4 posts tagged “wegmans”
Another feature of where wife works at is the large number of employees who are immigrants, stepping up on the first rungs of the ladder. Many are Asian, but there are also Muslims too, more noticeable perhaps in that they (as most are women) wear headscarves at work.
It dawned on me as I was checking out this morning, at a register manned by a Muslim woman, that this must really be a trying time for these employees as its Ramadan and they are working 8 hours a day in a grocery store.
Wife works in the Bakery Dept at Wegmans, which is comprised of 3 sections, a pastry section, cake section and a bread baking section (they use a wood-fired oven too!). Its mostly women and the department manager is a man. Wife spends her time working in either the pastry of cake section.
Now a new employee was hired for the pastry section. She's apparently has worked for Wegmans before and supposedly she is petite and "cute" (I haven't seen her) and thus the men were going a bit silly/gaga in anticipation. I suppose as this women has had prior experience, she's been tapped to do the 4 am to 12:30 shift in which the person is supposed to gather up all the out of date items (shrinkage) and do prep work (slicing fruit etc.,) so as others come in they can get right to work.
Was told the other day, the woman complained aloud how sleepy she was from getting up so early to get to work by 4, and hearing that, the manager (a man remember) went to the store coffee bar and got a large bulk container of hot coffee for her and for the rest of the people in the pastry section. Told wife that perhaps the manager decided it was a good chance for team-building /ふり合い but she countered that he's not done that before, so why now.
Good point.
Wife's supervisor moved today's work time start up from 06:00 to 05:00. wife complained about it and yes, it sucks because it was a last minute thing and it means we both have to get up that much earlier (me especially), but I told her she should look at it in that her supervisor may look upon her more than the other people in the department as someone who 間に合う's.
Anyway got up at 03:30 made her her breakfast, and as I usually do on Friday morning's, print out her schedule for the coming week and put it beside her food. She already knows she has this Sunday off and the rest of the schedule is off on Monday, then a straight 5-day 06:00 to 14:30 from Tuesday to Saturday and off again on Sunday.
Now Sunday is time and a half, regardless and for that reason, many actually prefer to work on that day. The first thing she zeros in on is 'Why do I have 2 Sunday's in a row off?' 'I'm full-time and should have priority before the part-timers' (which most of the people are), and then complaining about having to work 5-straight days. Doesn't do much good to point out that from a supervisor's point of view, she (the supervisor) has to be fair in allocating who gets to work on Sunday's, and when it comes to a straight 5-day week, Ah, that's what I used to do without complaint. Sure I had a desk job but......
Being a bit self--centered and a glass half empty person is not a fun thing.
One reason why the store where my wife works is more successful than the traditional supermarkets is that marketing has a very fine, usually clever sense of linking products with other ones, creating hopefully for them, more sales.
Thus there is always a stand of bananas in the cereal aisle, a small display of seasonal cheese near the fruit, wine located near the cheese section, etc.
As I came to pick up the wife yesterday, there was in the front of the store, a large selection of roses, a wine tasting stand and boxes of chocolate placed nearby the roses. But also, nearby the area in the front for customers to pick put and purchase long stemmed roses, there was a small refrigerated display. Saw some heart-shaped boxes and thought 'chocolate' and went over to take a look. It was not chocolate, but sushi in the boxes and next to the heart-shaped sushi bentos (I guess that's what you'd call them), were boxes of gyouza too.
Don't know about others, but presenting to someone you care about and waht to say 'I love you' , some roses , sushi & gyouza seems more than a bit unromantic.
Dilbert is right, marketing people should never be let out of sight.
