April Greetings

I played basketball in high school, but I cannot sit there and watch a game. Zzzzzzzz Of course, I don't watch much TV period, so I don't have a very high tolerance for programming. I'd be fine with getting rid of the TV altogether for as much as I watch it, but everyone else likes it...

I wouldn't mind ditching directv and just keep the tv for dvd or netflix.

Put in a new "Netflix-ready" TV for my prepper small group. I also stream my I-Pad to it via AppleTV, giving me internet access. Enjoyed our first session last Thursday with 17 in attendance. Next lesson is on water, with a little hands-on filtering of pond water in front of them. Who will dare to drink?

I had filtered and boiled pond water this last weekend. It was NASTY! I like water from a stream but that pond water...tasted like dirt. GRIN! Even with tablets and many filters..it just tasted BAD! Still was safe to drink. Show them the Platapus Gravity works..thats something they can buy and have for years and years and it works and is simple and bomb proof and its American made and is designed for groups and you don't have to work it to get it to work..it uses gravity.

Mark Jones

joecool wrote:Put in a new "Netflix-ready" TV for my prepper small group. I also stream my I-Pad to it via AppleTV, giving me internet access. Enjoyed our first session last Thursday with 17 in attendance. Next lesson is on water, with a little hands-on filtering of pond water in front of them. Who will dare to drink?

Claymore wrote:
So my Partner said, "Oh, Milwaukee is such a nice city.  It's so neat and clean."

At first, I thought that she was joking.

Then I saw that she wasn't, and I said, "Where the Heck are you from?"

She said, "Detroit".

Boy that is the truth. the whole city is just strewn with trash. Every fence line has a collection of debris it has caught over the years.

Had a talk with my mgr today regarding my interview for Meat Supervisor. My current supervisor is moving over to Meats. She had high praise of my work and said it a move so that Jeremiah would be in a position he could do better in. She said she knows I can handle that job and more. By end of next week I should be frozen dairy supervisor. Management also likes how I utilize the email system. Not too common for a regular associate to use. They believe the communications have helped improve operations.

So are you good with frozen dairy?

Yea, I've been told by our new zone merchandise supervisor of fresh depts and grocery merch supervisor that without me frozen/dairy would fall apart. The grocery ms would love to have me in her dept. the new ZMS of Fresh has been pushing for me to get an MS title in one of her fresh depts. I've spent 3.5 yrs on overnights primarily in the frozen dept stocking it with a good sprinkling of meats and dairy stocking too. I've spent 13 months on days now learning the MS position doing that job on my supervisor's day off. When I was asked to come to days I was told they almost rejected bringing me to days because I was the best stocker in fresh area on overnight. My supervisor said Yes I want the best stocker working on days with me. I've been told I'm like a gazelle quick, never see me in one place too long, but all the work is being down. My communications are intended to give management the 411 on everything we do and to prod my supervisor to pay attn to the details. I've been told my emails follow the STAR=Situation Task Action Results. My supervisor is more STAB=situation task and blame. I know there are weak links in the chain before us but I know results matter more than just complaining who is failing us. The store mgr notices our different styles.

Does your supervisor have much bearing on what happens to you in regards to advancement? They may recognize the style difference too and try to keep you down so you don't outshine them... Hope that's not the case.

No, he wants me to move up it reflects well on him training me on days. In any event he's hourly the true decision making power is with salary asst store mgr. i had the favor of the old zms, have the favor of the new zms, and best of all I'm favored by ASM who has the power to choose. He's being chosen for Meats because he's not performing consistently in his current depts. His opinion wouldn't sway any since he's being one last shot to improve. He's told me he only took frozen/dairy cause its all on the IMS which is inventory management system.  Which means in theory we would walk in zone (block face side counters), work picks, and fill milk. Often theory and reality don't mesh. If I'm promoted we'll be equals. 

If I can do what no one else has done consistently I might have at a ZMS position over a zone of the store which would give me .90 for MS + .40 for pay grade (7) + $2.00 differential which would put me over $15 hr.  Or if they're really happy I can apply for management training which has a base rate of $38k/yr.

I'll continue to pray that everything goes well.

Looks like it's going to be another beautiful day here in the southland! Weather has been perfect lately, other than the yellow haze all around, don't know if I'm coming up or down. Am I happy or in misery? Whatever it is, that girl put a spell on me.

Oh,... maybe that's Purple haze. Well we've got a lot yellow haze around here right now.

Two inches of fresh snow overnight and 20 degrees.  

joecool wrote:Two inches of fresh snow overnight and 20 degrees.  

No WAY! That's wild.... I'm sorry for you guys. I'm hanging in short sleeves today.

Today is great weather but Tues more snow.

Just looked outside and it's snowing again. Everyone have a great Resurrection weekend!

He is risen...

All clear here in north central Ohio. 

Today is definitely a Good Friday for me!  I met wih my Mgr and she offered me the Dairy/Frozen Merchandise Supervisor position!  She still needs to speak to the other two candidates tomorrow before its officially announced to the store. So you're all sworn to secrecy.

Awesome news Dan! Glad to hear it.

Thanks!  Now I just need to replace myself!!!

So it's your responsibility to find a replacement?

Congratulations, Dan.

I was a Dairy Manager in a Sentry Supermarket back in 1974.

At times, that job made me wish that I was back stomping in the Mountains of Viet Nam.

In fact, I left that job to go back and do my second tour in the Army (just trying to make you feel better).

No one has been able to make the depts shine. Going in they know they need to replace me. I will be pushing to get a third associate part time for evenings. 

Unfortunately, I'm too old fr the military. Nowadays having it on the computerized inventory management system I can scan products to see if we have it binned in the whse. If all the parts worked together in theory it would be a breeze today to do that. We pick up a lot of leftover "slack".

Ohhhhhh, Bless Your Heart!


All that I can remember is trying to juggle a bunch of short shelf-life items, with occasional breakage, & anything that was lost from that was deducted from our Department's 2-1/2% to 4% profit printout.

Now I just read a report by the Alabama Agricultural Department stating that stores down here marked milk up by 10.6%.   That's waaaay higher than we did in Wisconsin.  And also, Markup does not necessarily indicate a Department's Profit, because of shelf-life, breakage, etc.

More power to you, Dan.

(Bless Your Heart.)

Oh bless Walmart's heart. Oh I forgot we have no heart or soul (anymore). 

With walmart we're expected to fix what others mess up with no accountability of the mess-makers. 

Bless their hearts...!

I like Walmart unless I'm in a hurry. Then I try not to go there if I can help it. It's not Walmart's fault directly, but it seems to be a beacon for all the ignorant and rude in town. My "favorite" are the ones that are oblivious to anyone else and will block the entire isle, or let their spawns run around like the idiots that they are...

Then I also dislike the stores that have decided not to sell firearms anymore. I was in a Walmart in Tennessee that had 7-8 AR's (not the .22 imitations) in the rack. That was a good store!

But overall it's a good store. Sam sure did create an answer to people's needs in the market.

And I also think it's lame when people cry about Walmart running little businesses out. That's bs. They may run ineffective businesses out, but I've witnessed first hand that Walmart builds businesses in a town. There's a little town close by that stopped Walmart from coming in for years because of that argument. The town continued to decrease. Then they finally let Walmart in. Yes, some little businesses died, the ones that weren't that great anyway for the most part, but now new businesses are coming in and the good old businesses are still going. Walmart is an anchor business. It draws people into town that were bypassing it before to go to the Walmart in the next town over. So you're done shopping and you're hungry. Now there's a bunch of new restaurants that weren't there several years ago to go eat at. And there's a little mom and pops shop to go into and look around, etc etc. Bottom line is that the town is growing.

People have to realize that industry changes. I'm sure the blacksmiths didn't care too much for the horseless carriage. They had to either adjust or go out of business.

Just my thoughts on a Monday morning.