Retail Hell Underground

Deli Owner and Son Try To Scam Foreign Custy Who Buys Winning Lotto Ticket

From Yahoo:

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) -- A Long Island deli owner and his son were charged Saturday with scamming a customer out of a $1 million lottery ticket.

Nassau County police say a 34-year-old man who doesn't speak English bought the ticket Thursday at the Peninsula Deli & Grocery in Hempstead.

The man scratched off his card, saw that he was a winner and handed it to 26-year-old Karim Jaghab to get his winnings, police said.

The ticket was worth $1 million, but Jaghab gave the man $1,000 in cash and kept the ticket, police said.

The customer became suspicious and went back Friday, police said. They say Jaghab and his 57-year-old father, Nabil Jaghab, the owner of the deli, tried to give him $10,000 and told him not to go to the police, authorities said.

The customer went to police, who determined that he had won the $1 million jackpot.

The Jaghabs, of East Meadow, were arraigned Saturday on grand larceny charges. Each was ordered held on $7,500 bond. According to Newsday, their attorney said it was a simple mistake on a payout on a lottery machine.

A similar case unfolded in Suffolk County this year when two Riverhead gas station clerks and the brother of one of the clerks were charged with scamming a customer out of a $74,892 prize.

In that case, police said the clerks gave the man $774 in cash. As with the Nassau case, the victim was an immigrant who speaks no English.

In another case in Syracuse, two brothers who claimed a $5 million lottery ticket sold at their family's store were charged with scamming the winning ticket from a customer in 2006. One brother was sentenced this year to up to 25 years in prison for possessing the stolen ticket; both brothers were acquitted of conspiracy charges.

via news.yahoo.com

Spawn Can't Pay Enough Attention To Order Properly, Mom Insults Staff

From: RHU Facebook

Woman has a child who orders a sandwich and he tells me everything except for the bread type. I tell him that first before he tells me everything else that I need to know what type of bread.

Child lacks the attention span to wait the twenty fucking seconds I need to put meat on bread, oh and ask for what kind of cheese, so I end up waiting on him while he's at the soda fountains. Very annoying. Coworker is at veggies and asks what is going on sandwich, and I tell the coworker I know it's lettuce, tomato, and I don't know what else, he's at the sodas. 

Mom claims she would had tipped if not for that woman being a bitch (me). Lady, we're not supposed to take tips anyway due to company policy. Your shit spawn needs to have enough of an attention span to stay with their damn sandwich, not fondling my glass or wandering around to try to figure out what soda you want, as if your mom is letting you get anything, but Sprite anyway. And mom struck me as the type of jerk who would blame a late meal on the waitress no matter if the kitchen really fucked it up and not leave a tip out of spite.

--Qygibo

Crusty On The Phone Hides In Back Room To Talk

Greetings!

RHU has been one of my daily reads for quite a while now, and I've left a few comments under several aliases, the most recent of which has been Reliable Slave. So I guess you can call me that. I've been a Retail Slave for over two years now as a drone for a Major Supermarket Chain. Specifically, I work in the Deli Department of our store, which shall be referred to from here on out as "Location M."

Now the way Location M is designed, the deli shares its back room and walk-in cooler with the Cheese Department. Deli is a traditional supermarket counter, so our entrance to the back room is behind the counter, but Cheese is laid out as a sort of free-standing island in the middle of the aisle, so its entrance is readily accessible to the public.

Can you see where this is going?

Anyway, it was maybe ten minutes after I'd clocked in for the day and arrived behind the counter. It was the weekend, so naturally the counter had been crazy for the last several hours, which meant our back wall full of product was seriously depleted. Fortunately, we had a momentary lull in customer traffic, so I volunteered to start re-stocking the wall. I grab a cart and head into the back room.

There was a guy walking around in there. Which isn't unusual, since between Deli and Cheese, the back room sees a lot of employee foot traffic. Only I'd never seen this guy before, he wasn't wearing a MSC uniform or nametag that I could see, he didn't have a hat on (which is required if you're in a food-prep area), and he was talking not on one of the store's cordless phones, but on what appeared to be his own personal smartphone.

Puzzled, I returned to the deli counter and asked one of the assistant managers (who shall henceforth be referred to as Sweetie), "Who's that guy in the back room?" Sweetie gave me a confused look.

"What guy?"

"There's a guy in the back room talking on his cell phone. I've never seen him before."

Sweetie, our other assistant manager (I'll call him Jag), and our brand-new manager (Codename: Joker) all crowd around the door to the back room and start peering through the window at the mystery man. They're soon joined by several of our coworkers. Nobody recognizes the man or knows what he's doing there, though there is speculation he might be the new Cheese Department hire we've been hearing rumors about.

After a minute, our new Assistant Manager (call-sign Nemo, he's going to be Sweetie's replacement) returns from stocking our pre-packaged case and asks what's going on. We tell him about the mystery man and our suspicions that he's a new employee. Nemo takes one look, and his eyes get really big.

"Holy crap!" he exclaimed, "That's [NAME]!"

"Who?" we all asked.

"[NAME]! He was one of our regulars back when I worked in Seafood!"

"Wait..." Sweetie said, "You mean he's a customer?"

"Yeah! He doesn't work here!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Sweetie marched into the back room and approached the crusty.

"Excuse me, sir," she said, politely but firmly, "You can't be back here."

Crusty gave Sweetie the stink-eye, cupped his hand over his phone's mouthpiece, and huffs, "I'm on the phone!"

"Sir," Sweetie replied, "This is an employees-only area. You are not allowed back here."

"It's too loud out there!" Crusty complained, "I can't hear my phone!"

"Sir, you're not wearing a hat," Sweetie explained, "That's a health-code violation. Now you need to leave this area right now."

Crusty gave a very big, dramatic sigh, flipped Sweetie the bird, and stormed out of the back room, griping to whoever was on the other end of his call about how rude the employees were.

Now, like I said, the Cheese Department's door to the back room is accessible to the public, but there is a HUGE "Employees Only" sign on the door, and a second one at eye level right next to the door. They are all but impossible to miss. And the back room is filled with prep-tables, sinks, cabinets, and shelves. It's obviously not part of the sales floor. Anyone with half a brain can tell that customers are not supposed to be back there.

And while I do sympathize with Crusty because the store does get very loud, especially during the weekends, for the love of all that is good and holy on this Earth, if you can't hear whoever is on the other end of your phone conversation, call them back after you're done shopping! Which you should do regardless of the noise level in the store, but that's a rant for another submission. And if the call really is that vital that you can't hang up (and from what I overheard of Crusty's conversation, his wasn't by a long shot), then step into one of the store's restrooms. There's plenty of them, and they're all over the store.

I thought I'd seen everything a Crusty could do, but this guy proved me wrong. And not just me: Nobody had ever seen a Crusty deliberately walk into a back area of the store before. And I don't just mean my department, either. We actually had employees and managers from other departments (even the Front End!) come by and ask us if we'd really had to chase a customer out of our back room.

*sigh* May none of your crusties ever find their way into your back rooms.

--Reliable Slave.

Deli Worker Gets Creative During Break

Reddit:  What my brother does on his work breaks...........CHEESEHENGE.

Star Trek Into Beef

Dumbass Deli Crusty Wants Cash Back On Returned Food Stamp Groceries

From: RHU Facebook

We had a lovely human being come in last night. And by "lovely" I mean a total prick.

Like other stores, we have a very generous return policy. Also,any items bought from the bakery that is returned is brought over to the bakery so that we can count it off in our salvage report.

So last night our customer service manager brought over about $45 dollars worth of returned bakery items. All returned by the same person. The manger said that the person who returned them also returned about $150 worth of groceries.

The person said "She didn't like the way any of it tasted." $150 worth of groceries. The cakes she returned, all she did was stick her finger in the icing and swirl it around. Seriously. Of course all $150 worth of stuff was bought with a Food Stamps card and she "preferred to get the return back in cash."

Yeah, right, I'm sure you would. Thankfully at our store if someone brings back an item they bought on Food Stamps the money goes back onto the food stamps card and not in cash.

Of course the woman was all huffy when she found out she was not getting $150 in cash, and claimed she was never going to shop with us again.

--RHUer

A Rabid Bitch Enters The Deli And Pushes All The Crusty Buttons

From: RHU Facebook

Oh sweet baby everything!

Had a fun filled night tonight. This has been the week from hell. My BF is on the afternoon shift so I see him maybe 2 hours a day so that's fun, I just found out my great-grandfather is on the downhill and will be passing on within the next month or so and have still attended work while sick as a dog from stress/general upset causing me to not sleep, eat, or generally function properly.

So last night was my Friday night; my last shift until my weekend. Was excited to have a full 2 days to myself, go visit my grandpa and just enjoy some time with my BF and get the snuggles I've been dying for since I'm constantly about a second away from a mental breakdown and a cry-fest.

Nope couldn't have an easy night. Not allowed. First customer wants two bagels with HALF!!!! Cream cheese, 2 yogurts, a large chocolate milk and something else. Well I drop her bagels (wearing gloves!!!!) into the toaster and while doing that I run and grab her other stuff.

Well in passing by the toaster with handfuls of her other shit I pull her bagels out (they were very sweet bagels so they would have scorched in half a second if left under the toaster coils). She lost her damned mind that it was unsanitary. She demanded that I make her brand new bagels. Bitch, I've only touched OTHER FOOD ITEMS!! Trust me it's about as sanitary as it'll be.

Well as luck would have it, since I work nights I only have what's left over from the afternoon shift in the way of food. Turns out I only have one bagel left of what she wanted. As I start to tell her this to try to come to a compromise (and apologize!) she gets huffy and refuses to answer. Well fuck it, you've already paid for two fucking bagels I'll just grab whatever one I think will look good with you choking on it as I stuff it down your bitch-ass throat!

Yeah so finish making her two bagels AGAIN!!

And she turns to me: "So not only do you fuck up my first bagels in such a disgusting unsanitary manner. You then try to pull a fast one on me by switching the bagels?"

Me: Sorry ma'am I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't talk to me.

Her: "Well you shouldn't have fucked up in the first place!"

Me: I'm sorry, but I didn't realize what I was doing was so unsanitary.

Her: "You're lucky I don't call the health board over this. You'll be lucky to have your fucking job tomorrow morning!!"

Fuck you cunt-scab, I really don't care about my job at this point, I'm half way out the door getting a new better job. Honestly couldn't care what you say or think about me to be honest. She had me so flustered and stressed out and just... GAH! I was shaking and honestly felt nauseated.

Sorry for the wall o' text!! Seriously had to vent to some people who would truly understand!

--RHUer

Boner Skills Needed

 

Customer Is Actually Right: It Is Too Early

So last week I'm working in a grocery store near the bakery, and I can hear someone in that area whistling, loud and clear. It was done well, too. Whoever was doing the whistling had talent. They also had a calendar that was missing a few months.

Having spotted Halloween candy in that very store the first week of August, I was hoping against hope that the Mystery Whistler's tune was the parody "Walkin' Round In Women's Underwear."

A custy with a cart passed close behind me while I was working with some cases of wine. "You know," she murmured, "I love coming into this section to listen to that bakery worker whistle. Normally, whoever it is picks a good song. But damn... it's way too early for that. Can't we have a fall first?"

I did six Christmases with the Big Red Star, so all I could do was nod and snicker with her. In this case, the customer was right.

Screw Jingle Bells. I wanna hear Thriller instead,

--Without Nametag

Dutch Vegetarian Butcher Transforms Plants Into Real-Tasting Meat

Yahoo News: Never mind last month's revolutionary test-tube beef burger grown from meat stem cells. The Dutch are way ahead with a "vegetarian butcher" who transforms plants into "meat".

Dubbed the "Frankenburger", the lab-grown beef -- developed at a cost of more than 250,000 euros ($330,000) -- was unveiled by scientists in London and served to volunteers in what was billed as the start of a food revolution.

But "we are much more advanced, so-much-so that we have built an unassailable lead over meat produced from stem cells," said Jaap Korteweg, founder of the "Vegetarian Butcher".

While the "cultured beef" in London was made using strands of meat grown from muscle cells taken from a living cow, the Dutch butcher needs only plant matter to make his "meat".

Korteweg's shop on a main street in downtown The Hague is packed with a range of products from veggie "hamburger" patties to "meatballs" and even "tuna" salad.

One of the secret ingredients is a soy paste, which when put through a special pressurisation machine, imitates meat fibres, a technology invented by the University of Wageningen in the central Netherlands.

Ingredients vary. For chicken, he uses more soy, while beef is made from carrots, peas and potatoes. The "meat" taste comes by adding herbs and spices and all the rest.

The vegetarian chicken "tastes just like real chicken", and the tuna salad is also close to the real thing, according to an AFP journalist and several customers, who conceded some products weren't quite realistic but said they tasted good.

The demand for an environmentally friendly and vegetarian alternative to meat is growing, with meat production notoriously inefficient, requiring huge swathes of land to grow the crops to feed the animals.

"Our hamburger's environmental footprint is seven times less than that of a real hamburger," claimed Korteweg.

"Our chicken only requires half to a third of what's needed to produce a real chicken. I'm talking about use of land, water, the grain and feed normally fed to chicken," he said.

Three years after opening, the Vegetarian Butcher sells its products in 500 stores around the Netherlands, mainly supermarkets and specialist food stores.

Korteweg says that sales have doubled each year since, and hopes to open his own factory next year to boost his share of the market and drop prices to below that of the real thing.

Though now slightly more expensive than real meat, his products cost about the same as organic meat.

The Vegetarian Butcher has struck a chord with Dutch animal welfare organisations and its pro-vegetarian Party for the Animals (PvdD), which has two seats in Parliament. One of those seats is held by Korteweg's wife and PvdD leader Marianne Thieme.

But just as French beef farmers reacted with outrage at developers of the stem-cell burger, the Dutch meat sector has issues with the Vegetarian Butcher.

"Every consumer has the right to choose what they eat, of course," Jos Goebbels, the head of the Dutch Central Meat Sector Organisation (COV), told AFP.

"What we do have a problem with is that they use terminology specific to meat, while everybody knows that there's no meat in there," he said. "It shouldn't be called chicken, or a hamburger but should rather have another name, because it tricks consumers."

Goebbels did not, however, feel that veggie meat posed a threat to the chicken or beef industry.

In his quest to make veggie meat taste like the real thing, Korteweg has enlisted the help of chefs, as well as scientists.

"The great difficulty is to reproduce on a large scale what we're able here to produce with our experiments in the kitchen," chef Paul Bom told AFP.

Another problem is people who say "they simply could not imagine consuming an alternative" to meat, said Bom, so "the only solution is to get them to taste it."

Dutch environmental group Natuur and Milieu is doing just that, promoting veggie food with free tastings in supermarkets.

"We believe vegetarian food is a relatively easier alternative to achieve than say, finding an alternative to jet fuel or introducing electric cars on the road," said Olof van der Gaag, the organisation's campaign manager.

If everyone in this country of 17 million ate one less meat-containing meal a week, he asserted, it would be equivalent to cutting the carbon emissions of a million cars.

via news.yahoo.com

Custy Not Impressed With The Cheese Show

Redditor: After 10 minutes, I got bored and left.

 

Fi's Deli Hell Continues: Phone Custy And Disgusting Dishes

It's Fi again from the deli!

Two irritating things have happened since I submitted that last post, both of which made me lose faith in customers and fellow retail slaves alike!

1. I had a customer take a five minute call in the middle of me serving her. This has happened before, but usually the customers get off the phone periodically to tell me what they want next. Not this lady! She actually shushed me!

There was no one else around to serve, and she was the kind of customer to go mental if you were to wander off and actually do something. She then got off the phone, and without apologising, proceeded to get about five more things. Gah. It was the end of my shift as well!

2. On Saturday nights, one staff member from deli stays back two hours after close to clean up, and fill up the case for the next day. Last Saturday, there had been NO dishes done at all, all day. The sink was full to the brim, and there was a pile of dishes beside it.

Guess whose job it was to clean them? Yep, mine! It took me an hour and a half, and amongst the dishes beside the sink were dishes from 6 am that morning (12 hours beforehand!!) that had had fish in them overnight, and were full of fish.... juice, or whatever that stuff is.

Well, they were. But being in the warmth, and not in the water, they had congealed. I was gagging on the smell.

Thanks co-workers!

--Fi

Subway Invasion: They Now Outnumber 30 Of The 50 Largest Fast Food Chains… Combined

From The Consumerist: People joke about their being a Starbucks or McDonald’s on every corner in America — and in some parts of the country that seems true — but did you know there are more Subway restaurants in the U.S. than there are Starbucks and McDonald’s combined? 

We were taking a look at the latest QSR 50 report from QSR Magazine, which ranks the nation’s largest fast food chains by everything from revenue to number of stores, and noticed that not only is Subway the chain with the most stores, it’s also the one that added the most from last year.

According to the chart, there were 25,549 Subways in the U.S. in 2012. To put that in perspective, that’s 1.8 times the number of McDonald’s and more than double the total number of Starbucks, the next two largest chains on the list. When you add McDonald’s and Starbucks’ numbers together, it only comes out to 25,285, short of the total for Subway.

Out of curiosity, we added up the store totals for restaurants 21-50 on the list and it only came to 23,929! That means that Subway is larger than Popeyes, Panera, Jimmy John’s, Panda Express, Chipotle, Papa Murphy’s, Church’s Chicken, Carl’s Jr., Five Guys, Long John Silver’s, Tim Hortons, Checkers/Rally’s, Jamba Juice, Whataburger, Qdoba, Zaxby’s, Del Taco, Cici’s, Bojangles, Wingstop, Captain D’s, Steak ‘n Shake, Moe’s, Culver’s, Boston Market, White Castle, El Pollo Loco, In-N-Out Burger, Jason’s Deli, and Krispy Kreme… combined.

And yet, in spite of that impressive number of stores, Subway only brought in around one-third of the sales revenue that McDonald’s earned in 2012, and only slightly more than Starbucks made with half the number of stores.

If anyone out there wants to make a Subway version of the McFarthest project and try to locate the spot in America that is the farthest away from the odd par-baked bread smell of a Subway, we’d think you were the coolest person on the planet.

Of course, since Subway added 956 new stores in 2012 (2.6 per day) — 615 more than the next chain on the list — such a map would probably be outdated before it was even published.

via consumerist.com

 

6 Foreign Foods Invented In USA

Mega Meat

Reddit: My local Asian supermarket sells mega meat.