the thing about working in a grocery store, in one of the hottest places in the store, swaddled in poly-cotton blends and dealing with armies of roasted chickens and vats of coleslaw, is that at the end of the day you kind of aren't hungry anymore. eating for me the past few days has been a task because nothing sounds good and when i do eat, i can't bear to eat anything warm. this is either going to be the best diet i've ever been on, or pretty soon i'll adjust and just start eating a few chickens every day, ripping them apart with my bare hands and shoveling the meat in.
the rotisserie chicken is one of our mainstays, and flocks of birds are consigned to the roaster every day. i like meat, i think it's tasty and being a carnivore comes pretty naturally to me, but the mass consumption of these birds sort of freaks me out. not to mention the waste that goes on. if something is going to die so that something else can eat it, like me, then i don't think it should be unceremoniously thrown out when it doesn't get bought in time. throwing away food that is perfectly acceptable but maybe not as pretty or juicy as it was isn't something i'm 100% comfortable with. i've bought those kind of chickens before, and think they are tasty and delightful, but never thought of what it takes to be able to provide hundreds of people a day with food. it's a huge operation, and while most of what we make is used and consumed, because it's such a big show there is a considerable amount of waste. in relation to the amount of food that does get eaten it's not such a big number, but on it's own it sort of overwhelms me. it also reminds me of how separated the ordinary consumer is from the food making/procuring process is. people expect to be able to walk in and buy the food they want to eat, with out much thought as to where it comes from, how it was made, what went into getting it from it's raw state to their grocery cart. when i stop to consider all the steps taken transforming raw products into packaged food items you can eat my brain almost explodes.
i also work with a bunch of teenagers and old women. there doesn't seem to be much in between; people aged 25 to 55 are scarce. i think i'm one of three. i don't mind the young kids, except sometimes they talk more than they work, but the old women and i don't get along. one of them in my department is universally loved, but i can't stand her. she's got a wicked lisp (which i know i shouldn't hold against her! but i am shallow), can't hear for shit, and is always talking down to me in the sweetest, most grandmotherly voice. you can use any tone you want, but telling me to not sell meat that's been on the floor still seems fairly condescending to me.
last but not least, i'm not totally in love with the driving. being in the car for two hours a day (usually two and half) isn't so awful, but i did apply for a job closer to home with the county and if i get an interview for that one, i'm taking it. it would be a city job with good benefits, and i wouldn't have to wear a vest and tie every day and i'm not opposed to that.
1 comment:
I completely agree with your ideas about food comsumption. It's sickening, what gets wasted and thrown away. I have also been in the position where I didn't have alot of money for food and nothing, absolutely nothing, didn't get eaten that got cooked. I still cook that way. If we have a beef roast on Sunday, we are having beef stew on Tuesday. If we have pork chops on Monday, we're having pork fried rice on Thrusday.
Yay on the city job! Security, maybe a bit boring and bureaucratic, but not a brain drain and the benefits are always great. Plus, you practically have to go postal to lose a job like that.
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