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Right now, both have NO water.
We have been slammed since this past weekend due to the forthcoming Hurricane Florence (now Cat 4 and possibly becoming a 5) that's expected to hit straight on our coastline (both NC and SC have declared a State of Emergency, started mandatory evacuations, etc) and it's projected to come straight through the entire state.
Now, although landfall along the coast isn't expected until around Thursday PM, people around here are raiding the stores like it's a combination of Black Friday, Christmas Eve and the Evening Before Armaggeddon.
Which, of course, leads to the main stuff running out faster than we can get it in.
Such as bottled water.
On Friday when I left, we had just gotten our Pepsi delivery and had two full pallets of 32 pk Aquafina water (they come 48 per pallet, six layers high of eight per layer) for a total of 96 cases. We had also just gotten our warehouse grocery truck, which brought us at least 2 pallets of store brand 24 pk water, and at least another pallet of Nestle, a pallet of Deer Park and a pallet of Fancy Store Brand spring water.
When I walked into the back room just before 7 on Monday morning, all those were gone. All we had left were a couple of pallets of the gallon jugs (they come 3 gallons to a box) and some of the Fancy Store Brand 24's.
Had a warehouse truck show up before I left . . . we had 3 pallets of water come in (24 pk store brand) and another truck sent with an emergency order. All of it was gone this morning when I arrived at 6.
It was non stop on the radio this morning . . . cashiers asking about water. Grocery manager (who opened this morning) continued to tell them we had NONE. And no idea when the Pepsi truck (or the Coke truck for that matter) was arriving (I had called both supervisors this morning for those companies - they couldn't tell me nor could they send us any emergency deliveries, as most product was either already out on trucks with regular deliveries or en route to the coastal region.)
It got so bad, that Ma had made a handwritten sign and taped to the shelves on the water section reading "We are OUT of water. Sorry."
And still, the cashiers were dumb enough to keep asking on the radio.
It was so bad, that while our QA guy (Mr. Earle) was out on the aisle, cleaning the shelves (great time to do that, actually) a lady came up and asked about the water.
We just shook our heads and patiently explained that we had run out and was waiting on more. All we had left at that point were small bottles of boutique water (as one of my chips guys, Jamiebear, calls it - Samoan Ass Water) that were quite pricey (especially for our company, which is supposed to be promoting every day low pricing)
So the lady picked up a bottle of boutique water and just shrugged and said she'd just get that one little bottle and go home and pray about it.
*Yeah, okay. And if Florence comes through, you will definitely have more water than a fish will know what to do with. But whatever floats your boat.*
Of course, we just smiled and wished her a good day. . . .
My Pepsi truck finally arrived after 11:30 . . . and we had two full pallets of 32 pk Aquafina (96 total.) Grocery Manager ran to the back room right as the driver came in the door by my desk so he could grab some (we had several employees who wanted to pick up some on their way home, so he was going to set a few cases aside for them to get out of the back room and take the rest out to the floor.)
After we got everything checked in, Grocery Manager went about setting aside X number of cases. He came back to my door right after the driver left and almost threw himself over the railing . . . "I don't wanna go out there!" (Probably because he heard one of the beer merchandisers talk about a guy at a nearby Wallyworld who took a pallet of water out to the floor and was nearly trampled by a stampede of customers earlier this morning!)
Ever the Mama Hen, I hugged him and replied he was a good man . . . All he had to do was set the pallet down out on the salesfloor and RUN!
He came back a short time later, unmarked. And breathing a sigh of relief . . .
Even Sweet Daddy D (our Pepsi merchandiser, who had just made it in to work the delivery) laughed at him. All he had to do was work the other pallets.
Meanwhile, the Coke delivery made it in (he'd pulled up behind the Pepsi truck while it was being unloaded and checked in) and we only received 8 cases. My salesman had tried to order 2 pallets, but could only get 8 cases (one layer) because most of their Dasani was being rerouted down to the coast.
Needless to say, all that had evaporated off the sales floor within minutes. My Coke merchandiser came in the break room a short time later while I was on lunch asking where his two pallets of water were. Apparently he had not been given the heads up by the order writer.
What's so sucky you wonder? After lunch, while I was in the back room checking on something on the computer, Rochelle came in for a quick break from the front end (and the endless barrage of complaints about no water, no doubt) and she was checking the company FB page on her phone while we were chatting. She then read to me a complaint someone had just posted about "Litter Box needs to order more water, Fools."
Really??? How mature is that???
She was so tempted to reply back to that person to let them know that even though we are trying to get in as much as we can, once we make out the order, it's out of our hands (not to mention that we had everything leaving faster than we could get it out.)
But after I gently reminded her that sometimes it's better just to leave well enough alone (not to mention, any comment she made might be frowned upon by Corporate as we are expected to represent the company) she figured it might be better to leave it alone.
And still, the questions continue about the water. We heard this afternoon that even though we're getting another warehouse grocery delivery Wednesday afternoon, we aren't guaranteed any more water. We'll have to wait and see what they send us tomorrow.
We're expecting tomorrow to be worse. . .
We have been slammed since this past weekend due to the forthcoming Hurricane Florence (now Cat 4 and possibly becoming a 5) that's expected to hit straight on our coastline (both NC and SC have declared a State of Emergency, started mandatory evacuations, etc) and it's projected to come straight through the entire state.
Now, although landfall along the coast isn't expected until around Thursday PM, people around here are raiding the stores like it's a combination of Black Friday, Christmas Eve and the Evening Before Armaggeddon.
Which, of course, leads to the main stuff running out faster than we can get it in.
Such as bottled water.
On Friday when I left, we had just gotten our Pepsi delivery and had two full pallets of 32 pk Aquafina water (they come 48 per pallet, six layers high of eight per layer) for a total of 96 cases. We had also just gotten our warehouse grocery truck, which brought us at least 2 pallets of store brand 24 pk water, and at least another pallet of Nestle, a pallet of Deer Park and a pallet of Fancy Store Brand spring water.
When I walked into the back room just before 7 on Monday morning, all those were gone. All we had left were a couple of pallets of the gallon jugs (they come 3 gallons to a box) and some of the Fancy Store Brand 24's.
Had a warehouse truck show up before I left . . . we had 3 pallets of water come in (24 pk store brand) and another truck sent with an emergency order. All of it was gone this morning when I arrived at 6.
It was non stop on the radio this morning . . . cashiers asking about water. Grocery manager (who opened this morning) continued to tell them we had NONE. And no idea when the Pepsi truck (or the Coke truck for that matter) was arriving (I had called both supervisors this morning for those companies - they couldn't tell me nor could they send us any emergency deliveries, as most product was either already out on trucks with regular deliveries or en route to the coastal region.)
It got so bad, that Ma had made a handwritten sign and taped to the shelves on the water section reading "We are OUT of water. Sorry."
And still, the cashiers were dumb enough to keep asking on the radio.
It was so bad, that while our QA guy (Mr. Earle) was out on the aisle, cleaning the shelves (great time to do that, actually) a lady came up and asked about the water.
We just shook our heads and patiently explained that we had run out and was waiting on more. All we had left at that point were small bottles of boutique water (as one of my chips guys, Jamiebear, calls it - Samoan Ass Water) that were quite pricey (especially for our company, which is supposed to be promoting every day low pricing)
So the lady picked up a bottle of boutique water and just shrugged and said she'd just get that one little bottle and go home and pray about it.
*Yeah, okay. And if Florence comes through, you will definitely have more water than a fish will know what to do with. But whatever floats your boat.*
Of course, we just smiled and wished her a good day. . . .
My Pepsi truck finally arrived after 11:30 . . . and we had two full pallets of 32 pk Aquafina (96 total.) Grocery Manager ran to the back room right as the driver came in the door by my desk so he could grab some (we had several employees who wanted to pick up some on their way home, so he was going to set a few cases aside for them to get out of the back room and take the rest out to the floor.)
After we got everything checked in, Grocery Manager went about setting aside X number of cases. He came back to my door right after the driver left and almost threw himself over the railing . . . "I don't wanna go out there!" (Probably because he heard one of the beer merchandisers talk about a guy at a nearby Wallyworld who took a pallet of water out to the floor and was nearly trampled by a stampede of customers earlier this morning!
)Ever the Mama Hen, I hugged him and replied he was a good man . . . All he had to do was set the pallet down out on the salesfloor and RUN!
He came back a short time later, unmarked. And breathing a sigh of relief . . .
Even Sweet Daddy D (our Pepsi merchandiser, who had just made it in to work the delivery) laughed at him. All he had to do was work the other pallets.Meanwhile, the Coke delivery made it in (he'd pulled up behind the Pepsi truck while it was being unloaded and checked in) and we only received 8 cases. My salesman had tried to order 2 pallets, but could only get 8 cases (one layer) because most of their Dasani was being rerouted down to the coast.
Needless to say, all that had evaporated off the sales floor within minutes. My Coke merchandiser came in the break room a short time later while I was on lunch asking where his two pallets of water were. Apparently he had not been given the heads up by the order writer.
What's so sucky you wonder? After lunch, while I was in the back room checking on something on the computer, Rochelle came in for a quick break from the front end (and the endless barrage of complaints about no water, no doubt) and she was checking the company FB page on her phone while we were chatting. She then read to me a complaint someone had just posted about "Litter Box needs to order more water, Fools."
Really??? How mature is that???
She was so tempted to reply back to that person to let them know that even though we are trying to get in as much as we can, once we make out the order, it's out of our hands (not to mention that we had everything leaving faster than we could get it out.)
But after I gently reminded her that sometimes it's better just to leave well enough alone (not to mention, any comment she made might be frowned upon by Corporate as we are expected to represent the company) she figured it might be better to leave it alone.
And still, the questions continue about the water. We heard this afternoon that even though we're getting another warehouse grocery delivery Wednesday afternoon, we aren't guaranteed any more water. We'll have to wait and see what they send us tomorrow.
We're expecting tomorrow to be worse. . .
To the best of my understanding, they're expecting the storm to essentially crash into the mountains and more or less explode as a huge spinning cloudburst. Damn good reason to GTFO. ^__^ Take care of yourselves!
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