My dad use to brag that he got all of us kids started drinking coffee by the time we were 3. Not sure how true that is, but I do remember our “kid coffee”. Coffee heavily laden with milk and heaping spoonfulls of sugar. This same kid coffee I gave to my kid, nieces and nephews as they grew up. I remember in high school drinking coffee for breakfast on my way out the door. Some of my fondest memories of my dad revolved around coffee. How we girls use to scramble to make him a cup. Black, with one small spoonfull of sugar, cooled off with a splash of ice cold water so it was drinkable. Then he’d always make a game out of the spoon… he’d stir his coffee and then touch us on the arm or leg with the hot spoon asking “Is that hot?!”. Sometimes at restraunts he would stir his coffee, then put the spoon in his ice water and see if we still jumped. Thanks to Pavlov we jumped whether it was cold or hot. I think I’ve probably done the same to my son over the years, but with less frequency.

I have some pet peeves when it comes to coffee. I don’t want added flavors. I like my coffee just coffee, no vanilla, no french italian spanish creme brulee chocolatemocha. Until I was in college I drank it straight up black. Then I learned that coffee can leach calcium out of your body so I started putting milk or half and half in it to counter those effects. Another pet peeve I have is buying coffee. When you buy it at these coffee shops littered around town, they all want tips. I’m not getting a freaking meal! It’s just one cup of coffee. You stand in the same place, you don’t come to a table for me, you don’t do anything more than a regular cashier does. Yet you want a tip? How bout get a full restraunt job if you want a tip. It’s bad enough that I’m usually paying through the nose for the cup of coffee as it is! You’re lucky I’m not gulping it down insisting on a free refill like they always use to give coffee drinkers.

Free refills for coffee is like a pair of socks always being a pair. It goes without thinking that if you order a regular cup of coffee in a restraunt, you’re going to get free refills. I remember our broke days in college going to Denny’s and having refill after refill, studying for hours. If I order a coffee and I don’t get refills it effects the tip. Regardless of what meal we had in restraunts growing up, my dad always ordered coffee and water. I have a tendency to do the same.

There are actual health benifits to coffee. When my nephew first started showing signs of asthma, a doctor told me coffee was good for opening up his airways. So every time he weezed, I would pour him a coffee or take him for a latte’. I’m probably very much to blame for his coffee consumption today.

There was also a study I read a few months back about excessive amounts, over 6 cups a day, keeping people from developing diabetes. There’s also another study on the net that claims drinking coffee on an empty stomach before you work out helps increase caloric consumption. It’s already been proven to be a great antioxident. From what I’ve read it could also be the reason why no one in my family has ever had Alzheimer’s. A good website about coffee benifits is coffeescience.org.

Either way, good or bad, I’m a true coffee addict!!! d

But I’m back now. Ready to dig in and do the things I meant for this page to do. Give other mothers tips, review products and talk about mommy type subjects. How do we be mothers, employees, wives and ourselves with the little time we have in a day? Hopefully I’m back with a vengence to help us all accomplish that and more.

Mommy!

It’s a nice truely medium roast coffee. It’s almost buttery tasting, with a sweet undertone. It’s really has none of the bitterness you get with some other medium blend store sold roasts. It’s very different than all the other whole beans I’ve bought, and almost I daresay it’s better than Seattle’s Best. It’s very smooth, very tasty and has a slight carmel smell. When it brews the whole kitchen smells good it’s so fragrant. If you get a chance try some!

What posesses people to take not only a full cart full of groceries to an express but 2 carts? What ARE people thinking? These express lanes aren’t set up to take more than 20 items at a time. The space to put your groceries is small with no conveyor belt, the area we place the bags can litterally only hold 4 bags, not the 20 it takes for a full cart. I see people stack 3 or 4 items high on these tiny spaces, just to get their groceries scanned. In fact once I had a stool fall on my hand. I’ve seen tons of bottles of soda or jars of pickles fall because people stacked items there or the bag carousel. It’s a proven fact that these lanes can’t scan your items as fast as on a belt non express lane. So if getting out fast is your excuse for piling up 50 items on a 20 item or less lane, you’re out of steam.

Not only is it dangerous, takes more time and not set up to take more than 20 items, it’s completely defeating the purpose of having express lanes. Express is there for people who only have a few items that we can get through quicker. It’s not for people with 21 items, wic checks, hand keyed ebt cards. It’s suppose to be SPEEDY. If you have a special need for gods sake go to a belt equiped lane where no one is standing behind you trying to get to their son’s soccer game or mother’s funeral or cousin’s wedding. The express lane is to get people with FEW items through fast.

And the excuse “well you don’t have a customer now.” is complete bull shit. It’s like saying “well I only speeded when there was no one around.”. Rules are rules. Besides that consider murphy’s law of express lanes; If I take someone with over 20 items within 15 seconds of rining the first item up there will form a huge angry line behind that person.

Now the CFH of express lanes. Wic checks and EBT cards that don’t scan. You folks KNOW it takes longer for wic checks to be confirmed, scanned and rung up. If you have a special need like with wic checks, take it to a belt. Normally I have no problem with ebt cards, but anyone who works with them knows that they lose their magnetic charge a lot and have to be hand keyed in by the cashier. If you have one of these cards don’t even look at an express lane. Not only do I have to hand key in the 15 number card twice, I have to wait for a supervisor to come and approve it, which during a busy time I’ve seen take up to 15 minutes. Just go to a belt for farts sake.

I had this lady once come up to me when I was at a express lane that is known to be THE busiest express lane. We weren’t slamming busy but busy enough to where I always had a customer or one approaching the lane. Then this big, fat, sweat clad lady comes pushing a full cart up to my lane and I politely tell her “I’m sorry ma’am but I can only take 20 items or less.” She starts ranting about how I’m refusing her service and since when have we been able to refuse customers. As I’m trying to tell her that it’s been like that since I started working here she keeps interrupting me with angry remarks. I offered to take her to a belt that could accomodate her. She stomped off, turning to a man behind her pushing another cart and headed for another express lane. She not only had 1 full cart of groceries, but 2! And she expected service at a 20 items or less lane?

That’s it for now, rant off. But there have been plenty more CFH at the express lanes and there will be plenty more. Boggles me that people expect special treatment.

There were several different brands, but I bought the one that I see sell the most, “Cruz Garcia Real Sangria”. It’s in an interesting triangular shaped bottle with an orange, gold and white label. I think I’ll save the bottle.

As for the taste, it’s a nice fruity, not bitter at all flavor of wine. It doesn’t give you that “fuzzy tongue” feeling that red wines do but it’s not as clear tasting as white. It does have more similar characteristics of a white wine than a red or blush. It is sweet but not oversweet, just a bit sweeter than a zin I’d think. It’s very fruity.

Like I said I’m not much of a wine connoisseur but this is one that I do find nice enough to try again one of those few occassions when I do drink.

And don’t get mad at me when the computer denies your favorite brand of cereal/cheese/juice. If we sell you a product that is not WiC approved, it comes out of the stores pockets. I have no way to control what WiC approves or doesn’t approve. I just go by the guidelines they send us and try to explain to you what is or isn’t allowable. If you want to yell at someone because Kraft slices aren’t approved, call your local political representative or go to the WiC offices. Besides, does it really matter if it’s apple juice or pineapple bannana when it’s free? Heck, when something is given to me I don’t complain about specifics.

Which brings me to the next topic on public assistance that boggles me. Food stamps are no more, now there are EBT cards. Basically a debit card provided by public assistance with a max amount you can spend on food.

Now I know there are quite a few disallowed items, but it just makes me blink to see the stuff that is allowed. Soda, candy, ice cream, and other “luxury” foods that when I’m budgeting go right off my shopping list. If it were up to me the public assistance cards would cover fresh produce, meats, canned vegetables, breads and baking items and staples only. I think it needs a serious revamp.

I was also somewhat dismayed when one of my customers was talking about how folks sell their cards. They take the cards and sell them to friends/relatives for half the value in cash. Then the card buyer just uses it easy as pie. It’s just a debit card that no one is told to police/monitor in any way. I guess they figure if they put a pin code with it that’s all they need to do. We don’t check signatures/id or anything when it’s an EBT card. Anyone can concievably use it and they do pass em around like party favors. And we cashiers aren’t paid enough to try to police it for the government. For $7 an hour you think I’m gonna check every card that comes through my line and deal with the harassment from those customers? No freaking way.

Like I said, I have nothing against folks who use public assistance or Wic or other programs. If you really need it and you use it the way it’s intended I have no beef with you and will gladly help you get checked out in any way. But for those who abuse the system, bend the rules and otherwise defraud the government I have one thing to say to you…. “What goes around comes around.”

Karma baby!

My hubby spoiled me for mother’s day. I woke up to coffee made and waiting for me, a card and 2 packages of my favorite, expensive Seattle’s Best coffee. When my son stumbled into consciousness he gave me a nice card minus it’s envelope. My husband also did a LOT of the chores on my list for me, and the last few weeks has replaced blinds that I hated. Overall hubby’s rating is up there with the pope imo.

I did have to work for Mother’s Day. Not a biggie, though it’s the first year I’ve missed our annual Mother’s day fishing outing. They did manage to drag themselves without me though. (=p) I worked a long shift, 10 to 7. “THE STORE” put out roses for us working mothers which was nice. The first half of the day was explosively busy, one customer after another, fraught with problems and issues. Several people had forgotten wallets or had bank cards declined which means lots of time waiting on CSM’s approving suspened or canceled transactions. One lady complained about the long lines and how “THE STORE” needed more cashiers. I heartily agreed that we need more cashiers but people just don’t want the job and that while I would like to see every cashier they have there, I’m happy for the mommies that got it off to spend with their families on mother’s day. She looked a bit guilty as she stated “Oh I didn’t think about it being Mother’s day.”

On that note let me tell you what I couldn’t tell her. “THE STORE” has a hard time not only hiring new cashiers but keeping them. The pay they offer is barely over minimum wage. You have sometimes YEARS to wait until you can get approved for full time as they like to keep everyone part time to avoid paying out benifits and running into overtime pay. I talked to one lady and she’s been trying to get full time for 2 years now. On top of that we get a raise once a year IF our performance meets standards. (which I’ve heard are pretty high standards, I’ll let you know later after my first evaluation.)

Someone quoted a figure to me one day that 1 out of every 4 cashiers actually hired will stay. Next to the crappy pay we have tons of stress. The majority of people who have problems, issues or complaints don’t go to customer service or management, they voice them to the cashiers. Some of us try to fix those problems, complaints and issues, but bottom line is we are powerless. Complaining to the lowly paid, often ignored and kept in the dark cashier is like going to your kids school and complaining to the janitor about poor teacher performance. Yet every day, 90% of the people who come through my lane expect me to give them top quality service for bottom dollar prices.

Then to top all that off, we really don’t get any respect from the higher ups. We cashiers are expected to do it all. We do spill clean ups, zoning – which is the act of replacing the things people leave lying all over, cleaning in general if it can be done with paper towels and windex, attending the cash register, bringing carts in from the parking lot, covering greeters for breaks and sometimes being sent to another department to help when they are short. Most the time we’re not asked we’re told. There are a few CSM’s that will ask and say thanks and show appreciation by words, but like my dad use to say “actions speak louder than words.”

For example, this last week we had to almost battle the management to retain the privledge of having water at our registers. Some district muckity muck came through and got a bee in his bonnet not liking the sight of all the water bottles at the registers. So BAM, new rule – cashiers can’t have waters at the registers. Well I’m in Florida, it’s hot. Our store is always hot and especially so up at the registers which are near the constantly opening and closing doors. We don’t have fans at our registers and we’re working non stop. We also use our water for other things than drinking, on paper towels for cleaning up messes that shouldn’t be cleaned with windex. For soaking a paper towel so we can wipe our fingers to pull the “sticky” money apart. (That new money that is all stiff and sticks together.)

After a lot of cashier grumbling and complaining the management reached a compromise – we can have water, only water and ONLY water that the CSM’s hand out to us. Well I guess that’s ok with me, though the cashiers that drink more than 1 bottle a day are inconvienced. The CSM’s have enough to do if you ask me, without management asking them to hand out water to us too. God help you if you’re on break or they run out of water when they hand it out.

Other quick ways we lose out as cashiers – We’re always to busy to attend any of the daily, weekly and monthly meetings they hold. I have worked there 3 months now and have been to 1 meeting and that was on my day off. From what I understand they have 3 meetings a day, 10am, some evening time and 10pm. Then there’s a bigger meeting on saturday’s or fridays or something like that. But no one ever pulls cashiers off registers to attend meetings. We’re the damn mushrooms of “THE STORE”, kept in the dark and fed shit.

Despite the corporate policies, the shitty treatment of the little guys and the ineffectual management, I really like my job. In spite of all the crap, I really like the other little people I work with. They’re genuine, hard working and very interesting people to get to know.

Now for all you daddies and kids out there trying to figure out what to do for mother’s day. #1 rule is DO NOT LISTEN if the mommy says “aw, don’t worry bout it, I don’t need anything.” We’re programmed to not ask much, it’s the mommy nature. If you want to get your mom or mother of you kids bawling happy tears then do something big, celebrate all she’s done for you.

Here’s some simple tips and ideas on what to do for her.

Handmade cards rule over store bought ones — take 10 minutes and make her a card using a few sheets of construction paper and colored pens.

Bring her tea/coffee in bed. Even if you have to set your alarm to get up before her. It doesn’t have to be a full breakfast, just something you know she normally would have.

Do the dishes without being asked or any other chore she normally does daily. (IE vacuum, dust, bathe the dogs.)

Skip the flowers and buy her her favorite candy bar, coffee or other extravagent item she normally wouldn’t buy herself but always wants.

Clean out her car! Vacuum, wipe down and windex it all. Don’t let her lift a finger!

Tell her you love her and really appreciate all the things she does every day to make your life easier. Hug her and tell her she’s the best mom!

Happy Mother’s Day!

On an average 4 hour shift I see a minimum of 150 customers. Sometimes more, hardly ever less. In an 8 hour day I get to ring up at least 300 of you folks. I’d say out of every 5 customers, 1 of you has a special need, request or issue. The majority of you are absolutely wonderful, happy folks who are a pleasure to cashier for. But every once in a while I get a Customer from Hell. (Henceforth known as the Cfh.) Off the top of my head my biggest CFH was the coupon lady. While she was nice and she and I chatted to pass the time while the CSM got the official word on her coupons, she still took 45 minutes of my time. My time is kept track of by the computer. That 45 minutes with her goes into an average called my IPH which comes from an average of my items scanned per hour. It counts all my time on the system, save for a few minor things like checking ID for beer/cigs and customers writing checks. The higher my IPH is the better my future evaluations will be and from the rumors I’ve heard, it has a direct relation to how much my future pay raises are. So while she was nice, there was no way I could prevent her 45 minutes from blowing my IPH average.

Then there was the “Angry Cart Lady”. I cheerfully greet this heavy set, short haired lady as she piles her groceries on the belt. Not just sets her groceries on the belt but really piles them on 2 and 3 deep. She even placed a table over the end portion that I could have much easier scanned inside the cart. A minor annoyance since it makes it precarious for me to scan items without having an avalanche of merchandise come down on me. I smile and deal with it and scan her items and bag them.

As I’m scanning, bagging and making small talk with her the lazy susan holding the bags fills up. As she notices this she grabs the cart and almost runs me over trying to make sure that it is set as close to me as it can get. If you’ve seen how the registers are set up there is really no room for a cart at my elbow, but there is ample room at the customers side near the end of the lazy susan bag holder for a cart. As she stomps back to her side of the cash register my smile turns into furrowed eyebrows pondering her intentions. She loudly, pretty rudely, informs me that “I NEVER, NEVER put my own bags in the cart, EVER.”.

I’m a bit taken aback, because really it’s not set up for the cashier to place the groceries in the customers cart at “THE STORE” and while we’ve never been told it’s not our job to do it, it’s kind of assumed that this is part of the trade off of losing bag boys, that customers put their own groceries in the cart. I smile anyway though and keep my composure and put her bags in the cart. And to be honest I’m not all that picky about how they are organized in there. I stack the bags on other bags when normally if I help a customer place their bags in their cart I’m very careful, almost anal retentive about how I do it. But this fat ass bitch literally won’t raise a finger to help me with her groceries. Even the retarted table that I have to negotiate over the cash register. I smiled all through it though.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind helping people put their groceries in their cart, but for crying out loud, I’m getting paid $7 an hour and that lady EXPECTED me to do all the work. She never once thought about how me taking the time to load all her groceries took from the next customer or how in exchange for a bigger savings, the whole shopping experience has become less service oriented. I’m not getting paid nearly enough to deal with fat ass, lazy bitches like that. That’s like going to McDonalds and paying for a big mac but expecting a new york strip. Get a clue lady!

Stay tuned for more customers from hell stories to come!