Deli

Today is Thursday. Deli day. This is what I used to do every Thursday and Sunday. Before I had it scheduled for Thursday and Sunday it was what I would do any day they wanted to schedule me in. That meant that at one time I was going between the deli job and my current job for 13 days in a row. NOT. RECOMMENDED. But hey, we needed money in a bad way. Before that I was also scheduled at any time, which was good, because we needed money, but bad, because it meant I might be getting home at 10pm to get a call at 6:30 am to please come in at 7 am. Here was my job (this is the morning shift job. The evening shift was mostly just cleaning and helping customers).

At 7 am I would arrive. First, I would get on my hair net and latex gloves.

Second, I would get a cart and empty buffet pans. Almost always there wasn't enough for the olive bar, so I'd get as many as I could. Also, I'd get a bunch of serving spoons.

Third, I would check all of the dates on the olive bar and pull out the ones that expire that day. Then I would lift the old pans out of their slots and spoon the olives into the new pans. This takes quite a while, and I would eventually run out of pans.

Fourth, I would spray the oil and junk out of the dirty pans. Then dip them in hot water, then soapy water, then sanitizer water and dry them off. I would return and finish up the olive bar. Sometimes this also meant that I would need to get more olives for a certain pan that expired. In which case, I would need to clean out more pans, then go to the olive bar fridge and open a new case of whatever I'm missing. I would then get the date tagger and count how many days until the item will expire and mark the tag. Finally, I'd take it back to the olive bar and put in the new dish with the updated tag.

Fifth, it's cleaning time. I would wash out all of the remaining dishes. Depending on how soon the Hot Foods worker needs it, I would either wash it in the sink or clean out most the junk and load it into the industrial dishwasher. After it is done, I'd dry the pans, then stack them back on the shelf.

Sixth, I would open every meat case window and check the expiration dates on all of the meat. Anything that expires that day I would take out and put it where our display case is for it to be "shrunk". Meaning weighed to get a tag, then thrown out. (Or, disgustingly, given to the Salad Bar to use in their Grab-n-Go salads.) 

Seventh, depending if there are any customers or how long it took I would take my first break. At this point it is about 9am.

Eighth, after heating up oatmeal and eating a banana or something, I would go back to work at 9:15. 

Firstly, I would get my Sandwich log, which is written up by the manager or co-manager every day, depending on inventory. I would see what sandwiches I am making that day and go into the "walk-in" freezer and get the deli cart. Usually, the meat and sandwich makings had their own cooler, but it was broken for about 4 months.

I would check each meat, cheese, and bread. Then I would slice what I needed. This seems like a short step, but depending on how much I needed, how many customers there were, and if I needed to open a new package, this could take a very long time. Sometimes about 2 hours, just due to stupid customers. For one thing, you get the meat and unwrap it. Then you put it on the slicer (if you are able. Sometimes you first have to clean off the slicer) and adjust the settings. After you have sliced what you need, you weight it, (or re-weight it, after re-weighing it, after re-weighing it) and tag the deli bag and put the meat in. Then, you take the hunk of meat left on the slicer and put a plastic tissue on the sliced side, keep the price tag which is also wrapped in a plastic tissue, and put it on the heat wrapper. (BE CAREFUL! I burned myself on this all the time). Sometimes you have to tag/date it first, then wrap it. And sometimes the weigh machine needs new labels, so it just depends on how this process goes to how much time you have.

I would start assembling my sandwiches. Usually I'd try to work with what I had, before slicing new meat. I'd start off with Kaiser buns, then the 12 grain wedges. If I need more bread I'd have to go to the bread isle, then to the front desk to get a sticker and back to the deli. 

Between assembling sandwiches and helping customers, it would eventually get to be lunch between 12 and 1 for half an hour.

The rest of the day is pretty much just between making sandwiches, slicing the sandwiches and placing them in plastic containers to then date/tag them and put them in the case, AND/OR slicing meat and cheese for customers. Between all of these jobs you also spray and wipe off the counter tops, meat scales, slicers and sandwich cutting board/knives. You get another 15 minute break in the afternoon. Sometimes I would skip this, depending on how many sandwiches I had left. You also sometimes have to go to the produce section and pick out a tomato to weigh/tag/record, then slice for sandwiches.

LONG STORY SHORT, I'm glad I don't have that job anymore. Haha!