Reflections on the Way to Work

Several years ago there was a commercial on TV for Honey Nut Cheerios. It was a showcase, similar to a refrigerated meat or fish counter with a worker behind it serving customers. The showcase was stocked with identical boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios – same size, price and packaging. A customer comes up to the counter and “orders” a box and points to one, the employee goes to grab it and the customer says “oh, no, no, no, please give me this one instead, the man behind the counter grabs that one and then, the customer points to another box, and again changes his mind on which box he wants, this goes on for two to three boxes until the customer finally makes a decision on a box and moves on.

Every time I saw this commercial I would laugh hysterical because sadly or maybe not so sadly, it is exactly how I, and many others shop for groceries. One day I was buying a bag of ice cubes (self serve) and unbeknownst to me someone had come behind me to get a bag of ice; I was going through all the different bags, (I might add for good reason) and finally the woman who was patiently waiting said, “it’s just a bag of ice”, so I quickly moved aside and let her grab a bag and then continued until I found the bag I wanted to purchase.

Every Saturday and Sunday I take my Dad for our weekly shopping outing. We have a routine, he grabs the cart and I do the selection. As you walk in the store you pass by the flowers and then are quickly at the vegetable department. We are big fruit and vegetable buyers so we spend a significant time in this section. As we pull in and “park” our shopping cart I begin to see the facial expressions on the workers stocking the shelves…. “Oh know, here she comes………” I used to think I was an oddity in my shopping behavior but as time went on I began to realize that I was not the only one like the “honey nut cheerio man”, in fact it is more prevalent than one would realize and there are shoppers much “worse” or shall I say, more “selective” than me, though but not by much.

Not sure how often the average person goes shopping but I would guess that a fair amount of people do the majority of their shopping just on the weekend. If that is the case, there is a great deal of planning that needs to go into how you will buy your products so that they are fresh for the upcoming week’s scheduled menu as you have to have all the products on hand for the week to carry out the scheduled weekly menu. That means fruits and vegetables can’t be too ripe or too under-ripe depending on when they are going to be used for the upcoming week.

Not sure that there is an appreciation by the fruit men stocking the displays as to what a precise “science” it is for the discriminating shopper when selecting their produce for the week. The fruits and vegetables need to be selected so they ripen in time for the day in the upcoming week that it is going to be used and don’t over ripen to fast that they spoil.

Bananas are particularly tricky to buy. Whether you are a discriminating shopper, or not, there always seems to be a discussion at the banana stand between the different shoppers. Buying bananas is very personal, some people like their bananas very ripe, soft with brown markings, others more on the green, firm side, and others, like myself, prefer them to be in a perfect state, all yellow with a tint of green, no brown blemishes, firm and a perfect length. So there is always a search for just the right hand of bananas.

It is likewise a challenging process for the store as they too need to manage their inventory so they don’t ripen too fast and spoil before the weekend onslaught of shoppers, yet, they need to make sure that they have a continuous inventory for those who actually do go shopping during the week. Plus, they also have to be sensitive to the fact that customers like bananas at different stages in the ripening process, so they need to have bananas in all different stages of the ripening process.

As much as both the store and the shoppers try to manage the shopping “science” of the purchase and sale or distribution of bananas, no one ever seems to be happy at the banana stand because the reality of it seems to be that when you want ripe bananas, they are green and when you want green bananas, they are all overripe, yellow, with brown blemishes.

Shopping for most, is typically a solitary, self focused activity except at the banana stand. Bananas always seem to engage a discussion between strangers of all nationalities, race and color. It is a very unifying experience. Why? Because people are very selective about their bananas!

Just this past weekend I needed to buy bananas and of course just at that very moment, as it is with every Saturday or Sunday, they always seem to stocking the banana stand. On this particular day, I observed that he took all the ripe yellow bananas and put them in the back of the display stand and then took the new green tone bananas and began to stock them in the front. I thought that was a bit odd because people don’t extend themselves to reach 18 inches back to buy bananas they take from the front so if the store was trying to make sure the ripe bananas would move why would they put the in the back of the display? I wondered why they don’t divide the display case by the ripe bananas on the left, the really green bananas on the right and the bananas at mid-point in the ripening process in the middle. That way people who were looking for bananas at a particular stage in the ripening process would have their choice and I would suspect there would be less waste for the store as everyone would not be picking and breaking apart hands of bananas to find the right mix for themselves.

Anyway, as the fruit man began to take the cover off the banana box to continue to stock the shelf there was a mad rush to the display so that we could all look for and buy our bananas in their desired state as the shelf was fairly empty and the bananas that were there were very ripe! While there were bananas on display, the mad rushers began to take from what he was putting out. He stopped because quite frankly between his cart with the boxes of bananas, the shoppers and him trying to stock the shelf it was a challenge for him to do his job. This one woman looked up at me and said, “he must be seething”, I said “I know” and with that, she took my hand of bananas that I was eyeing in the box. Ok she was there 10 seconds before me so she should have first dibs.  I grabbed a different hand and moved on, still missing the perfect hand of bananas that was “mine”.

Next stopping point is the cold cut counter. Luckily for us, just before you leave the fruits and vegetable and before you get to the cold cut counter you can actually stop and order your cold cuts at a machine. It is designed so that while you shop your order can be processed and you don’t have to wait. It is a great idea, the only problem is that the very machine that is meant to save you time and help alleviate the backlog at the cold cut counter is turned off during peak hours so that the personnel can serve the customers all lined up at the counter. Doesn’t quite make sense but ok…….off to the counter to take a number where inevitably there are always 20 numbers between the number being served and mine. Sometimes there are 20 customers in line waiting and sometimes a child pulled 10 along with their number to have fun. Your wait time can be 15-20 minutes on line and other times you get served within 5-10 minutes.

As with bananas, everybody likes their cold cuts sliced to their own desire. Shredded, very thin, thin, normal or thick. There must be 8-10 people that work behind the counter. Unfortunately, there is not a consistent standard in how each person defines “very thin” vs. “thick”.   As a result, there is a big disparity when you order, depending on who is working on your order, creating a great deal of consternation between buyer and seller. It is almost like playing Russian roulette – will I get the person that slices my cold cuts just the way I like them.   Inevitably, you do not, and there is much back and forth until just the right thickness is agreed to and then despite all the dramatics that take place, you get your cold cuts home and they are still sliced exactly how you didn’t want them sliced!

Next product – milk and juice.   You are wondering to yourself, how challenging can it really be to buy a sealed carton of milk or juice and why would anyone ever need to pause at these counters to choose a selected carton. Here is the reason. Not sure if you walk around the store or observe at the checkout counter but there are a lot of people who take products and then decide that they do not want them. They either leave them on a wrong shelf or when they get to the cash register they hand them over to the checkout person who then dutifully puts it underneath the counter. Then, throughout the day, store personnel go around and collect all the non-purchased items and restock the shelves with the items left back. The issue I have is that one never knows how long they have been sitting out and many of the items are perishable and go bad or turn sour, including milk and juice and other perishable items.

So, I never take the front items because that is the exact spot where the items get restocked. Of course, this once again creates an issue for the crew that works in the department and is actually trying to stock shelves. Again, there is the constant conflict between store management and shopper. Store management is trying to manage the store and consumer is trying to manage their products so that they are getting the freshest available. Milk or juice sitting under a counter for a long period of time is not my idea of fresh. Both shoppers and store managers are to blame here. Shoppers should have the respect and diligence to return items to the proper display themselves in a timely manner if they are no longer going to purchase them. They shouldn’t just leave them on an idle shelf. Similarly, store managers should scour the checkout counters more frequently so that products are not sitting out of the refrigeration too long.

Anyway, the point of this is not to only discuss my experience of shopping, it was just a long introduction to get to the point of the story, which is to recognize the hard work of the individuals working at the supermarket and show appreciation for their efforts, which they may think go unnoticed.

First, I would like to start with the checkout workers. Many are immigrants and 1^st generation workers that are supporting their families, or students paying their way through school or mothers or fathers that were displaced from other jobs. Their ages range from young to old. Many work multiple jobs. For their 8-hour shift, they always have to put on a happy face, engage in small talk and deal with non-stop lines of people checking out. I am sure there are days they just want to be away from the public but they don’t have a choice so they put on their happy face and move through the day. I hope as people checkout they recognize and appreciate that these individuals are people with lives outside of their job and should be treated with respect for who they are as individuals. You observe the gentleness with which they help an elderly person. For some elderly, the interchange may be the only communication they have that day.

As for me, I look forward to seeing the familiar faces at the checkout counter; they have become an extended part of my weekend “family”, acquaintances that brighten my shopping experience. In a small window of time you learn about them as individuals, who they are outside of their “check out counter” job.

Others that deserve recognition are the men and women that stock the shelves. One late Sunday afternoon I went down the butter, yogurt and cheese aisle and it was fully stocked, there was no one in the aisle and I just looked at how beautiful the display case looked. Everything was lined up nicely, it was a reflection of the pride that the person had in their work when they were stocking the shelves. It was picture perfect that could have been used in a commercial. We sometimes forget the hard work that goes into stocking the shelves because everything we need is almost always on the shelves and we take it for granted.

You can go on and on, the people that work at the meat counter, the janitorial staff that maintain the cleanliness of the store, the workers who gather the carts so you don’t have to go on a search and rescue mission finding them. All of this happens because of workers that are most likely making minimum wage or a little more than minimum wage. They work long hours and deal with the public, which can be challenging at times.

It is important for shoppers to recognize the work of supermarket employees and once in a while thank them; let them know how much you appreciate them going out of their way to get you something; or acknowledging the beauty in their display; the thoughtfulness of their exchanging pleasantries, or just the gentle smile they give you. Their presence and the way they interact with the public makes the shopping experience all the more pleasant.

I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan (music, not politics) and he has a song on his Working on a Dream Album titled “Queen of the Supermarket”. It was not one of his more popular songs. While the song is more about someone who likes the check out girl, he has a line that I think can be applied to any supermarket worker “as she bags the groceries her eyes so bored and sure she’s unobserved”. Probably most supermarket workers feel that they are unobserved. Bored, I would disagree with, as it is very easy for them to entertain themselves observing the shopping public!

Like everyone else, supermarket employees are trying to live the American dream. A little recognition to each and every worker at the supermarket recognizes and gives purpose and meaning to them as individuals and to the job they do and they deserve it! Let them know you recognize their work and efforts next time you are shopping, even if it is a smile or a nod just to acknowledge their presence and maybe even say a thank you!