The best is when we get free food! Our store policy is that pretty much everything in the store can be sampled if customers ask. When customers bring something to customer service and we let them try it, and they don't like it, we get to eat it! We've had everything from ice cream and cookies, to chips and crackers. Most of the time, I'll try something and like it and then buy it for myself! See, sampling does work!
The worst is when we have to throw away food when there are people going hungry. At the end of the night, all the uneaten prepared food gets thrown away. The prepared food is the buffet-style food area that each store has. When we close, the hot food, soup, and salad bar stuff goes in the trash. Obviously, we're not going to put it in the fridge and serve it as leftovers. That's gross. But we can't even give it to the homeless or food banks. I'm upset that we can't give the leftovers to the hungry.
The worst is when we have to throw away food because of customer ignorance. Customers can return anything, and when they do, most of the time we have to throw it away. Here are some of the returns I've had to take back and throw away...
- Frozen Thanksgiving turkeys. One customer was anticipating more people showing up, but they didn't, so she didn't need the 2 other turkeys she bought. Another customer said her oven broke. Turkeys in the trash.
- A whole un-eaten birthday cake, because the customer wanted vanilla but accidently picked up a chocolate. Cake in the trash.
- Gallons of milk. Always because the customer can't read the label where it says Skim, Whole, Low Fat. Milk in the trash.
- Meat and seafood, because customers buy too much and don't want the extra.
If something was frozen or refrigerated, we have no way of knowing if the customer kept the item at the safe, cold temperatures, so we can't risk putting it back on the shelf. We couldn't bring the cake back to the bakery because who know what happened to it once it left our store. Sometimes I just want to yell "READ THE LABELS" at customers!
There's this one customer who comes in weekly to do returns. She'll give me half-eaten boxes of cereal, crackers, pasta. She'll say she didn't like the way it tasted or that the food has gone stale. She'll give me fruits and veggies that have begun to spoil and rot. The receipt will show that she bought the food weeks ago, so of course her lettuce is turning brown and her corn flakes aren't crispy anymore. But I can't say that to her- I have to give her her money back.
When customers decide at the register that they don't want something, we call that item a "go-back". When I get bitchy because of customers and returns, I'll do go-backs and just wander around and talk to my co-workers in different departments. I work with some fun people! I still haven't gone to poker night at Josh-from-meat's house (ALI!), but a bunch of us do karaoke on Wednesday nights. Steve and Paul from Produce asked if I wanted to join our store's softball team (haha! never gonna happen!) and Lauren from Marketing wants me to do the kayak race at the Royal Palm Art Fest later this month (we'll see about this one!). When it's slow at night, we'll have the Store Team Leader put on 80's music at night and have dance parties. I'm training a new cashier now and she thinks we're all absolutely nuts.
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