Just a single serving

So I am (still) making an ongoing effort to try to eat better...but it's not always successful.  Like eating a package of ramen noodles when I get home from work at night.  Logically, I know they're soooo not good for me and have the nutritional content of cardboard--but they're quick and easy and (as anyone on a budget knows) incredibly, incredibly cheap and something nice and warm to eat to when it's really cold outside.  So I came home from work late one night and started making a package of ramen noodles.  As the water was boiling and the noodles were cooking I glanced at the Nutrition Facts on the back of the package--There is 190 calories in a serving.  Per serving the total fat is 7g (11%) Total Saturated fat is 3.5g (18%).  There is no cholesterol, no vitamin A, no vitamin C.  And I thought to myself wow that really isn't great and then I noticed that the serving size is 1/2 block of noodles with seasoning.  That means that eating one package of ramen noodle soup is consuming 360 calories with 14 grams of fat and doubling everything else (you can do the math if you feel like it).  My question to you is this--is there anyone out there who really only eats half a package of ramen noodles?  I'm sure those people must exist but I have never heard of them.  I often finish a whole one and I'm still sort of hungry. 

Night owls

I don't think a talk about the world of grocery stores would be complete without talking about the night crew. They are kind of the backbone of the grocery store (especially because they are primarily the ones who keep the shelves stocked with all the groceries). Since I generally work nights I have gotten to know some of these guys and they are generally nice (maybe slightly eccentric--but I think that's because they work crazy, vampire-like hours).

So here is a quick story as a tribute to the guys who work overnight stocking the shelves:

Gone Fishin'

One morning a husband returns home after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not very familiar with the lake his wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors the boat and starts reading a book.

Along comes a game warden in his boat. He pulls up along side the woman and says, "Good morning, ma'am. What are you doing?" "Reading a book." She replies. )(Thinking, Isn't that obvious?)

"Well, you're in a restricted fishing area." He informs her.

"I'm sorry, Officer but I'm not fishing. I'm reading."

"Yes, but you have all the equipment in your boat. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up."

"If you do that I'll have to charge you with sexual assault." says the woman.

"But I haven't even touched you!" says the game warden.

"That's true--but you have all the equpiment. For all I know you could start at any moment."

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I know comparing my job as a paralegal in a law firm to my part time job working as a cashier in a grocery store is like comparing apples to oranges (and maybe I'm starting to sound like a broken record)...but I think one of the biggest problems that I have as a cashier is the total lack of respect. I'm not talking about a lack of respect from customers (although there is plenty of that as well) but the fact that the company treats their employees with such a total lack of respect. This really hit me the other day. I had a bad cold and a (self diagnosed) sinus infection. I could barely talk and was hacking up a lung but I went into work because I couldn't afford to lose the hours. My throat was dry and a little sore and I had been up all night coughing. And I wasn't gonna complain about it or call out of work but when I came down to work I was carrying a bottle of water with me. Barbara came up to me and said, "You can't bring that water bottle down here. It's not allowed." I know Barbara was just enforcing company rules. But I was sick and I was tired and I thought to myself what a ridiculous company policy. Can you reasonably expect someone to work a 6 or 7 hour shift without being able to discretely keep a bottle of water somewhere?  That just doesn't sound fair or reasonable to me.  I'm not saying the bottle should be out in the open or anything but people who work at the front end should be able to have a bottle of water under their register. I thought of working at the law firm--if you needed a break for a minute or wanted to get something to drink you just let someone know you were running over to the corner store to pick up something to drink and would be back in about 5 minutes. No problem. I think the sense that you are being treated with respect makes you more productive at work. And do the people at the corporate office of the grocery store have people telling them they can't have a drink of water at their desk? Ummm--I'm guessing no. Because the people at the corporate office expect to be treated with respect. And I think it's partially the employees fault too because they don't really demand respect. When the employees mindless follow ridiculous company policies without questioning them they are implicitly saying that these policies are ok. Now, I totally understand that many company policies are put in place for a reason but often company policies are created by executives who don't necessarily understand the day-to-day workings of the store so the policies are impractical or unfair. When a company policy doesn't make sense--like not being able to have a bottle of water kept under your register while you work--employees need to question it and they need to speak up to be treated with respect.

Marxism

"I sent the club a wire, stating, 'Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.'"

-Groucho Marx

Debit Dilemma

There was a customer who came through my line the other day. I rang up her order, gave her the total, and she pulled out her debit card. She looked a little young but I really thought nothing of it because lots of (probably most) high school kids have a debit card. I asked her if it was credit or debit. She looked confused for a minute but then said she wanted to use it as a debit. I said o.k and asked her to put in her PIN number on the screen. She looked at me and said, "I don't know my PIN because my mom set it up for me." Well, I don't want to be judgmental or anything but I couldn't help thinking that if you're not old enough to set up and/or remember your own PIN number, you're probably not old enough to have a debit card. Otherwise, isn't that just some sort of financial disaster waiting to happen? I mean if this girl can't set up a 4 digit PIN number for herself can she balance a check book? Then, later on I got to thinking that I hoped that wasn't some sort of scam because could you really walk around with a debit card without knowing your PIN?

From the Bottom Up

I have come to the conclusion that I'm really bad at my job. I don't know that I necessarily feel bad about it--it's just sort of a statement of fact. This was made really clear to me when a customer came through my line the other day and told me he had 4 cases of soda on the bottom of his shopping cart. The 12 packs of soda were on sale for something like 4 for $10.00. He asked if he needed to lift them up or if I could just scan them from the bottom of the cart. I told him he could just leave them on the bottom of the cart and I would scan them using the scanner guns we have at the register. So I just continued scanning the rest of his order and I completely forgot about his 4 packs of soda! Later on that night another customer came through and as I scanned their soda I realized, "Damn it! I forgot to ring up that other guy's soda! Well he saved $10 and the company lost $10. I was thinking about this and I know there are some cashiers I work with who do care about their jobs. I guess I wished I cared more or that I was motivated to do better--but I'm really not.