Thank You All for Your Patronage

Me:  (cheerfully) Hello

customer 1:  (matter of factly)  Can you slice my bread?

 

Me:  (friendly) Hello

child of customer: (oblivious) Can I have a cookie?

 

Me:  (enthusiasticly)  Hello

customer 2:  (without even looking my way)  I’m just looking

 

I love my work.  Cake decorating and baking is what I’ve always loved doing, for as long as I can remember.  Most days I even enjoy working with all the people that I work with…..we’re like a dysfunctional family at other times, but not often, which is a good thing.

The business that we’re in is referred to as a service industry….we are here to serve the customer.  Not all, but most everyone in this line of work is in it because they really like what they do.  

How else can you explain people staying for 5, 10, 15 and 20 years or more in a place where a lot of people really aren’t shown any appreciation for what they’re doing….on a daily basis, I might add?

A lot of the general public are under the misconception that a job in a supermarket is somehow not a real job.  Believe me, it is a real job and it is real work and not everyone could do it if they had to.

Try if you can, to imagine what step by step actions it must take to fill every single shelf in the entire store….it’s a lot of space to fill isn’t it?  Do you really think that can be accomplished if someone does not take the time to think about what needs to be done?

My work day begins by first checking to make sure there are no specially ordered cakes for me to do.  Then I have to go out onto the selling floor to check the cake case and make a list of everything that is missing from it.

From there, I have to go into our freezer and find everything we need for the cake case.  This is a complete project all in itself. 

When I first enter the freezer I am immediately faced with the dilemma of having to move at least 4 racks full of heavy product including the boxes that are thrown on top of them.  

Then I might have to climb up on a step stool to try and reach a full box of product that is still out of my reach at the top of the heap of boxes on the top shelf and, if there’s no one to help me, try to maneuver it to the edge so I can get it to topple over and not hit me on the way down to the floor.  All while freezing my fanny and fingers off to the point of frostbite in some instances.

Once I finish that little maneuver, I then have to push a heavy U boat (flat storage space on wheels), loaded with, for instance, over 20 heavy boxes of  unbaked muffin dough out of my way so I can perform the task I just completed on the other wall of the freezer on this side of the freezer.

Once I get everything labeled and put out into the cake case, I then have to make or put together what we did not have already made in the freezer. So back into the freezer I go to get all the product I need to make the cakes I need.

Some days though, it’s a real challenge for me to get all the work I have to do done because over the years, personnel in the store has been decreased quite a bit and I sometimes get a lot of interruptions.

Interruptions are a good thing though.  It’s where I get to interact with our customers.  

Most people I encounter are very nice and respond in a positive way when I greet them but there are always going to be some who can’t be bothered to even say hello….

That’s alright though.  Thank you all for your patronage.   Without you I would not have a job that I love doing.

 

 

Ho, Ho, Ho?

“Twas the day before Christmas and all through the store,

the hustle and bustle of a madhouse for sure.

The managers all armed with their pens and their pads,

demanding the workers increase all their wares.

 

 

Never a good word do they all have,

for any of the workers who are striving so hard,

to assure there is plenty and everyone’s pleased,

such are the rigorous labors gone unnoticed .

 

 

The music is playing and the atmosphere cheery,

but not for those who are providing the service.

 

 

On Deli and Florist and Meat Department too, get with it you

bakeshop and Dairy Department too!

 

 

As the day passes and 6:00 nears, 

the excitement starts building amongst all the peers, 

Tidying up at the end of this day,

is one of the best jobs these workers could have.

 

 

So Merry Christmas to all,

and to all a good night!

 

based on Clement C. Moore’s

“The Night Before Christmas”

Holiday Overkill

This morning I was watching one of the network morning shows.  No, scratch that….I was actually flipping through the channels trying to find something interesting enough to watch and to also try and find out what the weather might be like during the day today.

Well ordinarily, not much time passes when these channels are repeatedly interrupting regular programming to tell you over and over what to expect, weather wise, during the day and yet when you are really looking for that, you can’t find it.

This being the “holiday season”, programming is now constantly being interrupted by commercials.  We now have to watch every single, solitary commercial be about Christmas or “the” holiday.  ugh!

Now I really don’t know how other people might feel about that, but I for one, am sick of it all!  If I never, ever see another holiday commercial, I will be perfectly ok!

For one thing, it isn’t necessary for me to be bombarded with sights and sounds of the holidays in order for me to know that it is the holiday season or that the stores are trying to lure me into their midst in order to get me to buy something…..I’ve already decided that I will be buying stuff….it’s a given.

For another thing, I work in a store.  From the day after Thanksgiving until the day after Christmas, I and my fellow employees are subjected to the the torturous, monotony of having to listen to “holiday” music being piped in over our PA system for the duration.  Like a lot of people, I used to like hearing holiday music but now it is just over done and redundant.

Finally, one more thing that occurred to me this morning, what about all the non-Christian people that are being subjected to all this commercialism being thrust in their faces at every turn?  It must all annoy them a tad as well.

I know that complaining about something is not going to change anything…..the holiday season is what it is.  As long as there is money to be made, even annoyance works when you’re trying to sell people something….at least it gets people thinking about what you’re selling even if they don’t actually buy at holiday time…..they just might at some point.

Commercialism, s’mercialism…….

The Throwaways

It used to be that businesses used to think of their workforce as an investment.  They spent their time, energy and money on training people to help secure that they would have the help that they needed to build and maintain their business for as long as needed.

Business owners also used to believe that if they treated their help well and fairly, that the workers would be happy and they would feel loyal and want to stay with that particular company for a long time.

And over the years of employment with some companies, workers were offered the opportunity to invest in themselves with a pension plan to help pay for their years after they retired from their jobs.

As many know, that way of thinking is what helped America become the industrial nation that it did for a very long time.

Over the years, that way of thinking has been replaced with how can I get more work done with less people?   

I have the answer!   DISPOSABLE!

Stop thinking of your workers as people…….they are numbers.  Increase or decrease your numbers at your discretion and see what works best for you.

No Excuses!   Instill in the numbers that they have to do whatever it takes to get the work done that you demand get done because there are plenty more numbers lined up at the door just waiting for a chance to be let in to do what the present numbers are not capable of doing any longer.

So, numbers, climb that too short ladder and get on your tippy toes and extend your too short arms and stretch your fingers to push that too heavy box to move just a millionth of an inch at a time until you can get it to fall, hopefully away from your head, and down to the floor so you can reach it and retrieve it to use for what you need.

One more thing that you can employ as a business owner if you have skimmed your numbers to the bone and you’re expenses are still higher than you would like them to be, start finding ways to weed out the numbers that have invested their time, energy and loyalty to you and your business.  

Make up unrealistic demands that you know they can not achieve and then boot them out the door for not doing what they are getting paid to do.  That way you no longer have to pay the higher salary they have worked their way up to or the pension they have helped to build up.

It makes no difference what kind of business you’re in, car manufacturing to grocery store, the principles and guidelines we have come up with to run a business is working……..for us.  

After all, it is only our profits and shareholders that matter to us…….everything else is just numbers, replaceable and throwaway.