On Monday I arrived at Human Resources and got all my paperwork done. I then went to the dorm and got unpacked. I was assigned a room on the second floor of the south dorm. I have never been in a room on the second floor, because that floor was always used for women. The head boss indicated that all the women would be housed in the dorms above the store. She also indicated that as of right now I would be having a room to myself. Which was an answer to pryer believe me. The room was good and the view I have out the window is of the back of the store and the loading dock, which will come in handy when delivery trucks come to grocery and I need to be there to help unload and store the items. The only issue with the dorm right now is that there is no heat. So they gave me a space heater to use. So far it has been pretty good at keeping the room warm. I think in a few days I will not be needing it at all. So far the top floor only has me at one end, by myself and two other guys at the other end. S no one is fighting for a shower or a toilet so far.
I found my old boss Ron, who is still over the grocery section. He indicated that I come to work at 9AM on Tuesday. I ask him what is the game plan. He said that the store will have a soft opening on Friday at 1PM until 6PM. Then the store will be open every day from 9AM until 6PM. He said between now and Friday I will be helping to clean the grocery section. Then I will help stock the shelves with items that will be delivered through the week. Then the biggest issue will be to ensure that everything we have on the shelves or in the coolers can be scanned and recognized by all the registers.
The grocery section, for a month or two, will be manned by Ron, the boss, Scott, the second in command, Jack, a grocery worker like myself, and me. Ron has been doing this job for many years and does a great job and keeping the items ordered and inventoried. Scott ran the lower grocery store last year. Jack has been doing this job for many years also. I myself can say I have been doing it for 5 years now.
Until the soft opening we all went to work getting the place ready. It really was interesting what had to be done to open the store from being closed all winter. I have closed the store before and it has its quirks, but opening it has its quirks also. The people in charge of the CoreMark items come in and arrange how they want their shelf space done. They know what they will be selling and they want items on the shelves in a logical manner. The Pepsi/Lays people come in also and make sure their shelf space is set up properly. Once the shelf space is approved, then it is time to fill the shelves from stock delivered by truck to the store. Once that is over it is time to ensure all items can be scanned and their price tags on the shelf match. This is the biggest pain because if an item does not scan, then you have to fill out paperwork for someone to get the item into the system. The person on the other end is supposed to be working on each items as reported so that when the opening comes the register workers wont be yelling that an item does not scan. So far the process is not perfect. When reached Friday we still had items that were not in the system yet. This causes a lot of trouble for the checkout people. During the time between Tuesday and Friday's opening, management is doing a lot of paperwork and the employees are doing a lot of training. New employees are working hard trying to learn what they are supposed to do. It is a hectic week for sure, but come Thursday evening Ron said we were in great shape for the Friday opening.
Come Friday all employees were to report to the store for a speech from Eric the head of HR. She has been with Delaware North for quite some time and lives in West Yellowstone. She welcomed everyone and presented out 2023 pins to us. I collect them and have them on a hat in my house as a keepsake. The one thing she said that cought some of us by surprise was this is the last year of Delaware NOrth's contract with Yellowstone. The contract is now up for bids. Delaware North has submitted their bid and the powers that be will make their decision in July as to who will be running the grocery stores next year for the park. So this may be my last year working for Delaware north or even working at the park. We will see.
The store open on Friday at 1PM. No real issues happened that caused things to shut down. The only issue we had was theft. Within 15 minutes of opening we cause three people stealing items. Sad very sad. But that did not happen the great atmosphere of the opening. Business was very light and reminded me of the days before closing the store. Not too many customers and in turn no too many things to put back on the shelves.
Some observations about my first week. The first and foremost is the prices. They have gone up dramatically. I cannot believe what we are charging for things. 10 ounces of beef jerky is $25. A quart of milk is $6. two ounces of buffalo jerky is $11. Six slices of cheese in $7. I have told people in the past that if you plan on visiting here, stop by WalMart and get your supplies. The second thing I found out is that Yellowstone is starting to mandate no more plastic bottles. So our water and pop is now all in cans. I don't know if this will help the environment because if the person just throws the can into the trash and not recycled, then what good did it do? I am still conflicted about that decision. The third observation has to do with having a business in a historic structure. There are a lot of fire regulations to follow. Recently the fire marshal has declared that no stock will be stored a foot and a half below the ceiling. The store does not have much storage area to begin with and this declaration takes away a lot of it. In grocery we lost many square feet of space. The retail section that uses the basement storage lost an estimate 1/8 of their storage space. The bosses of each department will have to figure out how to order supplies and stock that will not over load the limited storage space. Ron indicates we now will be getting two truck loads of goods per week instead of one.
Right now my work hours will be Tuesday through Saturday from 9AM to Noon and then 2PM to 6PM. I will have around 35 hours a week. This will change around memorial day when I hear we may go from 9AM to 8PM, but that will all depend on having enough help in the store. Right now we are short handed.
As for hiking and such, the trails are snow covered and I wont be hiking until the snow melts quite a bit. Another thing is snow blindness. I took a walk around the area today and I will have to get sun glasses, because the sun and the snow was blinding me to where I could not keep my eyes open. As for wildlife, I have seen many many bison in the area. The heard must be here for the winter. There is so much bison poop around that you would think the herd was a million. I have already been in one bison jam. Well that is all for now. The internet is very good right now and I have been able to WiFi call Cathy and also watch the family on the blink camera in the living room. I am sure when more people arrive the internet will slow down.
