The Wal Mart Journal:Remembering 12/12/04

[Josephine96]

According to the girl training me lol.. I am becoming an expert at stocking bananas, and tomorrow I'm gonna become an expert at stocking apples lol..

It seems like thats been my major jobs up to this point lol.. I have definitely learned a lot though.

Plus today I started doing my newest round of CBL's {comp based learning exercises} where I learn a bunch of different things.

I also took a tour of the freezers today for each of the grocery depts.

The meat and produce freezers are supposed to be 42 or lower..
the Ice cream freezer I believe is supposed to be no higher than 10
the Sea food is supposed to be no higher than 32
and supposedly the bakery freezers are supposed to be at or near 0

This is my opinion.. I'm sure they are that cold lol. But they don't feel that cold. Maybe that's because I'm in pants instead of shorts lol.. Anyway.. I don't know..

I even made my 1st price change today.. We lowered some of our squash from 98 cents to 68 cents and I got to make the change lol..

Things are good.. I like being in that area..

[artist]

Good to hear you so happy with your new position John!

[Skywatch_NC]

I even made my 1st price change today.. We lowered some of our squash from 98 cents to 68 cents and I got to make the change lol..

Now only if fuel costs could drop like that!

Eric

[Josephine96]

aint that the truth Eric

[NEWeatherguy]

John, congrats on the new position! I have been gone for about three months from this board and look what happens!! Gets me ALL the time!

Your Wal-Mart sounds like a good crew! With you there, I am sure it is even better! I have heard that other Wal-Marts are not as glamerous...

[Josephine96]

These are a good crew, I love them all like they are brothers or sisters..

My new job is fun.. I start the 1-10 shift possibly as early as Sunday {depending on what Wilma does}

[Skywatch_NC]

I've never heard of glamorous before in describing a dept. store chain.

Now a mansion or posh hotel/resort... ...but not a store.

Eric

[Josephine96]

Well.. As Wilma is approaching our state.. I've noticed something.. The customers at my store are not taking any chances,,

Plus.. I have been having to help the grocery side by brining pallets of bottled water onto the floor lol..

Either way.. It's been busy.. I'm off today.. I can rest for what I'm sure will be a very busy weekend..

[Josephine96]

Yesterday was an interesting day.. I'm surprised I even didn't hurt myself because of it lol..

Yesterday I started 1-10. I {besides my boss} was the only 1 in produce yesterday for the whole day. EVERYBODY called out! They all blame the call outs on "Wilma"

Anyway.. Most of my stores' deli, bakery, seafood and Remix {grocery stockers} called out too. Plus close to 20 cashiers called out.

Needless to say, We had a skeleton crew at wal mart yesterday.

Also.. I wanna tell you a funny story. About 9 last night, I am mopping the floors a bit to make them look a little cleaner. Well.. I don't know if I grabbed the rack of plantains wrong.. But the whole thing, COLLAPSED and plantains ended up everywhere! I was so embarassed. The girl working in the deli was laughing lol.. and actually I was too. She goes "You'll get used to it after a while".

So when I called somebody to help me put it back together, I'm like... "Great.. my 1st night alone in this dept and I knock over a rack, brilliant"

Its actually kinda funny. But last night I was panicking for a minute lol

[Josephine96]

Needless to say.. Working inside seems to be becoming more of an adventure every day..

Around 8:30.. I went to find my boss and ask him a question about something, when the store boss comes over.. "John, open the fire door.. there's a bird in the building"..

After trying to bag him with a net, lure him with bread or bird seed, Nothing seemed to get the bird out..

The bird finally flew out around 9pm ET.. after we left him alone

In 2 other unrelated stories.. No.. I did NOT cause any of the produce racks to crash down today.. Thank God!

Also.. I had to take a CBL today on how to run an "Electric Pallet Jack" and I aced it.. Now.. if management wants too.. They can train me how to use it..

So things continue to get better..

[Skywatch_NC]

We had electric pallet carts (jacks) at a tire tread and tire repair products plant I worked at one time...they're okay but I prefer the non-electric kind...fortunately where I worked they had both kinds.

Sounds like you had your own version of "Bye Bye Birdie!"

Eric

[Josephine96]

Eric.. This is 1 of those you had to be there things {the thing about the bird}

You can imagine 4 managers and a produce associate all trying to lure a bird out of the building.

My store boss said that the bird flew by his office almost at ground level lol..

I asked my store boss.. "when I become a manager, can I chase birds too" and he goes "sure"

[bevgo]

Congrats on your new job. Too bad terhy waited till it got cool--lol. At least you will not have to work in the rain this winter. Sounds like you are enjoying the new position. Way to go.

[Josephine96]

I ran into an interesting problem tonight.

About 8:30.. I was working.. there happened to be a pallet of potatoes just sitting in the back room. I decided "Oh I can do this"

So I attempted to stock it. About 10 minutes later. My boss walks by.. I can tell he notices I'm doing something wrong, but he doesn't say anything.

Shortly after 9.. when I am down to almost just a single bag left {I had started with about 20} my ENTIRE LOAD COLLAPSES!

My boss came over just as the load was starting to give way. He just shook his head, It looked like he was gonna start laughing. He goes "well, at least the load is stable now",

So he tells me.. " Tomorrow, I'm gonna show you the way to properly stock the potatoes, and when you look back at it.. you'll be much prouder tomorrow than today".

He also insisted to tell me.. He let me keep going because he would rather eventually let me make the mistake, and then learn from it. Then just say "Ok.. don't do it this way"... I actually kinda like that because I think that means he knows I'm a good worker and he'd rather see me learn from my mistakes.

Oh well.. Guess the potatoes weren't meant for me my 1st try lol

[Josephine96]

I'm excited..

Tomorrow.. I get my 1st produce check I'm trying to figure out how much extra $ it's gonna be.. I could always call my bank at midnight and ask them lol since it's direct deposited..

Anyway.. The check will be a little less than anticipated perhaps because I had 2 Sundays off {we get $1 extra/hr on Sundays}

The extra $ are going into a savings account and I will ever so slowly begin saving up for my car.

The other big story. There is a young smart 23 yr old girl I work with named Mary. She's a cashier. I found out something interesting tonight.

She {just like I} eventually wants to be a store manager. So I made a promise with her. If I become a manager 1st, She can come to my store and be my co manager.. and If she becomes a manager 1st, she's elected to let me be her co manager

So there ya go.. We all can dream.. Other than that.. that's about it..

[cajungal]

I don't it will be that bad for you to save up for a car. Just use your check for nessacities only like rent, utilities and food. And put the extra in the bank. Then, you go out looking for a new car. If you put at least $1000 down, your notes won't be that bad. Do you have good credit? Because you can just finance the rest. Do you have your license yet? Don't worry about having a brand new car because the notes will be too high. There are some really reliable used cars out there. Honda, Toyota, and Nissan are the best. Just make sure you take it to mechanic before buying to make sure there is nothing wrong with it. That was what I did when I was shopping around for a used car. Several had something wrong with it, but luckily the mechanic was able to tell me that. Because the sales people won't. They just want to make a sale.

[Josephine96]

Well as of tomorrow 11/7.. we are just 18 days from Blitz Day.. AKA Black Friday.

I am scheduled to work my regular 1-10 shift that day.. But am tempted to ask management if they need me to come in earlier to push carts, or stock or crowd controls or anything lol..

I worked Blitz last year and had fun with it.

This year on Black Friday we "Open" at 5.

[Skywatch_NC]

Well as of tomorrow 11/7.. we are just 18 days from Blitz Day.. AKA Black Friday.

I am scheduled to work my regular 1-10 shift that day.. But am tempted to ask management if they need me to come in earlier to push carts, or stock or crowd controls or anything lol..

I worked Blitz last year and had fun with it.

This year on Black Friday we "Open" at 5.

My aren't you a glutton for punishment. lol j/k

[LaPlaceFF]

I am actually dreading it.....

We still are 100 associates short at our store. The stores hours are still abbreviated 7am to 8pm and the hiring process is at a snail's pace.

I think I will be in that night of blitz though

[Josephine96]

Yes I am Eric

Today was 1 of those days btw that I just was happy to see it become 10pm so I could go home.

I don't know why but today slowly evolved into 1 of those "I really don't wanna be here" type days.. I get those every once in a while..