Actually most people would call it “the week from h***” – That’s not how I talk, but I acknowledge it as what would be said. It is what it is.
Last week, the weather forecast was calling for roughly 8″ (20 cm) of snow on Sunday, followed by two days of high winds and near record (for this area) cold. Having lived through the Blizzard of ’78 and the actual record (December of 1983 … I walked to work that day; as a college student home for break my other means of transportation was a motorcycle. I put on my work clothes, sweat suit, and full leathers and walked – no big deal. Someone gave me a ride on the way home. I remember as -26F, but the weather site says I have it wrong – it was -16F. Whatever.)
Anyway … okay, noteworthy I guess. Not like anyone was going to be trapped in their house without power for a week, so not really a big deal. Not even like that last flood last month (Findlay is getting to be famous for those). But I guess some people thought it was a big deal …
I showed up for work (at Wal-Mart, but any retailer would have been the same) and the lot is packed. Not that I have much trouble parking – I always park half way across the lot to leave room for the customers, like we are supposed to – but roughly 3 times as many cars as you’d see at that time on a Saturday. (I work second shift – I start somewhere around Noon and go to 9 or 10 at night.) Likewise I see every single register is open (except for 14 which was broken). Not like Black Friday – only 2-5 people in any line, not going half way back through the clothes – but I had no illusions about what I was walking into. No fighting over the last (whatever), but pandemonium.
I work back in the refrigerated and frozen areas. First priority: milk and eggs. Chris (grocery manager) tells me they’ve already put in an emergency order of milk – the dairy requires 24 hours notice (don’t ask me how it can be an “emergency” with 24 hours notice) so with any luck we’d get a shipment Sunday … which is when what we had would run out, so that’s fine. My coworker Rochelle is handling the dairy at the moment (as best as can be anyway), so Chris wants me to stock pizza – even the vendor stuff we don’t normally touch.
Nestle (DiGiorno, Jack’s, Tombstone and California Pizza Kitchen brands) didn’t bring in a delivery that day – they had to make do with what they had in the bins. Schwan’s (Red Baron, Freschetta, Tony’s) has two carts of new freight … I get through the Nestle and one cart of the Schwan’s before I have to go fill the milk again (Rochelle had gone to lunch). She gets back just in time for us to fill the eggs – which takes about half of our remaining stock. Fill milk again – already! Take my first break when I can. Ten million other priorities – I get reassigned to Meats twice, they are looking for any more bottled water they can find … you get the idea. The bread retailer is moderately excited – she says it’s her first bread rush. (She handles some of the higher priced stuff – she won’t be hit too hard.) There’s no bologna on the shelves, the Lunchables are gone except for the Ham and Cheddar (don’t ask me … usually it’s a good seller). Need to find any bacon and sausage to get out there …
Everyone does the best they can – some people are disappointed (especially about the bottled water). Scott (the Scwhan’s guy … normally he has someone else covering on weekends but the other guy called off) shows up and takes care of the rest of his stuff. Rochelle goes home at 5:30, same time as Ashley comes in … one of her favorite expressions is “That’s crazy,” first time she says it today I tell her crazy doesn’t even cover it. They put her to filling the eggs again (which won’t leave any in the back) while I finally get to take my meal break (we still refer to it as “lunch” even if it is 6 PM). Night manager Robert comes in at 7:30 and the day crew leave by 8 PM (they only schedule one manager and one assistant at nights … there’s 4-6 managers for different parts of the store during the day.) He gets a call saying the Frozen/Dairy delivery is at the door – false alarm. Guy probably was going to the other Wal-mart in town and dialed us instead. Waste of 15-20 minutes though Robert is always a pleasant fellow – I need to get back to the lunchmeats. Robert does mention though that it looks like we’ll have more sales in that one day than we did the entire weekend the previous year – no real surprise. Until at least my lunch they’d had every single register open, after that they started getting to the point where they don’t have enough people on hand to operate that many registers.
Sunday is my scheduled day off. It doesn’t start snowing until about 1 PM. For obvious reasons I didn’t do any shopping Saturday (lines too long, just wanted to go home – take your pick) so I did go to the store. Rochelle and Ashley are both there (they only seem to be there at the same time on Sundays … scheduling), the morning guy George is long gone of course. Uneventful really, except for the snow. Never did see an official total.
Hmm … I’ll have to complete the week later. If they allow editing (I didn’t see it earlier) then look for the rest here, otherwise watch for “Part 2”.
Ahh, there’s the Edit button (top right “pencil” icon) … rather hard to see. Okay then, where was I …
Oh yes, Monday – Mom’s Birthday … even if I wasn’t working no way I could drive the 20 miles to go see her: the sheriff has declared a “Level 3 Emergency”, many of the roads outside of town are impassible due to blowing and drifting snow, and where either the winds or the plows did manage to clear the roads what’s left is a sheet of white ice. Oh, and at 11 AM (by the time I’m up and dressed – as I work a later shift I generally sleep late) it is -5F (-20C); with the winds they say it “feels like -35F”. As it is a Level 3 I call to check if the store is still open – yes, it is, but very short-handed. Of course I said I could make it.
Couldn’t figure out Dad’s snow blower, and way to much snow on the drive, so I put on my work coat, stuff my blizzard suit in the backpack in case I need it later (the temperature is still dropping) and set out. I do work in the freezer, it is always -10 there though not particularly windy and so my work coat is fine as long as I also cover my face. Remember what I said about the county roads being either impassible or sheets of ice? The city roads were not impassible – they were all plowed – but a set of skates might have helped. A passing motorist turned around after I was 3/4 of the way there and gave me a ride, though he admitted it almost wasn’t worth it by then. Turns out he was Nancy in Electronics’ son, a truck driver with no work that day as the warehouse he normally gets his loads from in Indianapolis was shut down.
Co-manager Jamie is very glad to see me of course. I ask her if there’s anyone else in my department here today and she says “No”, as expected. Not that there’s much to do in my department – our warehouse is shut down too, we didn’t get a Frozen/Dairy/Deli (the official name, or just FDD in the computer) Sunday at all. We did get both our “Emergency order” and regular milk delivery Monday (not on Sunday as requested … nothing to do about it now), whatever eggs we got Saturday night are all on the shelf already … in fact, I’m sure 99% of everything we got Saturday went straight out. So very little to do in my department other than keep the milk stocked.
Whoever filled the milk before I got there only filled the gallons of the store brand. There was almost no traffic that day (is that a surprise) and so the gallons didn’t really need restocking – but everything else was empty. No chocolate milk of any size or brand (well, okay, the Nesquik pints), no half gallons of the store brand, and none of the actual dairy branded products were on the shelf. But they did ship us everything – even down to the quarts of the dairy brand orange juice – so it all got filled. Been a while since I’ve seen the milk look that good. I notice the milk on the floor is all new date, meaning we had sold out of everything by Sunday as expected. Then I notice the milk in back actually has 2 dates for the 2%, so I move the skids around (with a pallet jack of course) to make sure the older date will sell first as required.
All that work brought me to time for my first break. In Ohio there is no such thing as a “smoker’s lounge” (state law, you have to literally go outside to smoke) so I head for the door, but just before I get there Erika is looking for me. Since Erika is the IMS/warehouse manager that means only one thing – she is planning to unload the “general merchandise” (aka GM, the non-food stuff) truck starting at 4 and would like me to help. I actually started out back there in the warehouse. Doesn’t usually do much good to argue with a manager anyway, but I do know what to do back there (more than I could say for anyone else she is going to ask) so it’s no great problem. Now, outside – that’s a bit of a problem. The temperature has dropped to -11F or so I’m told … I decide that I would be forgoing my smoke break that I would normally take as part of my lunch later. After break I have 40 minutes before Erika plans to get started, so I make sure the milk is full (5 minutes – I did say we had very little traffic that day) and go to the service desk for returns (not much – same reason of course).
Erika hasn’t actually set up for the truck yet, we need to move all the old freight and then set down empty skids for the new freight. I’m also thinking about where I’d do the most good – actually in the trailer (it isn’t heated after all … I’m dressed for that) or somewhere on the line. I decide anyone can be in the trailer “throwing the truck” – they can put on gloves and a jacket – and as the only one with backroom experience I’d be best on the line somewhere. Besides Erika seems to think she should be the one throwing. Besides her there is manager Owen (a big guy who might be compared to a bear in build – I’m sure he can handle the physical part), Lisa from Pets, Jamie, and a couple of others I forget now … actually a fair sized truck crew, other than the lack of experience. The idea is, as an item comes down the line it keeps getting pushed on until it reaches the person closest to that department who removes it and places it on the appropriate skid. As I know I’m the only one who knows how to do the few grocery items that do come on that truck properly, I volunteer for grocery (on the south side of the conveyor and farthest from the truck). Lisa volunteers for paper goods, health and beauty, and pharmacy (across from me); Owen is on my side with another person, Jamie and the remaining person are on Lisa’a side.
Great theory, but standard rules apply – any manager who is outside their area will be called away within 15 minutes, doesn’t matter how motivated they are to help you. Lisa was “a trooper”, but it quickly devolved to she and I handling 90% of the freight with the other two non-managers as “pushers” (keeping the freight moving down the line). Not that it lasted too long anyway – by 5:30 Erika said she couldn’t feel her hands any more. Work gloves aren’t meant for -12F but you can’t handle smaller items in heavy winter gloves. I’m told to make sure my milk is full (honestly I know that – at least every 2 hours I need to check my milk, standard policy) then go to “lunch”; Lisa (who came in same time I did) also is to go to lunch. During lunch I make sure Lisa is willing to give me a ride home … I did bring my blizzard suit, I could walk, but a ride would be better.
Oh, of course while the store was open all the little shops were not. The beauty salon: closed. The bank: closed. The optical center: closed. And even the Subway restaurant. I had to buy something frozen and then microwave it … umm, teryaki chicken, Lisa had an enchilada dinner.
Back from lunch, Owen asks me to relieve Jim who is handling the phones. He knows I’ve never done it, but says to tell Jim to tell me what to do, so I get an hour of “Are you guys open today” or “Can I speak to a manager?” (that is, someone else reporting that they won’t make it in to work today). Though to me the saddest one was the lady from the gas station asking if we were going to close – they are technically a separate company, but her manager said that as long as we were open she had to stay open. I don’t care what you say, I’m sure the heaters in those little booths are not meant for -15F and “feels like -50F”. (Oh, Jim is technically a “door greeter” – the guy who stands at the door and says “Welcome to Wal-mart” – but as short-handed as they were he’d been reassigned to the more pressing need.)
Jim gets back … it’s been another 2 hours and thus time to check my milk again. Still doesn’t take very long to fill it. I know of a dozen items I do have back in the freezer which for some reason the computer never picks (identifies as things needed on the shelf) and have little else to do, so the store brand and Birdseye vegetables get filled properly for a change as well as the Banquet chicken nugget dinner that had been empty for a week.
If you’ve been counting, other than all those half gallons and such initially the rest of the milk was less than one full skid (for the technically minded – one pallet or skid of milk will have 216 gallons on it), I personally had only “thrown” a skid and a half that day … but the person(s) who had actually filled the milk in the morning (probably Jamie or Owen or both) had left another 2-1/2 skids, so I decided to be “proper” and shrink-wrap all 4 skids of empty cases. However … normally you would take your wrapped skids outside, but that doesn’t work with either 2″+ of snow or 25mph+ winds, so they’d just stay in the cooler tonight. (I’ve explained it before, a wrapped skid might as well be a box kite. Unless you wanted to go pick them up from the neighboring freeway – or the neighboring county even – you can’t put them outside in that much wind.) Wouldn’t matter anyway – the real reason they want them out is so that third shift has room to work, and our warehouse was still shut down (if anyone from third shift actually showed up to work in the cooler to begin with), but I had enough time so they got wrapped just to be easier to handle. Robert was back (the night managers are on a 4 on/4 off rotation, it was still his turn) with Maureen as assistant. I said “Oh good – you’re not going to be all by yourself since Maureen is here, even if everyone else does call off.” I think he actually had 7 though – however, none of the cashiers. I’m told he and “Mo” had to take turns on the registers all night. The city had re-plowed the street properly while I was at work, so there was now a 2 foot wall at the end of the driveway.
Tuesday – Dad decided to clear the driveway himself. Susan (my stepmom) was upset I wasn’t out there helping him – he didn’t tell me he’d be starting before I got up, what exactly was I supposed to do? Whatever – the driveway got cleared, I go out to shovel the snow out from under my tires so I won’t just be spinning my wheels. Slight problem – the door won’t stay shut. The latch is froze internally, I’ll have to hold the inside rail while driving to keep it shut. I debate walking to work again – it’s still bad, in fact still level 3, but not as bad as yesterday – but decide that it’ll probably thaw by the time I get there (if I let it idle long enough). Sure enough, it does. Of course it refreezes later <this is where I’d normally insert a :rolleyes: smiley if we had one>.
Store looks 100% better – there are twice as many workers, and twice as many customers :p Still no one else in my department. (In fairness Rochelle had been scheduled off – but lives 20+ miles away and couldn’t possibly have made it anyway. And Ashley is part time – probably wasn’t scheduled either. That only leaves George – who has a second job and I’m sure couldn’t get to either one – and my supervisor Kristi, and the “fresh zone manager” Tammy as people vaguely in my department. The small number of people in my department is why I fully expected to be the only one there.) Of course warehouse was still shut down – the only thing I could possibly stock in my department was milk. The frozen pizza was long gone, the eggs (what was left of them) ran out long before my lunch. We had gotten a “dry grocery” (anything that didn’t have to be kept refrigerated – not like keeping things cold was an issue today either) truck, so everybody was stocking grocery. Including door greeter Jim – well, for a few minutes. I was told he was working with me, but I was to stock my milk first (of course) … when I got back he was gone. I find him later and they’d reassigned him to Electronics. But since most of third shift had called off the previous night, everyone else was in grocery. By the end of the day, things were almost beginning to look normal – not counting pizza and eggs and such, as we still hadn’t gotten a Frozen/Dairy truck in 3 days now. Oh, third shift … every single one who was scheduled … had been personally called and asked if they could come in 2 hours early. Not knowing this I was mildly surprised when Aaron and the others started showing up, but I’m sure we needed all the help we could muster. Even Cynthia (third shift Dairy – nothing to do in our department of course).
I do my laundry overnight, though the second load (separate lights and darks) always ends up finishing after my bedtime (about 3 AM). I get up Wednesday and head to the basement to pick up my second load, but on the way there see Dad in the driveway on a step ladder trying to use a snow shovel to get the snow off the roof of the minivan! That strikes me as both inefficient and probably unsafe (depending on how hard he’s trying to throw his scoops of snow – the driveway itself is ice you know) so instead I quickly get dressed and ask him if he needs some help – then get my snow broom to sweep it off instead. Compared to the last two days it’s relatively pleasant – the wind has died down and the temperature is actually a positive number (in Fahrenheit anyway: 5F is still -15C or thereabouts). My door latch is also completely unstuck and now working normally. Though I managed to pick up my dad’s “cold” (more like walking pneumonia) so it’s not all good – but it’ll do for now. “Level 3” is gone, that’s the big one.
I normally eat only once a day, but with most things closed the last two days I decide I may need a good breakfast, so I head to Bob Evans’ (which serves breakfast all day) to have a “sunshine skillet” at a little after noon. I’m not scheduled to work until 2 PM – I want to have enough time to digest my meal before whatever it is we end up doing today. I go in a few minutes early and notice multiple people already stocking Frozen, Dairy and Meats – good, we got freight in finally. Bad news is, we were 3 days behind – we were going to be getting several days worth of freight just to catch up. Only half the eggs were there yet (the 18-count cartons, no dozens), the pizza was still empty … we had our work cut out for us.
Kristi (my supervisor) was handling the dairy, Fresh ZMS Tammy (Kristi’s boss) was handling the freezer, and Lisa from Meats (no relation to Lisa from Pets seen back on Monday) was obviously in charge of Meats – though with help from Tammy as needed. (The actual meat department supervisor, Patricia, had been on sick leave for the last 2 months. She had been scheduled to be back on Monday but obviously couldn’t make it then … she was back today, but was working in the freezer.) Rochelle was in the dairy and as expected I got put in the freezer.
Of course they always send us several “features” a week to stick into the end cases, I get assigned to that duty. Pull all the remaining Red Baron from the end door (which was decidedly skimpy by now) and put it in the “home” location, then fill the end case with whatever feature it was … hmm, Tyson chicken. I notice the Totino’s pizza is completely empty, so I ask Tammy if she’d like me to do that too – she says no, she’ll have manager Lisa (technically Tammy’s superior, but under the circumstances …) fill it. But you do recall what I said back on Monday about managers always getting called away – I was the one who ended up filling the Totino’s. At least (with Kristi and Rochelle both present) I didn’t even need to think about milk and eggs. On the other hand, the other 5 people working in the freezer were not people who did this normally – I had to advise them from time to time where things go. Example … Louie: If I were a cauliflower, where would I go? Me: Which brand? Louie: Great Value. Right here. (That one I did point out, it’s a slightly strange location. Normally I’d go with “Next to the {whatever} …”) Another of the trucks arrives an hour later. Everything that doesn’t fit on the salesfloor has to be properly binned (and logged into the computer) so people will be able to find it next week. Etc.
Lunch is relatively late – 7 PM. Lisa had been planning to do my evaluation just before lunch, but changes her mind – she’d rather I use the extra time after lunch to do the meat department’s “throw aways” – damaged or expired product that can not be sold … everything has to be properly logged though. I remind her I don’t actually have the necessary clearances for that (I always have to have someone else log in when I have to do throw aways), she says she’ll give me the option while I’m on lunch. I get back – it looks like I have the option but it doesn’t work. Lisa’s already left, night manager Samantha tries also but then just logs in herself. Mind you, I did also have to fill milk before I left (Kristi and Rochelle had left earlier), so I only got 1/3 of the throw aways done. (And Kristi had done the dairy version of “throw aways” before she left, since I obviously would not be doing that …) And oh … speaking of milk, that had arrived at the same time I did originally – 2 PM. We normally receive milk Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 7 AM but they were somewhat late today – but they were there. No sign of Nestle’s, Schwan’s, Lays snacks, any of the bread vendors … but we were starting to look better.
Thursday … nothing memorable at home really, except I heard a bad word in the weather forecast … rain. Yes, it was actually supposed to be warm enough by Saturday to rain and not freeze. But this is Findlay, Ohio – any time (except during a dry spell) that someone says “rain” everyone hears the word “flood” whispered in the back of their mind. Throw in a word like “melting snow” and that’s not a whisper any more. However, it’s not a panic sort of thing – more fatalism. It happens too often, it will happen again even though the latest was only a month or two ago. It’s not “if” but “when” … but you can’t do anything about it either way.
At work, two more of the late trucks have already delivered – we’re still working on the last of those. The last of the late trucks shows up just before “lunch”, but there will still be the official Thursday truck at about 9 PM. And before I go home there’s the little matter of the freezer’s throw aways. Manager Lisa asks if I’m willing to stay an extra hour to keep working on freezer freight.
But anyway … Friday. My other day off this week, and I was glad to have it. The store should mostly be caught up and thus nominal – except that Nestle doesn’t deliver until Saturday. Their loss, I’m sure Schwans will be more than happy to have the extra customers. I go visit Mom once a week, obviously this week it was Friday. And as I didn’t get to see her for her birthday, I buy dinner. I guess that – and the fact it doesn’t rain enough to flood – counts as a happy ending.
(Of course I’ll address the comments already posted in the comments section. Oh … and this missive is really in a way about our store and town – I haven’t mentioned anything about my moderator duties at My Opera which I still did in my free time and so on.)
