Foodservice experiences

[shaberon]

I have to get this one down because tomorrow may be the debut.

I don't know if anyone tracks these day-to-day operations, but, about three weeks ago, there was a lettuce recall after a parasite outbreak. It primarily affected Taco Bell, and appeared to affect lettuce from central Mexico. Rather strangely, no parasites were found at the source.

So for like five minutes there's a public fear; no one will buy lettuce. We operate a salad bar and were told the sales plummeted. So we were told to get rid of half of the salad bar.

I went and checked, and the fruit, grains, and vegetables were gone. The lettuce was still sitting there.

Then I was told we're going to re-purpose half of the thing.

That took about a week, and then I'm going in there watching this half salad bar with all the lettuce being devoured out of it.

Hrm. Ok. Then I found out the new purpose: chips.

I couldn't figure that one out.

You think about it for a minute, and let me know if there is any obvious way that half a salad bar is where you will be looking for chips any time in the days to come.

These are the same ones we already have. It will be an additional display of refrigerated potato chips.

Meanwhile, for those who lost the atmosphere, let me remind you that when air hits a cold empty pan, that pan fills with condensation.

I use the generic term "sweat" regardless whether it was a cold or hot source, and, I checked, and yes these pans sweat and I hope someone is thinking of another way to do this. Otherwise, anyone can ponder for a moment, if you would like your next bag of potato chips to come from cold water.

It is possible the explanation being given is not the real one, if there is one.

My explanation is that salad bar is way too big for anything you can handle, so, half of it should just be gone.

If I am wrong, then the other person I am working with is off the hook. It's a lot of trouble, and, usually, they can't exactly clean it.

Anyway, I *think* it might be tomorrow I finally get to see the "reaction" to the lettuce parasites.

[shaberon]

Silly me -- it's pretzel sticks and ciccarones.

That should have been obvious. I mean, I didn't even know we carried the stuff.

Those maniacs are obsessed with shifting displays. That way, nobody knows what we have or where it is. But it's computerized. So you can rest at ease knowing, no matter how inconvenient it may be, all of the information has been digitally processed. Whew. Didn't want to miss that part.

They even did it to me today. The same scrubbers we've been using for years are now hidden with brooms and mops. Not with sponges or anything else you might use on the sink, but things more normally associated with floors. I guess I could wash dishes with a mop. Never tried. But why not? It's close to a scrubber, so, it must do close to the same thing.

To available memory, so far, this is coming out as the most ridiculous display I have ever seen, not just at work, not just with food, but anywhere.

[shaberon]

Girding myself for the fracas I am about to face.

I might not post this stuff, if the situation was clearly "beginner level" as in "we don't know what we're doing, help." I can't take it because it's really a repetitive cycle of incompetence. I finally managed to squeeze that word out of a co-worker. He can't possibly understand things the way that I do, but, was forced to find out, something is bad by design.

Last Sunday someone wanted to give me an order -- I asked what are you trying to get, they said for Saturday or today, and I checked and the board was wide open. So we set it up.

At the end of the night, I was looking at another receipt lying by itself on the table. You can't tell if it was headed for the trash can, or, fell out of the current paperwork. It's not held on by much, and, the trash can is right underneath it. Looks unstable.

Well, rather than throwing it away, I decided to rifle the stack of the "future" to see if it went to something.

Instead, what I got was four articles that matched nothing or did not go together. Then, I found something already paid, which was for Saturday at the same time, now. Oops.

So I went in the next day with a mind to adjust this, and I could not talk to anybody after it was said I was late. They were looking at next week's schedule. But I was too busy to do anything extra.

The next day I went in a little early, because of the confusion, and to make an adjustment. That did nothing and my hands were full.

On the next day, another order came through. And, it was taken for Saturday, at the same time, basically right now. By then I was able to explain it, and that girl at least sent a text message to the supervisor about the triply-conflicted time.

At that point, I consider it out of my hands. They can either make phone calls to change the pickups, or, the stuff will have to be made early and it will have to just sit for a while.

I'm going to say, that's if they can get that much stuff to start with. These orders are so big, it's really questionable if it can even happen. But, I can't get a straight answer, because there is no one to talk to.

I suppose everything is fine and they will just toss me a destroyed kitchen as usual to display the rank incompetence. There is, of course, a chance that some rather interesting fireworks will go flying, and I will discover something even more ridiculous.

Not what I want to be doing. But I am surrounded by this fast food mentality everywhere, there is nothing else, for miles, which is like a dead civilization. That's all I'm getting from this. It's brain is about six years old and it is 1950. Still walking and breathing, which is a bit surprising, but adding new buildings for greater numbers of this same thing are not what I call "progress."