Well, my life suddenly got more interesting...

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.

And the worst part about not getting the gig is... we wasted all those "floater" jokes for nothing!!

Well, that sucks dude. Better luck moving forward.

Fat Freddy wrote:

And the worst part about not getting the gig is... we wasted all those "floater" jokes for nothing!!

Since ya got blown off, do ya have any "hummer" jokes?

James B. wrote:

Since ya got blown off, do ya have any "hummer" jokes?

I got nothin'.

It's getting tougher to keep the proverbial "stiff upper lip" after every one of these interviews that goes nowhere.

Fat Freddy wrote:

James B. wrote:

Since ya got blown off, do ya have any "hummer" jokes?

I got nothin'.

It's getting tougher to keep the proverbial "stiff upper lip" after every one of these interviews that goes nowhere.

Every time somebody brings up wasting time. Be it implied or specific, my juvenile humor goes straight to the conversation between Spicoli & Mr. Hand

Another week, another grocery store interview coming up Thursday...

The difference is, this is the Shop Rite my wife already works at, so when I put in my app there I told her to put in a good word for me

We shall see how it goes.

You know it’s kinda funny… we see all those hiring signs all over the place, but when you apply it’s a waste of time!

You see some snot nosed kid out of high school with the Costco job while you’re in the trenches at a Walmart or Target.

This one is famous… “sir, you’re overqualified”.

Unless you’re lucky or blessed to have the same career or job forever, we eventually have to face the ageism scenario.

Troublezone wrote:

Unless you’re lucky or blessed to have the same career or job forever, we eventually have to face the ageism scenario.

Yeah, unfortunately I'm in that weird place where I'm too old to start over, but not old enough to retire

Even tho I knew the ship was sinking, I had hoped to still be able to squeeze a few more years out of Gannett (ideally until my youngest graduates high school two years from now) then I probably would've packed it in and gotten the fuck outta New Jersey altogether, but the Universe has a habit of throwing monkey wrenches into well-laid plans

Shop Rite is a go. I start "training" on Wednesday.

They haven't quite decided if they're gonna put me in the Dairy dept or Receiving yet, so apparently for the first week I'm gonna alternate between the two.

I don't know how many hours I'll be working per week to start, and of course the money's gonna be shit for a while, but at least I'll be out of the house and doing something.

I will still be looking for something that's a bit more "up my alley" but for now, at least, this'll get us thru the winter and I can pick up the job searching again in the new year. For now, I just wanna find my groove there and enjoy my holiday season without stressing about all this crap.

So I've been at Shop Rite for a week.

They decided to put me in the dairy dept. and since then it's been pretty much the same stuff every day -- truck comes in, unload truck, sort stuff from truck onto carts, take carts out and put stuff on shelves. The other peeps in the dept. seem cool and since I have been working during the day whilst my lovely wife works the evening shift, we haven't stepped on each other's toes much.

Obviously it's not brain surgery by any means, but it'll do for a while. So far so good.

Fat Freddy wrote:

So I've been at Shop Rite for a week.

They decided to put me in the dairy dept. and since then it's been pretty much the same stuff every day -- truck comes in, unload truck, sort stuff from truck onto carts, take carts out and put stuff on shelves. The other peeps in the dept. seem cool and since I have been working during the day whilst my lovely wife works the evening shift, we haven't stepped on each other's toes much.

Obviously it's not brain surgery by any means, but it'll do for a while. So far so good.

Dairy dept huh? Could be worse… at least you’ll be in the a/c when the weather eventually heats up. Don’t be tempted to jack a chocolate milk when no one is looking!

Troublezone wrote:

Dairy dept huh? Could be worse… at least you’ll be in the a/c when the weather eventually heats up. Don’t be tempted to jack a chocolate milk when no one is looking!  

Mmmm chocolate milk...

I must admit, working in the refrigerated room is a new experience. I only have to run in there to load up carts so I'm only in it for short periods at a time, but it is frickin COLD in there.

We got one guy who handles all the milk/cream/etc. and he's is in that room full time, so he's all bundled up like an Eskimo or some shit. I sez to him "must be a pretty sweet gig in July when it's 90 degrees, though, huh?" and he sez "Oh yeah, I'm very popular then."

A day or two before Christmas we had a severe Arctic cold snap and it was actually colder outside than it was in that room!

Things continue to be interesting on the work front.

I'm still whackin' away in the dairy dept. at Shop Rite, but the amount of hours (4 hrs a day, 4 days a week) is not exactly conducive to keeping my lights on, if you catch my drift. Apparently that's all they can give me for right now, since they're in the post-holiday slump period. So for the past week or two I've been blastin' out applications at other retailers hoping to land something part time that will supplement the piddly number of hours I am currently getting at Shop Rite.

Late last week I had an interview with a Staples store for a Sales Associate position, which, if I land it, will be about 16-20 hours a week, and they're willing to schedule me around my Shop Rite time, which is cool. I won't know till this coming Tues. or Weds. if I got that gig, but the interview went well so I'm hopeful. An additional 16 or 20 hrs per week at Staples, plus the 16 I've been getting at Shop Rite, would put me close to the # of hours I'd been working at my old day job. So we shall see how that goes.

If Staples doesn't call me back, the mgr. at Shop Rite stopped by to see me on Saturday as I was slingin' cheese in the dairy aisle, and asks if I'd be interested in doing some training in the Receiving dept., which would mean additional hours there. So either way, it looks like things are moving up.

Though I gotta say, when he sez to me "I was just talking to Chris (receiving manager) about starting you training in Receiving," I kinda chuckled to myself like "Of fucking COURSE you did, since I just had an interview somewhere else yesterday, dammit."

Fat Freddy wrote:

Things continue to be interesting on the work front.

I'm still whackin' away in the dairy dept. at Shop Rite, but the amount of hours (4 hrs a day, 4 days a week) is not exactly conducive to keeping my lights on, if you catch my drift. Apparently that's all they can give me for right now, since they're in the post-holiday slump period. So for the past week or two I've been blastin' out applications at other retailers hoping to land something part time that will supplement the piddly number of hours I am currently getting at Shop Rite.

Late last week I had an interview with a Staples store for a Sales Associate position, which, if I land it, will be about 16-20 hours a week, and they're willing to schedule me around my Shop Rite time, which is cool. I won't know till this coming Tues. or Weds. if I got that gig, but the interview went well so I'm hopeful. An additional 16 or 20 hrs per week at Staples, plus the 16 I've been getting at Shop Rite, would put me close to the # of hours I'd been working at my old day job.  So we shall see how that goes.

If Staples doesn't call me back, the mgr. at Shop Rite stopped by to see me on Saturday as I was slingin' cheese in the dairy aisle, and asks if I'd be interested in doing some training in the Receiving dept., which would mean additional hours there. So either way, it looks like things are moving up.

Though I gotta say, when he sez to me "I was just talking to Chris (receiving manager) about starting you training in Receiving," I kinda chuckled to myself like "Of fucking COURSE you did, since I just had an interview somewhere else yesterday, dammit."

Best of luck!!

Hope it works out!

Best of luck with the new options!

Speaking of Staples…

My bro just got a new laser printer there and recommended for me to do the same. My current Cannon POS printer sucks! The ink cartridges are always giving problems (it forces you to have the color ink). I just want a plain black ink printer for documents or whatever.

Thanks fellas. If I got the Staples gig, I should hear from them today. I'm hopeful cuz I thought the interview went really well, plus they've got that print/copy shop thing goin' on which is a little more in my wheelhouse than shelving cheese products.

If I don't hear from them today, then I guess when I go into Shop Rite tomorrow AM, I gotta see the manager and say "OK, so let's talk about this Receiving thing..."

Didn't Dwight Schrute ball-out at Staples?

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Didn't Dwight Schrute ball-out at Staples?

Is that an "Office" reference? I never watched that show... (shrug)

Anyway... no contact from Staples today, so I guess that means another swing and a miss. Dammit. This is really getting fuckin' old.

Things seem to be moving in the right direction @ Shop Rite.

I begin "training" in the Receiving dept. this coming Wednesday. I'll still be doing my thang in the Dairy dept. too, so for the foreseeable future I'll be working in Receiving four days a week starting at 7 AM, then moving over to Dairy for my regular shifts there from 10:30 to 2:30 PM. The additional hours will put me around 30 hrs. per week, which isn't quite full time levels, but it will be a big help.

During my initial interview last month, the store manager did mention that there's a full time Receiving position open at our Ramsey store (which is about 20 mins from me) so who knows, maybe they're looking to set me up for that. We shall see...

Gonna be weird reporting to work at 7 AM, I haven't done that since my KMart days in the early 90s. I'm used to having a leisurely morning around the house, drinking coffee. Now it's gonna be "get up at 6 AM, wake up kid for school, walk dog around the block, get your ass to work!"

Good to hear. Congrats !