It has been an interesting week. This week included Labor Day, getting back my grocery boss from his hernia surgery, losing a few employees due to contracts ending, and having to deal with the shortage of cooks in the park for employees at our stores.
Labor Day brought a massive increase in tourists coming to the store. The Saturday and Sunday brought in over a hundred thousand dollars in sales each day for our store. I was kept extremely busy in grocery trying to keep the beverage cooler filled and the grab and go sandwiches filled. One observation that I can make is that the majority of tourists visiting our store this weekend were from India. I saw many women in the India garb and a few men wearing the hat that you see men wearing in the movies showing the country of India. I did not have issues communicating with them when they approached me, but I had to have them repeat their request a few times. The Monday after the weekend there was a big change in tourists as the majority of the customers in the store seemed to be from England and Australia. We must have had quite a few tour busses in that Day. Monday was also truck delivery day and because of issues with the health of our grocery workers, it was just me and Joey to unload the truck and store the items on the shelves. Monday's step count was 20,500 and that does not even consider the weight of the items I had to handle. I am writing this on Tuesday, my day off. My legs and back need a break for sure. I am sitting in Bozeman Montana waiting for my truck to get its five thousand mile maintenance done. I plan on staying over night in Bozeman and relaxing in a hotel's hot tub. My body definitely needed a break. The other good news is that I have three days off versus two, as the store manager thinks that fewer people can handle the grocery as the store business slows down.
My boss Ron came back to work this week, but on a limited lifting restriction. He is not the type of person that likes light duty and it shows. He is frustrated with not being able to do his normal duties and to rely on others to do his work, but that is what he has to do in order to heal from his hernia surgery. We are all stepping up to ensure he does not do something stupid. He let me and Joey take care of the delivery truck Monday and he just clocked out to rest while we worked. I think he was afraid he would grab something out of muscle memory and hurt himself. He will heal over time I know and I have been praying for him to get better soon.
Several store employees have finished their contracts and left. I sure do miss a few that I worked with daily. That is one aspect of the job that is hard and that is dealing with making friends and then watching them leave. Normally you never hear from them again. Employees leaving also makes it hard for others to step up and do the work if the store suddenly get slammed with business. We all try to step in and help when needed.
Now Delaware North's stores are dealing with a shortage of qualified cooks and it is starting to get serious. Grant Village has lost all its cooks and Delaware North is transferring people from other stores to fill in. Two of our cooks have to spend two days a week traveling and hour away to cook at Grant Village. Now I hear they are transferring one of our cook helpers to Grant Village for a few weeks to fill the holes they have for cook helpers. That means the person has to actually move their belonging over to Grant Village dorms and live there for a while. I would suspect they would have to stay there until Grant Village closes for the season in a few weeks. Our store is one of two that will be open until mid October. The rest close down for the winter and their stock gets distributed to our store and the other one that is open. For the cooks it is a bad situation, but none of us are trying to make their lives harder. The food is still good but special meals are pretty much gone. The meals are simple and usually self serve sandwiches and such. So we are not starving, but the quality has gone down some.
The weather here has turned cold. Last night the temperature was 25 degrees and the daytime temperature will be around 60. It is great hiking weather for sure. Speaking of hiking, the CDT hikers coming into our store are non-existent now. It is a little late in the season to be trying to complete the CDT, but we do get a few hikers doing short one or two day hikes around Yellowstone. The cools night makes sleeping in the dorm rather pleasant.
Well that about does it for Labor Day week. It wont be long before snow come regularly and business slows down to a crawl. 84,000 steps this week in the store. That is roughly 42 miles of walking. Thanks for reading and take care.
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