Well, my life suddenly got more interesting...

Well if you get transferred to the Ramsey location, you’ll have a 20 minute trip to listen to music in your car.

Troublezone wrote:

Well if you get transferred to the Ramsey location, you’ll have a 20 minute trip to listen to music in your car.

I'd be fine with that

kewl

Sheesh, I haven't updated this thread in a while...

I just passed my six month anniversary at Shop Rite, and it looks like that's where I'm going to be for the foreseeable future. I'm still splittin' my time between Receiving for a couple of hours in the morning and then switching over to Dairy in the afternoon, and the combination puts me at roughly 35-40 hours per week. As long as that continues, I'm in good shape. The girl who I worked with during the day in Dairy quit a month or two ago, and rather than hire someone new to replace her they just gave me more hours to make up for the loss, which has worked out fine. Honestly, I get more done without her.

I have pretty much stopped paying attention to the emails from the various job sites I signed up for last year, because 99 percent of the stuff they've showed me during that time has been irrelevant, too far away, or both. I mean, one email last week said I'd be "perfect" for a position as ... a car detailer in Knoxville, TN. WTF??

Besides... during the one office-job interview I went on last Fall, I had an epiphany. While I was taking their borderline-insulting "skills test" to see how fast I could type, how well I knew Excel, and blah de blah de blah, I suddenly realized, "Dude, I am DONE with this. If I have to do this kinda shit for the rest of my life, you might as well put a fuckin' bullet in me."

I think I have finally gotten my Mom on board with the fact that I'm a Shop Rite drone now. Over the years she'd gotten a little too used to bragging to her Church friends about her college educated son who worked for USA Today (which isn't entirely accurate -- I worked for the company that published USA Today, not on USA Today itself). So for a while, every time I talked to her on the phone she'd be like "So how's the job hunt going? Anything in the wind?" and I finally had to say "No, Mom. There's nothing in the wind. In fact, there's not even any goddamn wind."

She actually said to me at one point, "I didn't send you to college to work for Shop Rite, y'know," to which I nearly replied "Yeah, and you didn't send me to college to smoke weed, go to heavy metal concerts, and lose my virginity to a German exchange student either, but I did all those things too." I mean, for cryin' out loud, I graduated from college THIRTY fuckin YEARS ago. As far as the current workplace scene goes, my degree is completely irrelevant.

So a few weeks ago when she started on the "Well, you just have to keep on trying" I interrupted her and said "Ma, seriously: this is where I am now. This is what I'm doing. The bills are getting paid and the lights are staying on. Your grandchildren are being fed. It's called survival mode. End of discussion."

I have accepted my role as a Slinger of Dairy Products and a Mover of Pepsi.

...and y'know what's funny? I'm actually enjoying it. There's very little stress. I don't think I realized how stressed I was at my old job.I was constantly worried about getting laid off, or what would happen if I screwed something up and it messed up other departments down the line, and blah blah blah. It was just something I got used to, I guess.

I've gotten very Zen. Stuff comes in on the trucks, I put stuff on carts, I take carts out to the floor and put it on the shelves. If I don't get all the eggs out on the shelf, nobody's gonna die. The night crew will put them out later. It's a relief. I am honestly more content than I've been for a long time.

Glad you're doing well, mate. There's no shame in where you work. At least you ARE working! And there is just something immensely satisfying about putting your "back" into labour, and completing a task.

If you're happy, that's kinda all that matters. Your mum, to quote my father, will get over it.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Sheesh, I haven't updated this thread in a while...

I just passed my six month anniversary at Shop Rite, and it looks like that's where I'm going to be for the foreseeable future. I'm still splittin' my time between Receiving for a couple of hours in the morning and then switching over to Dairy in the afternoon, and the combination puts me at roughly 35-40 hours per week. As long as that continues, I'm in good shape. The girl who I worked with during the day in Dairy quit a month or two ago, and rather than hire someone new to replace her they just gave me more hours to make up for the loss, which has worked out fine. Honestly, I get more done without her.

I have pretty much stopped paying attention to the emails from the various job sites I signed up for last year, because 99 percent of the stuff they've showed me during that time has been irrelevant, too far away, or both. I mean, one email last week said I'd be "perfect" for a position as ... a car detailer in Knoxville, TN. WTF??

Besides... during the one office-job interview I went on last Fall, I had an epiphany while I was taking their rather-insulting "skills test" to see how fast I could type, how well I knew Excel, and blah de blah de blah... cuz I sat there and realized, "I am DONE with this shit. if I have to do this kinda job for the rest of my life, you might as well put a fuckin' bullet in me."

I think I have finally gotten my Mom on board with the fact that I'm a Shop Rite drone now. Over the years she'd gotten a little too used to bragging to her Church friends about her college educated son who worked for USA Today (which isn't entirely accurate -- I worked for the company that published USA Today, not on USA Today itself). So for a while, every time I talked to her on the phone she'd be like "So how's the job hunt going? Anything in the wind?" and I finally had to say "No, Mom. There's nothing in the wind. In fact, there's not even any goddamn wind."

She actually said to me at one point, "I didn't send you to college to work for Shop Rite, y'know," to which I nearly replied "Yeah, and you didn't send me to college to smoke weed, go to metal concerts, and lose my virginity to a German exchange student either, but I did all those things too." I mean, for cryin' out loud, I graduated from college THIRTY fuckin YEARS ago. As far as the current workplace scene goes, it's completely irrelevant.

So a few weeks ago when she started on the "Well, you just have to keep on trying" I interrupted her and said "Ma, seriously: this is where I am now. This is what I'm doing. The bills are getting paid and the lights are staying on. It's called survival mode. End of discussion."

I have accepted my role as a Slinger of Dairy Products and a Mover of Pepsi.

...and y'know what's funny? I'm actually enjoying it. There's very little stress. I don't think I realized how stressed I was at my old job. I was constantly worried about getting laid off, or if I screwed something up and it messed up everyone's schedules all the way down the line, and blah blah blah.

I've gotten very Zen. Stuff comes in on the trucks, I put stuff on carts, I take carts out to the floor and put it on the shelves. If I don't get all the eggs on the shelf, nobody's gonna die. It's a relief. I am honestly more content than I've been for a long time.

Nice update.

The part you wrote at the end reminds me of the movie Office Space! When Peter ends up much happier working at a construction site instead of the stress of an office environment.

Screw the stigma of where someone is employed. Blue collar work is an honest day’s wage. Without us “drones”, businesses can’t operate.

Or until the automated AI robots take over…

Less stress is always good, screw people that might be looking down on you. All that matters is you’re happy, everyone else can piss up a rope! Yes I realize I’m lumping your mother in that, but that’s why I’m holding back lol

Quote :

The part you wrote at the end reminds me of the movie Office Space! When Peter ends up much happier working at a construction site instead of the stress of an office environment.

Hah! I hadn't even thought of that, but you're right... or as Peter said in the movie, "Fuckin' A."

Quote :

Your mum, to quote my father, will get over it.

Oh yea, I just let that kinda crap roll off of me, she's going to be 80 this year so she's old and set in her ways, therefore she can't help being a passive-aggressive snob.

(And yes, I've called her that to her face, more than once.)  

Quote :

everyone else can piss up a rope! Yes I realize I’m lumping your mother in that, but that’s why I’m holding back

all good. My brother and I have both said similar things to her many times over the years

So how are things going? I never thought FF would’ve been in a DB style fiasco. 

Troublezone wrote:

So how are things going? I never thought FF would’ve been in a DB style fiasco. 

No fiasco here. I've settled into a groove and accepted my fate as a slinger of dairy products for the time being. The lights are staying on, bills are getting paid. All good.

Actually, Shop Rite is becoming a family affair -- my 16 year old son started working there last week!

Fat Freddy wrote:

The lights are staying on, bills are getting paid. All good.

Really, that's all that truly matters especially if you are enjoying what you're doing.

007 wrote:

Really, that's all that truly matters especially if you are enjoying what you're doing.

It's funny, cuz the last time I worked retail full time I was in my early 20s, and I absolutely hated it and couldn't wait to get out. I was convinced that I was gonna get out there and make my mark on the world and this place was holding me back, or was "beneath" me and blah blah blah. Like most kids that age, I thought I knew everything. The real world hadn't crushed my spirit yet.

It recently occurred to me that if my 22 year old self could see me right now he'd probably be furious with me. "Why the hell are you settling for this crappy job? I can't believe you'd sell out like this," haha.

...to which I would probably reply, "Shut up, you punk ass kid. You don't know shit about shit."

And if that fails, modern day FF can kick the shit out of 22yo FF, no?

SideShowDisaSter wrote:

And if that fails, modern day FF can kick the shit out of 22yo FF, no?

Modern day FF DOES have a distinct weight advantage.

What’s up guys? It’s been a while since I have logged in. Over a year. I’ve had some major changes as well.

I worked at a paper mill in Panama City, FL. In April 2022 they announced they were permanently ceasing operations and would close in 60 days. 500 jobs gone. I had 2 months to find something else. Being as Panama City is a tourist town staying there was not an option for a good paying job.

I actively started looking for other work. I had interviews in other parts of Florida, Washington State, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas and Michigan. The company in Washington flew me out for an interview. Beautiful area but cost of living is extremely high on the west coast. So I declined their offer. It just didn’t seem affordable. The week after that I flew to Michigan. I’m originally from Michigan but had not been to the state since 1989. I felt good about the place and they made an offer and i accepted with about 15 days left out of the 60 to find a job. We put our house up for sale in Florida and it sold in 4 days for way more than it was worth. I worked my last day in PC June 6, 2022. Packed up my Ford Ranger and headed north by myself while my family stayed to get the closing done on the house. I lived at a hotel for over a month and that part sucked. Being alone in a extended stay hotel isn’t much fun at all. We found a house in Michigan in July and then my wife and youngest daughter drove up. The house wasn’t quite ready so they spent a week at a different hotel since mine was completely booked. That sucked too but at least I didn’t have hotel bills as my new company paid for all of the hotel expenses.

One downside is we had to leave our oldest daughter in Florida because she was a senior at FSU. We didn’t want her changing schools for her last year.

We drove back to Florida in May 2023 for her graduation and then moved her to Michigan the next day. Luckily she was accepted to grad school at Western Michigan which is 5 minutes from our current home.

New job is going well and family has adjusted. Wife loves it here and glad to be away from the Florida heat and hurricanes. Middle school age daughter struggled at first because that’s a tough age to move but once school started she did fine. Now that oldest daughter is here she is looking forward to making friends on campus.

We loved last winter! Plenty of snow and a white Christmas which my kids had never seen. We went to the beach last weekend at Lake Michigan and the kids loved it, they were so happy to have a body of water about 40 min away.

Anyway, that’s what’s been up with me and it seems I am not the only one who had to make a job change.

I miss my old friends but I don’t miss Florida at all. Many of my old friends either took early retirement or are now working low paying jobs as they refused to move out of the area. Some were surprised that I was moving so far away. I explained to them we had no one else in Florida and most of our family was in Tennessee or Michigan. A few weeks ago I drove to visit my brother for lunch. I have two brothers here and tons of cousins and I am thankful to have found another job within the 60 day period and thankful to have family here even if they are 2 hours away on the east side of the state.

Wife was a school teacher in Florida and started working here last week after taking a year off. She isn’t teaching yet but just turned her teaching certificate to the state and wants to teach next year.

Hope all is well guys!

Glad everything worked out well for you. Now you need to change your name to mikeinmi!

Or maybe Mike-In-Another-Peninsula

Hey Mike, glad to hear things turned out well for you too. Sounds like it was a bit of a project to get to that point though!

As for me, Shop Rite is really turning into a family affair for us - I work there, my wife works there, and my 16 year old son also started working there two weeks ago. It's his first job, they put him up front as a cashier. He absolutely HATED it for the first week, and was already talkin' about quitting... till he got his first pay check and suddenly he's like "Oooh, wait, now I can buy cool stuff. Never mind."

The other day I picked him up after his shift and I sez "so how did it go today?" and he sez "GREAT! A total MILF checked me out!" (I should mention that my boy is over 6 feet tall, has long blonde hair, and looks quite "metal.") He sez this woman came thru his checkout line and was like "Ooh, I LOVE your hair, Honey. If I were 20 years younger you'd be in trouble." Hahahaha!

Side note, I was also contacted by Spirit Halloween (remember them?) this past week to see if I'd be interested in returning this season. Though I obviously wouldn't be able to give them as much time this year as I did last year, I wouldn't mind pickin' up some extra cheddar on the days I'm not at Shop Rite, so I'm thinking it over.  I dropped by the store the other night to talk to the gal who contacted me (she was one of the assistant managers that I worked with her last year) but she wasn't around, so I texted her back to tell her I'm interested, if I can figure out how to make it do-able.

I did see a couple of the other girls there that I worked with last year, tho, and they were both like "Oh my GOD, you have to come back, we miss you!" ... which, not gonna lie, was a nice ego boost. So we'll see if anything happens on that front.  Gotta keep hustlin'!

Well, after mulling it over for a week, I decided not to sign up for another season with Spirit Halloween. As much fun as it was last year, and how much I would've liked to do it, I couldn't see how to squeeze enough time into my schedule to make it worth the trouble.
If I were a younger man I probably could've handled adding a few evening hours at Spirit after my daily hours at Shop Rite, but geez, by the time I get out of Shop Rite after working from 7 AM to 3:30 PM, the last thing I wanna do is get back in my car and go work for a few hours somewhere else.. (haha)

I figure, what the hell, there's always next year...

Fat Freddy wrote:

Welp, so much for the grocery store gig. Not gonna lie, I'm kinda pissed off about it too.

After dealing with my automotive issues for the past couple of days (I'm back on the road now) this morning I realized it had been more than a week since I'd last heard from the store. That in and of itself is not a very good sign, I suppose, but since my interview had gone so well I figured it couldn't hurt to call them for an update.

I got the guy on the phone who interviewed me in the first place, and he was all, "Oh... um, hey. How are you? Y'know, I'm not sure where your application is right this minute, let me check on that and I'll get back to you in a little while."

(cue foreboding music)

An hour or so later, phone rings, it's Grocery Guy. "Turns out we're pretty well staffed at this point, so I tell ya what, we're going to keep your application on file in case something opens up."

...which is pretty much the retail version of a girl telling you "I really do like you, but I think we should just stay friends."

Sooooo yeah, I'm a bit perplexed, not to mention annoyed. For cryin' out loud, they practically gave me a fuckin handy the day I went in to interview, and the last thing they told me before I walked out the door was "See you soon," so I thought for sure that I was in.

(SIGH) Oh well. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

Y'know, I was kinda rooting for that store to be a success, cuz they're the new business in town, but now... fuck'em, I hope the place catches fire.

I haven't needed to update this thread in a long time cuz not much has changed with my work situation -- I'm still unloadin' trucks and slingin' dairy products for Shop Rite (mid-December will my 2 year anniversary there).

However I just wanted to mention that "Cosmo's Fresh Market," the other grocery store in town that I am talking about in the quoted post above from 2022, who interviewed me before Shop Rite and ended up ghosting me, is now out of business --  they officially closed their doors this past Sunday. Sooooo, hey I guess in the end, I dodged a bullet there, eh?

During their last week in business everything in the store was buy one, get one free, so I couldn't resist going over to pick their carcass for some cheap canned goods, ketchup/mustard, jars of peanut butter, etc. I'm not above taking advantage of their misery during their death throes.

Honestly I think the place was doomed from the get go. Don't get me wrong, it was a very nice looking store, supposedly they had excellent meat & produce dept's, but opening an "independent" grocery store in the same town as a Shop Rite is pretty much a death sentence, cuz there was no way they could compete with S.R. in terms of selection and especially on prices. They were never busy, I couldn't tell you how many times I drove by the place on a Saturday afternoon, when Shop Rite was a total zoo, and Cosmo's would have maybe a dozen cars in their parking lot. I don't know how they hung in as long as they did.

Oddly enough, Cosmo's is the second supermarket to fail in that location in the past couple of years. That site had been an A&P supermarket for many years, till the entire A&P chain folded in the early 00s. It sat vacant for a while after that before a store called "Highlands Market" opened there about five years ago. They tanked within a year and a half, and now Cosmo's tried and failed. Maybe that site is cursed.