Retail Report January 2023

Good Evening, 

How is life treating you? In this crazy, topsy, turvy world one can sometimes not tell. Here I'd like to jot down some notes of what retail grocery has been like so far, this being the end of the first month of 2023. 

First, business is booming but inflation has hit our store shelves harder than ever. These are the most egregious prices for food that I have ever seen in my entire life. Many customers complain about the prices all day long and honestly, I can't blame them. We are, at this moment, selling a carton of eggs for $9.99. Meat prices are also very high. Most people stock up on the cheap stuff: grains, noodles, junk food like chips and soda, beer and wine. I don't think Americans are eating very well. And on top of that, a lot of them are beginning to become obese. Only in America. 

Second, this is sort of minor but it's little things like this that get ignored that eventually grow into bigger issues getting ignored. The store's front door that opens and closes electronically when customers walk through has been broken for the last ten days. Meaning it won't open/close electronically anymore, therefore, the store manager has decided to leave the front door open at all times. Now, this isn't too big of an issue if you're a customer going for a quick beer run but for us employees this has become a big issue in the middle of winter, where cold windy air blasts are hitting you while on the checkstand, some nights its been like 47 degrees. You can justify the fact that the door's been like that for ten days anyway you want, but I see it for what it is, cutting costs at the employees' expense. Brrrrrrrrr! 

Also, on top of that there's always the covid issue. Most management and both upper management have not been wearing facemasks since the beginning. This set a bad precedent for all the employees, so that when covid hit our store hard, many employees simply didn't even come back and we lost a lot of workers. At one point there was some 32 employees sick with covid. I was surprised but at the time the vaccine was out so I felt safer, especially with mask wearing. 

In addition, another bad precedent that the upper management set was that they decided very early to remove the plastic barriers guarding between the cashiers and the customers, both inside the checkout lanes and on the side self-checkout lanes. This is especially bad because covid isn't over and most customers don't wear facemasks, meaning they could easily spread particulates into the air by talking loudly. Although we have vaccines there are some employees and managers that don't have the vaccine, and have been infected with covid several times over, making the store still a potential place to catch covid.   

Third, business is booming and the lines are never ending, leading to tiring, long work days. Despite high inflation prices, the work is still intense and nonstop. I would say the work became much more intense since covid 2020, and has stayed that way ever since. As a cashier who mostly works self-checkout most shifts, I would say the work is at its most intense, since I've started back in 2013, shockingly. Although the work is easy and self-explanatory in most cases, overall, when you consider how many customers I'm going through and helping individually, it's a nonstop never-ending rollercoaster. 

In fact, I've had to take more time to rest and sleep longer during the day to deal with it. All my shifts are usually 330pm-12am shifts so working late all day and staying up half the night doesn't help. I'm getting older, but getting older doesn't hit you this fast. A part of it is the fact that the work I'm doing is intense, nonstop, and very fast. Most of the day you don't get time to think, reflect, or have time to think of things to say to people, including the people you're helping in the moment in real time. You learn to sort of grunt or say stock phrases and just press buttons, thus making the job more manageable. Life in big city.

Lastly, the good thing about my retail grocery gig is that I'm full time, I'm in the Union, and I've created a work persona that's somewhat popular over there. I mostly just get brownie points for being an agreeable guy and helping customers but I've become so good at it and so well known, that even my management and upper management commend me for it, whereas in the past, that wasn't always the case. Sometimes it takes a while to win over your bosses. But it is my capacity for happiness that is carrying me through what is an obviously grueling job day in and day out. 

Sometimes I think about doing other things: going back to college, getting a degree, doing something with it, going to trade school, doing something with a trade, or working harder on music and a band and touring, or just writing like I am now, only writing books and selling them. There's a myriad of things I could do, or not do, but none of that changes my degree of happiness or capacity for happiness. Surprisingly, I'm happy doing what I'm doing now. I sort of see that the work has become a one-note samba, but I won't let that discourage me from my path. The only path I see right now, is the path moving forward, into tomorrow. 

image ai generated 

Dehumanizer [Retail Grocery]

Good early morning to you all. I've been on a bit of a hiatus in terms of writing but I'm ready to jump back into the saddle again. Here I'll go into some more details about what the retail grocery experience has been like lately, on the second month of 2022, with covid still rampaging throughout the lands. 

If you want to read about what it was like at work during the worst of times, make sure to read this post here. That was the worst of it. But things aren't perfect the way things are now either. 

A lot has changed in the world of retail grocery in the beginning of 2022. The place is being run less like a business-employee-bosses-customers routine and more of a sweatshop. Our union is fighting to get us employees a better contract. It remains to be seen if it will really be that much better, but it is guaranteed that our wages will get a slight boost. Modest progress. Slow hand clap.  

The departments and the front end department is being run by skeletal crews. Most of the time overtime is being rejected and refused and a lot of hours across the board have been cut severely, despite the fact that the store needs more help and needs more boots on the grounds to get the job done. 

Because of the fact that the departments are more and more being run with fewer and fewer people, the building has taken on the image of more of a sweatshop style environment. You have be very fast paced and not make too many mistakes. It's almost like Amazon or something now. Management demands it.

In the morning, the front end gets three people to work with until 10 am, and later at the evenings, say 8 pm or later, its being run in the same fashion. This has created a sweatshop environment where one employee is forced to take care of tens of dozens of customers singlehandedly, oftentimes with no baggers, so not only are they ringing up the orders, they're greeting the customers, cash handling, as well as bagging the items-whew! 

As if that wasn't enough, upper management seems to have taken up the stiff upper lip direction of managing workers. They're rude, they're pushy, they don't respond when you say hello, how are you, they're pushing employees to do more work during their eight hour shifts but insist on no overtime, they're in support of cutting hours, they don't give much leeway in terms of calling out sick for colds or covid, the list goes on and on. In a way, in short, I want to say that they've engendered a work environment where they try to dehumanize the employees, and sadly, from what I see from my coworkers, they've succeeded sometimes. 

But there's a light at the end of the tunnel isn't there? Of course. Although this industry seems to have been dehumanized and turned into a sweatshop by upper management and their meandering response to the pandemic, for me, the job has only become better. 

You see, I've become simpatico with lots of customers and while I've walked the Earth I've engendered reciprocity, made friends, and influenced people. Its not even about the money. Its about making friends and influencing people. Hard lesson. But well earned and deserved. 

Covid cases are down at the store but there's always at least a good six to seven cases on the board. Meaning there aren't too many new ones but there are still a few infections still getting into the store. Got to be safe and be careful. 

Customers have become especially unruly and offensive with ignoring the mask mandate and being pushy, aggressive, and rude. 

A long time customer is donating to me a Fender Stratocaster. Even if it really was the worst of times, it doesn't get any better than that. The satire here is that we're living during a modern plague, and its still the best years of our lives. 

queue Dehumanizer by Black Sabbath

Retail vs Corona 2021-pt.3

Hello everybody. Tonight I'd like to describe in detail what its like working retail grocery during this current time period of the pandemic on April 30th 2021. For the record, anyone who wants to use my notes on what it's been like to work grocery retail during the pandemic is free to do so. Please credit me though using the name Ogspace. My notes go back to the day before the pandemic began when I was at a punk concert, you can find it all here, http://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html.

Okay, so for starters, we are getting paid pretty well right now. We're currently getting an additional $5 per hour, which totals over $20 per hour from the original $15 per hour. Not bad for retail grocery really. The problem is that it will only last for three months. But there's been rumors from other grocery store workers [within and without our union] that somehow the union will prolong the additional pay period. I'm skeptical but hoping it will happen. You never know. This pandemic isn't going to end soon so it makes sense for the workers to think this way. 

In the beginning of the pandemic my pay was so low and I was getting such low hours that I qualified for EBT. However, at this current juncture, I've somehow made too much money, and my EBT has been cancelled. Bummer. But it's good to be making great paychecks. 

In addition, because of the increased $5 pay, management and upper management have decided to lower hours of all employees significantly in addition to our company closing stores in Long Beach and LA. This has affected most of the staff that doesn't work on the front end the worst. However, because I know how to operate a register, I've somehow been getting increased hours. It pays to want to cashier and be good at it and have a good attitude. 

The front end is the worst affected department out of all at this current stage of the pandemic. That department, the online delivery department, and the deli as well. Many people have quit the deli department so they're always short staffed. It's a very disorganized department. Every night there's only a few people to help our many many customers on the front end. When I left tonight there were only four people that were working the afternoon to night shift. That's hardly enough. Customers were unruly, they were getting aggressive and they complained like there was no tomorrow. It was a bad scene man. Even when I helped the customers a lot of them were still super aggressive towards me. It is what it is. 

The online delivery pick up department has been the second worst affected department. The manager works the 6 am shift and then he has one other person come in at 1 30 pm, and another employee comes in around 3 or 4, and that's it. That's a hardcore breakdown of hours and staff. In the beginning of the pandemic that was the most desired department because the employees didn't want to operate registers so it's easy non-comital work and you shop for other customers who order things online and bag it and bring out the bags to the customers' car, its the easiest job in the entire operation. You don't have to deal with customers too much first hand. It's a shame that the department has ended up so short handed so recently. I would've liked to see it stay a big department. It was doing so well until they cut hours and everybody quit and/or went to other departments. Not to mention staff reducing the staff's hours to about 20 per week. C'est la vie. 

Our store director gave the employees an incentive to get the Johnson and Johnson vaccine through our store. The deal is that you get the vaccine and you show the store director your vaccine card and you get an additional $100 on your paycheck. It's a great incentive. But because it hasn't been advertised at all not many employees have taken up the great opportunity. Consequently most of the employees are still working without having been vaccinated. A lot of them come from Hispanic backgrounds and may be fearful of vaccines because they are scared of the side affects and missing days of work if they get severe side affects. Honestly I can't blame them but the way upper management is doing it is wrong headed, meaning they aren't advertising vaccination at all, meaning most of them aren't going to get vaccinated, meaning some of them are still getting COVID and potentially spreading it to other employees and/or customers! Not good. A few people have caught COVID recently. That hasn't stopped.  

It's been pretty stressful. Most of the staff are tired, exhausted. Most of them have their hours cut. Honestly, I might be one of the few people who's hours somehow went up at this current stage. I even asked around to see what kind of hours my coworkers were getting and most of them were getting pretty low hours, something like 24 hours, or more, but barely more, maybe 28, if even. 

I would say this is a pretty bad time for the store. The front end department [cashiers/baggers/combo clerks] are getting overworked with not enough help at nearly every shift, be it morning, day, or night. Supposedly the pandemic is getting better, but anyone who's actually intelligent knows that this pandemic won't go away soon. It'll get worse before it gets better. This summer is going to hit hard with COVID. Anyone with a brain knows that. If you're reading this pray for all grocery store employees. Tip anyone who helps you out to your car. Don't be a whiner and complainer. Be a mensch. Do some mitzvahs for them.