gallery store in (town withheld) for 4 months. While in training I was let on to believe a totally different story of their procedures and policies than that was actually true when on the job.
First I was trained at the "perfect training" store. A new establishment w/ a wide selection and variety of new and older films. A small "mature" title section along the top shelves. Mostly along the line of "Playboy" productions. Your typical centerfold type of stuff. I am not a religious person and do not have any children. Although I don't watch these type of films, these particular titles I don't find particularly too offensive. These title were not rented that often and were not bringing in a large amount of profits.
THEN....they transferred me to MY store. A complete opposite of what I was trained for at the other store! First off, the company says that the employees are #1, nothing could be further from the truth. They treat their employees terribly. They hire the least amount of employees for the least amount of hours possible. I was the only full time employee allowed and expected to work 10-11 hrs/day w/no lunch break. I was expected to try and do inventories, intakes, make schedules and customer service most of the time by myself and come in on my days off. A lot of times I stayed late after closing to try and get caught up and just reorganize the store for no extra pay. I was only allowed 3 other part time employees, with 15-20 hrs tops/week. And no assistant manager.
I was told that the store was being reorganized and would be ready when I arrived. It was far from that! Total disarray, films on the floor, the back room had films scattered in stacks along the floor and tables. Short on supplies. Couldn't make heads or tails of what was where. And it was in a very sleazy part of town.
Most of all, I could not believe the amount of HARD CORE pornography this store peddled. I'm not talking about "pretty people" doing the "Oooos and Ahhhhs", these were people that should not be seen naked! Vulgar titles and acts that border on extremely deviant behavior that I would truly wonder about the person renting such titles. If I lived by them, I would be frightened. There was at least 3 times more porn than mainstream titles, more than there was room for to be put out. And HARD CORE magazines, covers I never heard of. There was a back room for the porn, but every week along w/ the new releases another box of porn would come in. The only place to put the titles to be received was behind the counter by the front window where it could be seen from the outside. I did my best to cover them up, but they would always be out in plain view when I would come in. Amazingly, no one complained.
The type of low life cliental this brought into the store was disgusting! I'm originally from the LA area and I'm not naive to that fact that porno exists, but this was shocking! I could not believe that these films were supposed turn someone on, if anything it would turn you off. Very unattractive people, doing unnatural acts. Of course, this brought in our main revenue. When the rentals came back, they were usually late if they came back at all. Then I would get into huge arguments w/ people about why they can't rent anymore porn till they pay their late fees for the last porn. The conditions they were in upon return was disgusting too, I felt like I needed tongs and sanitary wipes after checking them in.
We wouldn't receive very many copies of new releases and people were always complaining that the titles they wanted were rented out, but we had tons of EXTREME PORN. I never in my life had been so verbally abused, names that I couldn't help be shocked by and found myself not keeping with the "customers always right" policies. Retaliating back verbally in my own self defense.
I complained about the disorganization and chaos the store was in and how we didn't need any more porn shipments, had enough still in the back room waiting to be received. I was told I would be getting help to organize the store and it never arrived. They do their own in house inventory, expect you to do it instead of an outside crew. This was impossible for me to do. Equipment such as computers, monitors and printers were used and always going down. They put the least amount of money into the store's maintenance and payroll, but were making big revenues off the porn.
I was commuting to another town for this job. The last straw was that a manager position had opened up in my town, an organized store w/o so much porn and they would not offer it to me. I had had my last insult hurled at me by a sleazy customer. I handed all my keys over at the end of my shift to the girl who came in and told her I was not returning.
The amount of porn varies from store to store, depending on it's demographics. In the sleazier neighborhoods they take full advantage of it, it might as well just be an adult porn store. Very extreme. But it brings in the big bucks, I guess that's what the people want? I was actually shocked that the few people that rented "family" oriented titles did not complain about the selections.
I've worked in several different video stores and NEVER have I had such a terrible experience. I wish BLOCKBUSTER would win the merger.
(name withheld)
August 2004 - Employee speaks out
I am a former Movie Gallery employee.
I found their sale of pornography deplorable. I had worked in both the brand new Peabody, MA store and the Lynnfield, MA store, and the latter is now closed. At the Lynnfield store, they had displayed on the shelves unrated videos, some very explicit, such as "Women of Wal-Mart," the porn video.
Later on they covered up some of the more obscene videos, but for a while in the Lynnfield store, I noticed that women of Wal-Mart video prominently displayed at a child's eye level. There were also other classics like "Spider Babe," and "Beyond Blonde," other "soft core" titles, out on the shelves.
Feel free to use this testimony! I'm sick of them corrupting the family.
(name withheld)
March 2004 - Movie Gallery proud of porn profits
I am a former manager and assistant manager at more than on Movie Gallery in Indianapolis.
I thought I would let you know that they actually charge more than $6.00 dollars for the rental of a pornographic movie now. They carry magazines and movies and I have seen movies in plain view of customers during business hours since I have left the company.
They actually pride themselves on the fact that they carry and make a ton of money off this material.
The company only pays between $1.00-5.00 dollars for these movies and make a four or five hundred percent off each rental.
I stumbled upon you site and thought I would let you know.
I have another story involving Movie Gallery, the police, and pornography. If you are interested, let me know.
(name withheld)
February 2004 - Manager forced to betray community standards
I would like to remain anonymous, as I live in a small town, and have had a numerous amount of problems from Movie Gallery.
I am a former manager of a store that was bought out by Movie Gallery. When our store was bought out, Movie Gallery gave us "visions of splendor" in reference to our new employers. It is not a splendid employment. The store that was bought out by Movie Gallery already had pornographic movies, but had very strict rules and regulations.
When I began working for Movie Gallery, they insisted on moving the explicit R-rated movies onto the new release wall, and placed the children's movies right next to them. I complained to all the district managers and regional managers, but they said it was their policy. I personally refused to move my children's wall and was reprimanded for this. Their concern for the store's individual patrons and families was none.
Then one day the district manager came in and said to pull all the adult movies that had "teen" titles and put them up for sale. I was under the impression these movies were to be destroyed. She said, "No, we should make some money from them."
The employee relations is unbelievable. They are operating more like a cult than an employer. You spend half your day on the phone listening to voice-mails with what I would call brainwashing techniques. When it comes to your priorities like your family and children, they have no empathy.
I resigned from my position after three long months of working for this company. I worked at the former company for six years! I am a Christian woman, and am relieved to see someone is taking a stand against this company.
Sincerely,
(name withheld)
December 2003 Transporting hard-core porn across state lines
I am glad to see someone is taking a stand against this company. I was a former manager of not 1, but 2 stores in North Carolina. I finally couldn't stand having to deal with it, and with the terrible way they treat employees on a daily basis and I finally quit.
I will tell you this, at that time, Dothan couldn't transport porno movies across some state lines, so to get around this, they would put the movies in boxes marked as something else, the one I remember the most was at the (omitted), NC store. I received a box marked Herbal Essence Shampoo, and thought there had been some mistake. I called the former manager at the (omitted) store to see if I should open it, and he said, "Oh yeah, they (Dothan) can't send over state lines, so they ship all the porn in unmarked or boxes marked for something else, so no one will know.
I have not set foot inside a Movie Gallery in 2 years. I read a comment by a former manager about how the NC17 movies were put near the kid's section. I received a lot of flack from my district manager for moving mine away from the back wall and clear of the children's section. However, the Girls Gone Wild videos were to be put on the main new release wall with the other movies, for all to see.
I will pray that these people stop this business of renting and selling these movies. It creates a hard working environment for young men and women. In a business that wants you to control your hours, you end up working one person during the day and one person at night. You cannot check everyone who goes in those rooms.
May God bless you and this endeavor.
Sincerely,
(Name withheld)
North Carolina
District manager thrilled by "smut-man's" business
To whom it may concern:
When I was an employee of Movie Gallery about two years ago, I was forced to deal with the daily "gallery" smut or be fired.
I first expressed my uneasiness when, after I was hired, I found out that there was a pornographic section. I was shocked and appalled by the nature or this pornographic material, and their promotion of it.
We, as store managers, had goals for the day for sales. If no one came in and rented this porn, then there was no way that we would make our goal. But my district manager, (name withheld), acted excited when a last minute "smut man" came in to purchase three or four movies.
They actually went so far as to give employees free smut rentals, so we could advise our customers on the level of smut they wanted (i.e. a couple wanting homosexual pornography, bisexual pornography, transsexual pornography).
I apologize for being so specific, but I feel this is necessary so that you all know the extent of their drive for pornographic sales. They rent these tapes and DVD's at 5.79 a movie; whereas, cartoons for children, are 99 cents.
In addition, I was not required to ask for identification when I thought there was a person underage renting a tape. Although I could ask, it was frowned upon because I was driving away business.
Here is another dirty secret I will share with you. When I worked for Movie Gallery I was forced to place the romance (NC-17) section next to the children's section. This section had half nude pictures of women and men in seductive poses, with such names as Eat Our Couch Cookies.
I pray that this information will be helpful to you; however, I fear that we as Christians are losing our grip on society via the sexual exploitation of children.
I pray for a good outcome, but I fear that without action from ALL concerned parents, we will never be able to defeat the liberal cultural wave that is eclipsing our society.
May God and His almighty force help us and guide us. Thank you AFA for your continued support of the Scriptures, and of Jesus' teachings.
Sincerely,
(Name withheld)
Adultery, drunkeness, harrassment part of corporate meetings
Dear AFA,
I wanted to write to you to let you know how you have changed my life.
I am a former employee of Movie Gallery, a District Manager to be more precise. During that time I had the unfortunate opportunity to experience some of the most turbulent times in my life. As you know, Movie Gallery sells and rents pornography. That is just the surface of what you can see!
I have had the opportunity to see just how Movie Gallery really feels about families and family values. I have been on company trips where, until a couple of years age, spouses were not allowed to attend. And now, about 98% of those who have husbands and wives still do not bring their spouse. I believe this is because they do no want it to upset their fun for the week.
During these trips, their is drinking, adultery, and sexual harassment running rampant. I know in my heart that a lot of what goes on stems from the pornography the company deals in. They feel nothing is wrong with that, so nothing is wrong with other things they do.
I personally have had men brush up against me and make rude comments when I had to enter the back rooms to do an audit for the company. I have seen my employees, male and female, get upset any time they had to clean up after customers that had been in those rooms.
In essence, Movie Gallery really does not care about its employees or their families.
About a year ago, I started listening to American Family Radio when I traveled to my stores. I became convicted in my soul and realized I had to make a choice between being a true servant of God, or continue to be a servant of God and work for a company that deals with porn. I started praying that whatever God had out there, I would be a willing vessel and want His perfect will in my life.
I no longer work for Movie Gallery and know that God has a bigger plan in my life.
Thank you, AFA, for all you do, and thank you for giving me the strength and courage to do what I felt God calling me to do.
Sincerely,
Former district manager
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