Today's rambling: Safeway, the store of the spawn of the devil
Written on August 6, 2001 at 4:40 a.m.
while feeling a bit

Okay, today just SUCKED. I was about 3 seconds away from quitting again, LoL!!! But now I need to rant, so you're going to have to endure the entire story of my day. ;)

Came in around 8 am, got my little white Genuardi's jacket on, and went to the bakery, where Nina (who was supposed to be working with me) was just walking past. She asked me to start base-icing the cake on the table, which I did. Had it all base-iced and was waiting for her for like 5+ minutes. Now apparently, Nina learned in high school how to decorate cakes (she graduated the same year as me, I think...we were in 2nd grade together). And according to Mum, Nina thinks she's really good at decorating cakes.

She's not. Not that I should be talking, because I mean, I just started doing this stuff yesterday! But then again, I don't pretend to be terrific or anything, and that's kinda how she acts. So she was making a pink rose to put on the cake, and it came out looking really pathetic, but she put it on the cake anyway. Then she let me practice, and she said that mine came out better than hers! It did, in a way, but it's nowhere near perfect. But she took that beginner's luck rose as a sign that I can make them perfectly, and so she told me to finish that cake while she started on the second one.

What that translated to was "You finish this cake, I'm going to go over and talk to the other people in the bakery." Had I known what the rest of the day had in store for me, I would've gotten ticked off right there, but as it was I was just like, "Whatever." So I attempted these roses, and then eventually she came back and finished the rest of the cake. I'm sorry, but it looked SO horrible! Part of it was because my roses were less than stellar, but her handwriting SUCKS! It was all sloppy, and she was holding the decorating tip too close to the cake, so the writing came out all fat and unattractive...gah.

After we finished the two cakes that were being picked up that day, we thought we were finished and so began cleaning up (it was probably only around 10 or 11). But then Mare and Debbie told us that we should make some cakes to put out on the tables. I've never made them before, so I was relying on Nina to show me. She said she'd help me when she came back from a '10-minute' break. Time goes by, and I'm standing with Debbie just chatting to her. So then finally Nina comes back, and what does she do? She goes off to the other half of the food court and starts talking to THOSE people!!!! We finally figured out that we needed to make about 26 cakes, and you want to know how many got done between around 11-something and 2 (when I left)?

Five.

Nina went over to the deli department because Fat Joe asked her to help (4 people over there, 5 customers...yeah, that works out...). So I walked up front, found one of the cakes I was supposed to make, and brought it back to use as a guide. I got as far as base-icing the two of them before Mum came over and said that we were going on break (I'd previously ranted to her about the fact that Nina was being a lazy ass). When I came back, Nina was just finishing putting coconut on the second cake (she'd finished the first one). Then I had to make a few German chocolate cakes, and did she help on those? Nope.

So as you can see, I wasn't getting any help/training, and now I'm probably going to get in trouble for not having done much of anything, when the fact of the matter is, I couldn't do anything because I didn't know HOW to do anything!!!! By the end of the day, I was honestly ready to just blow up. Now I know what Liz had been talking about when she told me (before I quit) that Nina was really lazy. She is!!!!

Okay, and here's the other thing that really set me off. (Back story first, hehe) Genuardi's, now that they've been taken over by Safeway (the Corporation of Satan), gets these stupid mystery shoppers that come in...once a week, I believe. They ask you stupid questions, and then grade you. Did you take them to the item? Did you do the suggestive saling thing? Did you get on your knees and kiss their ass? (Yeah, I made that last one up, but you get the idea.) As you might be able to tell, I think these mystery shoppers are just plain STUPID. 'Stupid' doesn't even begin to cover what I think of the idea! But I digress.

So we've got the mystery shoppers, but in order to keep us on our toes or something, apparently the department managers wander around every so often pretending to BE mystery shoppers! Nobody told me this! Thus, I'm standing there decorating my cakes, and here comes E.J. Sabol, one of the department managers. I gave him a smile and said hello, then went back to what I was doing. He walked over to the bakery case and was looking around, at which point I thought, "Uh oh, he's taking an inventory or something and he's going to yell at me for not having that case totally filled!" Let me just say, thank GOODNESS that Frank was there microwaving pita things for the sandwich shop!

E.J. was standing there for awhile, and then Frank looks up and says, "Hello, E.J.! Can I help you with anything?" Still clueless, I'm thinking that Frank is just joking around and so I kind of giggle to myself but go on with what I'm doing. E.J. starts asking about the products in the case, and Frank's still acting like this guy is a customer. It was then that I finally noticed the clipboard...on the back was written (with white-out): MYSTERY SHOPPER. Aha, my mind thinks, He's pretending to be a....WTF???!!!

I found this new discovery to be so absolutely RIDICULOUS that I rolled my eyes, gave a disgusted sigh, and walked off to do something else. It's one thing when the mystery shopper is asking you these lame-ass questions, because you don't really realize that you're 'being tested' and can therefore do everything seriously. When I know it's a manager, however, there's no way in HELL I'm going to be able to take him seriously! I'll be chuckling and smiling and just generally being very sarcastic, as is my nature...It's not really a fair 'test'. And I think it's frickin' stupid that they're even doing this.

It's got me so angry that I feel like the only words I can use to describe it are curses, but I'm trying to curb my tongue, LoL! I just feel like saying "F this!" and "F that!" and all those other words that, under normal circumstances, I tend to use very rarely. I don't even USE 'fuck' unless I'm pushed really far, so the fact that I want to use it right now is saying something! :oP

I can't say it's Genuardi's that I'm so angry with, though. It's Safeway. Safeway is the worst corporation to have tainted the face of the planet. At least, so far as I'm concerned. They're all about 'customer service' and blah blah blah, but they're like frickin' dictators (oo, there I go, wanting to swear again, hehe)! They shove this stuff down your throat and seriously come down on you for not being perfect. Well flip off, Safeway, I'm not Miss Customer Service Agent of the Year, and I'm not in any way motivated to become that! Not that I'm outright RUDE to customers, unless they're belligerent with me (in which case I become very short with them). Much of the time, I'm very polite and try to help as much as I can, but I'm also moody, and I don't have that bubbly cheerfulness all the time.

Anyway, so Safeway's all big on customer service, right? And that's why at the registers, instead of letting the cashier hand over the change (like most normal stores do), we've now got these indifferent boxes of metal down at the end of the register which plunk out the change. I bought some iced tea today, and the cashier was like, "Your change is down there!" At which point I looked in confusion, then saw this stupid metal thing. I scooped up my lonely nickel, gave the box a disdainful look, and walked off. Upon returning to the bakery, I looked at Debbie and said, "Those registers are really spastic!" Then we started talking about how it's really unpolite and unfriendly to have those little change machines. I guess they were installed because they have less chance of errors than humans. But Debbie said that they're actually WRONG a lot of the time!

So what's the point? Is it so HARD for the cashiers to hand out change? I know I definitely have no interest in cashiering, now that I know I'd have to be like, "Hey, your change is down there, you ass, we don't care enough about you to actually HAND you the money!"

ARGH! I wish that Safeway would find this page and read how utterly STUPID they are!!! Argh, I wish I had a stronger word than 'stupid', LoL! And it's not like the Safeway people would care that they're ignorant asses, anyway...so long as they get money and can try to brag that they're the best, they're happy! This place is starting to turn into a bloody Super Fresh, and Super Fresh is probably one of THE worst stores ever!

This is supposed to be making me feel better, getting out all my frustrations and aggressions, but I still feel like finding the nearest Safeway executive and castrating him (and it's obviously going to be a 'him', because who else could get me this riled up?).

"Hello, and welcome to Genuardi's, where we supposedly care enough about you to take you to the item, and to shove items that you don't want in your face, but we don't care enough to actually hand you your own change. Oh, and instead of making our OWN fruit cups and other produce-related items, we get them shipped in now, so they're as un-fresh as they can possibly be without you noticing! We hope you enjoy your shopping trip, please pick up your change on the way out and be sure to tell your friends that we're the best walking contradiction in America!"

All day today I heard the deli clerks saying, "Do you need anything else?"

"No thanks." (from the customer)

"No salads or anything?"

"No thanks."

I never once heard a person say yes, they'd like a salad, but every damn time the order was finished, I heard the "Do you need anything else? How about a salad?" line. And inwardly, I laughed bitterly. Yeah, this suggestive saling thing is really winning over the customers. They LIKE to have employees force them into buying stuff they wouldn't want unless the end of the world was coming and they had to be sure to buy a little of every item in the store just in case there was a shortage of, say, headcheese, and heaven forbid the deli clerks let the opportunity to sell headcheese pass them by!

Y'know what would be a good kick in the ass to Safeway? Giving out their supposed 'secret' plan for becoming Number 1. This is all supposed to be done by terrific customer service, and apparently metal boxes which spit out change (thought that last part is an assumption on my part). I wonder how much they WANT us employees to keep the customer service stuff secret? They told us at our meeting way back when that we weren't to tell anyone, so I assume they really don't want anyone to know...

Any supermarket chain wanting to know Safeway's silly little plan to become Number 1 and rule the supermarketing world...send me an email! I'll see if I can find those pieces of wasted trees that we got with all the information on it!

BWA HA HA!!! Take that, Safeway bastards! Now watch, someone WILL find this site, and try to sue me or something. Heh. :oP

Anyway, that's it...I'm going to go cool off or something, hehe..though I'm actually in a good mood, Safeway notwithstanding!