Denogean: Any way you slice it, this is bad business
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Where's the beef? Where's the chicken? Where's the pork? That's what Tucsonan Arlene Corcoran, 52, was left to wonder after a food delivery company called to offer free meat if she'd listen to a sales pitch and then rescinded the offer because Corcoran doesn't have a man.
That's right. No free meat for you, single lady.
Tuesday night, Corcoran, the mother of two girls, ages 16 and 11, was cooking dinner when the phone rang. The caller identified himself as a representative of Town & Country Foods, a Schwan's-like company that recently opened a center in Tucson. He offered her a free meat package valued at $60 to learn more about the company's home delivery service.
Corcoran couldn't have been more thrilled. She loves meat. She cooks dinner every night. Her daughters often invite friends for dinner. And she loves throwing big parties.
She moved here in 2006 from New York City, where nearly every business delivers, from dry cleaners and gift stores to restaurants and grocery stores.
"Nobody delivers in Tucson, except Pizza Hut," she said.
In the middle of a jovial conversation, the caller asked Corcoran about her husband.
Corcoran joked that she didn't have one and didn't want one and asked again about the free meat offer. The caller asked if she had a significant other. Corcoran said she didn't have one of those either.
OK, the caller said, thank you and good night.
"And I said, 'Wait, wait, where are you going with the meat?' " Corcoran recalled.
"He said, 'This is only for people with significant others or spouses. . . . That's how the manager wants it.'"
The caller was still laughing, but Corcoran told him it wasn't funny anymore and asked that the manager call her by the next day. The manager didn't call, but he told me Thursday there must have been a misunderstanding.
It all seemed crystal clear to Corcoran.
"I'm not married, so I can't get their free meat offer."
Corcoran, divorced for three years, said she's found that losing the ring also means you lose a lot of status in this culture. But she was shocked that Town & Country didn't seem to want her business. She thought it particularly ironic this happened in a state run by an unmarried, female governor.
"How would Gov. Napolitano feel if someone called up her house at night, offered her a deal and said, 'Wait, you can't have it because you don't have a man'?''
Maybe Town & Country thinks single women don't eat a lot of meat or can't afford the service, she said. Both assumptions are wrong in this case.
Corcoran has investment income, earns $65 an hour teaching Pilates and is starting up her own Pilates studio. Between cooking for family and friends and throwing at least two huge parties a year, Corcoran estimated she spends up to $300 a month on meat.
Mike Kinner, district manager for Town & Country, said the company is America's largest food delivery service of its kind, operates in five states and opened its first office in Tucson two weeks ago. It delivers meat, organic vegetables and other specialty foods.
After I explained what happened, he responded:
"And?"
With further prodding, he said the company's target household has two adults and teenage children. The company delivers six months of food at a time and bills monthly on a contract. For a single family that doesn't consume a lot of food, the plan might not make economic sense, Kinner said.
He said, however, the company doesn't discriminate and has many single parents as customers. The Tucson telemarketers just started training, and the man who talked to Corcoran "probably did not know how to approach that situation," Kinner said.
"If a family is interested in the service, we're more than happy to explain it to them, he said.
And, Kinner said, "If Arlene was upset about it, we can still give her the free box of food."
I checked with the Arizona Attorney General's Office in Tucson and learned that even if Town & Country had a policy against extending the offer to singles, it probably wouldn't constitute illegal discrimination.
Nope. Just criminally stupid business practice.
Not only did Town & County lose one potential customer, Corcoran said, none of her friends will ever use the service.
"I'm a New Yorker, so I'll tell everybody."
Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays.
Ms. Corcoran, you can bet your bottom dollar that I too will NEVER do buisness with that company and I'll tell every person that will listen to me! I mean in line at the bank, at the grocery store, at the movies, out to dinner, in the mall, at the barber, at the ballgame, every place I go! I don't care if I've never met the person I'm speaking to, I'll find a way to bring it up in converstaion!!!!
I know just the place Town & Country can stuff their meat! : )