About work

I have been insanely busy with work in the last few days.  However, I'm not embarrassed anymore.  The machines are WELL stocked, the stockroom is OK, and we have a good product mix. 

It, however, wore me out. 

Now, in the old days it wouldn't matter.  However, when I put myself out there with my real name, when I'm considered high risk by police due to severe mental illness.... I might end up with an unexpected visit if I neglect the blog!   "She hasn't posted in a week and she was really depressed!" 

I should have at least sent a text from my cell phone. 

No, I do not need any intervention.  I really have worked my butt off.  I learned something interesting, between the lugging stuff to work, pulling it on the hand cart, and stocking (a lot of bending over and reaching).  It's a good butt workout.  I can literally "work" my butt off!  Especially when I had to move a vending machine.  I literally used my butt like a battering ram.  LOL 

Melanie, I'm sorry to admit I only have the regular Cokes in the bottle.  I hear the old style sodas with real sugar are a million times better.  In fact, sometimes they sell them in cans here. 

What do I sell?  That might be a fun one.  Let me get myself a drink.  OK. 

First, we sell sodas.  We have a contract with Dr Pepper.  They lend us the machines.  We have a contract; each machine holds about 8 selections.  We agree to carry only 2 competitors (Coke or Pepsi products) in each machine.  They come out and audit us.  We never get in trouble.  We have 3 vending machines.  We stock a lot of canned soda, which is delivered to us. 

We get the Dr Pepper delivery once a month, and the competitor (Cokes, mainly) delivery once a month.  If we run out of the competitors we can run to the grocery store, but our contract forbids it with Dr Pepper. 

We also have the services of the very nice Dr Pepper repairman. He comes out for free as part of our contract.  We only see him about once a year. 

We also have a bottled vendor machine.  We fill it with Crush and bottled water.  It is not a Dr Pepper machine so we can stock whatever we want. 

Next we get to "my" babies, the snack machines.  I have 3 on loan from the state.  One, my favorite, is a very old Rowe, about 30 years old.  It's my favorite, easy to open, easy to stock, tamper-proof, and just all around awesome.  I also have a brand new machine (not from Rowe, I forget) that I like very much, but the door is very hard to open.  It's a security feature, I get that, but it is frustrating.  I also have an API snack I like a lot, it is not as easy to service, has a glitch that can put the bill acceptor out of use, but it works well and never hangs up. 

I tend to stock the snacks with pastry at the bottom.  Currently I am selling a brand I will discontinue, because a lady came to me and very politely told me they taste awful compared to the previous brand.  Ooops.  I want happy customers, and the food cost is the same.  The "crap" brand was bigger and I thought, better.  So, I sell some type of honey bun, glazed, and iced.  Then I have cinnamon rolls, chocolate donuts, and chocolate cupcakes.  They don't all fit in the bottom so I scatter the extras through the machine.  We sell them for a dollar, per the contract (yes we are told how much we can charge). 

I then do candy/chips/nuts.  Candy is sold at 90 cents, so I don't have a huge selection.  Those in the business know that is a terrible food cost.  I am working on changing that.  Next are crackers, the filled kind (most popular is the cheese cracker with peanut butter filling).  I carry several types, including whole grain, as they have the best food cost.  My customers literally eat them up.  I try to have a good variety.  I also have a trail mix item and 2 types of granola bars. 

If someone asks me if I have "anything healthy" I can point out several items. 

Now we get to chips.  We charge 65 cents.  I sell an assortment of 1 ounce Frito Lay chips (I get nearly all my snack product at the wholesale warehouse).  Right now I am featuring BBQ, Plain, and an assortment of spicy items because the younger kids at work love them.  I have to find a product mix that is suitable for both a 60 year old white management guy; and a 20 year old, black, "casual" mailhandler. 

Cookies.  I have them.  All sold for 70 cents.  I have the Grandmas with the 2 large cookies in the wrapper.  I have them in various flavors, including double chocolate and peanut butter.  I also feature some low fat animal crackers for the healthy crowd. 

I sell a few other things in snacks but you get the idea, and why it is so labor intensive! 

Ron and I share responsibility for the canned soda.  He does bottled soda pretty much by himself (I move the cases around for him).  The food machines have a lot of bottled drinks, which he covers.  I do the sandwiches.  He does muffins after I label them with the expiration date.  We also get sandwiches every week. 

We also have the coffee vending machine, which we hear is going away soon (the program owns everything except the inventory).  Good.  It is a problem child and very old. 

That's it for work.