Retail Hell Underground

Crusty Throws Tantrum Over Coffee

From: Laughing Barista

A customer's wife didn't order coffee, just a sandwich, and thought that coffee comes with the sandwich (as opposed to getting it at a discount if ordered together with the sandwich).

When I told him that he'd have to pay for it he screamed, bitched me out and told me that I wasn't helping him because he was Spanish.

My boss asked me what happened and I explained it.

He called the guy an asshole.

--Laughing Barista

 

Crazy People Encounters: Cheese Goes Bad, And It's The Deli Slave's Fault?

From: Iliketurtles

At the moment, I'm studying in a really smaaaall town and the only job I found that pays good is one of the 4 grocery/supermarket stores here. And for sure we have a lot of crazies!

So.. one day I'm in the ham/cheese/olives/meat 'department' and as I'm finishing the deliveries I hear a loud; ''XCUSE MISS' and I spend the next 20 minutes explaining her than her precious Regato won't be spoiled if she keep it in the fridge for 1 week.

Two weeks after she comes in again, looking angry and screaming. After I get call out from the register to the deli she turns and literally screams/spits on my face. She's waving the rotten cheese and saying that she left her cheese outside the fridge, and it went bad!

It took her another twenty minutes to understand that if you leave this kind of cheese (a local one, expensive and sensitive as hell) outside the fridge long enough, it won't just go rotten; there'll be a fucking whole new world developing upon it.

Although another memorable moment of my life was a soccer mum asking me why I gave her 'penis shaped sausages' in front of the precious hellspawn.

They are handmade, meaty sausages ma'am! They're meant to be shaped like this, all sausages are for fuck's sake!

Oh the joy of working at the grocery..

--Iliketurtles

 

Close Enough Food Labeling

 

 

 

 

 

Sausages Made With Baby Poo? Scientists Say It's a Possibility

From The Independent: 

Researchers say they have discovered way to ferment sausages that could turn the fatty meat product into a health food similar to probiotic yogurts. The secret ingredient? A type of bacteria found in baby faeces.

Although this may sound like either the stupidest or the most disgusting thing you’ve heard scientist get up to in recent years, the research - published in the February issue of the journal Meat Science (yes, that’s also a real thing) – is actually a fascinating insight into the common usages of bacteria in the food instury.

Bacterial fermentation is already a big part in making sausages and many varieties (including favourites such as pepperoni and salami) owe their rich and tangy flavour to bacteria, which even create lactic acids that stops the development of germs in the meat.

However, while traditional manufacturing techniques mostly rely on the bacteria that occur naturally in raw meat, researchers in Spain have been experimenting with adding probiotic bacteria instead. The reason for the sensationalist headlines? They've been collecting their samples from human faeces.

Now, to go over the whys and wherefores of probiotic bacteria a little, the term is one that's applied generally micro-organisms that are believed to provide various health benefits. Ever since the invention of the microscope, scientists have known that the human body is full of various bacteria - a primitive form of life typically just a few micrometres in length.

However, in the beginning of the 20th century scentists began to suspect that the bacteria that lives in the human gut (typically around 100 trillion bacterial cells) might actually be helping us out, breaking down the foodstuffs that our stomach acid can't handle and tackling the nastier germs we might accidentally ingest.

In recent decades this has led to many theories that adding probiotics to foodproducts will help with a number of ailments - anything from gastrointestinal disorders such as constipation to allergic reactions. Although the science surrounding this is still not entirely conclusive, this doesn't stop researchers finding new ways to add the human-friendly bacteria to our food.

With this particular batch of sasuges the probiotic bacteria used (specifically Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium) was sourced from 43 stool samples from healthy babies up to six months old.

This may sound like a bizarre step to take but it is in fact a standard (if not common) method for isolating probiotics. For example, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, a commercial strain found in a variety of yoghurts and ‘daily dose’ drinks, was first isolated from human faeces in 1983.

And why faeces? Because, if you’re on the hunt for naturally-occurring bacteria that have been busy helping the body, looking in the material that has recently passed through the body of a healthy individual is a good place to start.

Speaking to LiveScience about the research, co-author Anna Jofré, a food microbiologist at Catalonia's Institute of Food and Agricultural Research's (IRTA) food-safety program, added that “infant faeces are natural samples, easy to obtain.”

After isolating the bacteria from their samples (this process involves letting the bacteria develop in a petri dish – it’s not simply plucked from the faeces and dropped into the sausage), the researchers created six batches of fuet - a Catalonian pork sausage that's similar to chorizo minus the paprika.

Of the six strains of bacteria they used only one successfully took up home in the fermenting sausages, with the strain growing to levels of “100 million cells per gram of sausage”, enough – says Jofré – to “produce health-promoting effects to people”.

The sausages were all sampled by professional tasters who confirmed that the flavour was indistinguishable from that of regular fuet - even though they all contained less salt and less fat. You may not like the idea of sausages made in this way, but bacteria found in faeces is probably already a part of your diet - so don't complain when it makes your sausages healthier too.

via www.independent.co.uk

 

 

 

Butcher Takes Advantage of Valentine's Day

Reddit: Happy Valentine's Day from your local butcher.

I'll take the penis shaped one on the left!

 

 

 

 

 

Douche At The Deli Throws A Fit... And Four Letter Words

From: WeatherGuy10

Hello everyone. I'm a long-time reader and a first-time poster. I thought I'd share my former days as a retail slave with you. Some of the best (worst) stories (experiences) came at my job as a gas station sales/deli associate.

It was a store that had a drive through and deli/pizza section on one end with the main check-out and cigarettes on the other end. Today's feature is about my time spent in the deli section. Now, while I didn't love my job, it was needed to help with college. I enjoyed working with most of my coworkers, though I did have some black sheep to deal with. I also enjoyed the freedom of the deli area because I wasn't confined to one small area all day. Ok enough of that, on with this story!

Lunch time was always a busy time during the week so we deli folks working 1st shift, spent most of the morning preparing for that special time. I happened to be on the pizza/Stromboli end this particularly hot, summer day and here's a crash-course as it's important to the story. Basically, you have a Frisbee shaped piece of dough thawed in a round iron container of similar size as your base. Then you pile sauce, cheese, and etc. on depending on the pizza you were making. Then you place it on the oven conveyer belt to run it through the heat for about 5 minutes. Same for the Stromboli except everything is wrapped. When the food is done you put it in a box and initial the time it was made and place it on the warmer where customers can come up and grab from. They usually sat there for 30 minutes before we had to replace them (Stromboli's were 45 minutes).

So this construction worker, who we will call Blockhead, comes up and asks for a cheese pizza in a rather demanding tone. I'm already irritated slightly because he can't seem to see all the boxes clearly labeled that I just placed on the warmer. But being the good slave I am, I ask him if he wants the one that I just put on there a few minutes ago, or I can make another. Of course, he wants a "fresh one."

I send it through as he walks away to get other things. Blockhead comes back as I load it in the box and set it on the warmer for him. He opens the box to look and comments on how little cheese and sauce there are. I tell him I put the same amount on every other pizza but if he wants extra I have to charge extra for it. Blockhead scoffs at it and puts it back on the warmer and goes around the store looking for other food.

Now, maybe I went wrong at this point but with his initial and ensuing attitude he deserved it. Our "strict" policy dictated that if a customer touched the food while on the warmer and didn't take it, we had to pitch it. Granted that can also be common sense but I was such a stickler for sanitary rules; a recent inspection didn't go so well; and he was pissing me off so I immediately assumed he didn't want it and pitched it. Not three minutes later Blockhead comes back up as I am writing off the loss and asks where his pizza went.

Smiling inside, I told him what I just did and why, and he flipped sh*t and shouted F**k, F**k! as he stormed up to the front again. I felt sorry for my coworkers up there, but he was being a total ass. After the line of custys and Blockhead had left, one of my coworkers came back and asked what that guy's deal was. I told her what happened, and her response was "what an ass!"

He had been using F**k up at the check-out like it was a new language (or he was a new breed of Pokémon called F**ckachu). What's more, I swear I saw him come in the next day for lunch again while I had just returned from the freezer for supplies. Blockhead was finishing up his order for a sandwich. I probably pissed him off so much that he never wanted pizza from that store again. No complaints from me though.

Anyway, there's just one of several memorable stories that I will share in the future.

WeatherGuy10

Season Of Return Hell: Half Eaten Sandwiches

From: Kit

A few weeks ago, some stupid girl wanted to return a sandwich she said was the wrong order. We would've done it EXCEPT for three things that had happened previously:

1. She had already returned a sandwich before for another.

2. She once again returned another sandwich.

3. The third time, she had already eaten half the damn sandwich.

Seriously ... and the girl that had come to us the first two times wasn't even the actual customer. The third time she came with the actual eater, in which the friend told the eater, "They won't take it because you ate half of it, bitch."

--Kit

Unwarranted Raise For Undeserving Coworker?

From: RHU Facebook, Qygibo 

Must rant about this to people who would understand and care.

Backstory: Where I work, there's Subway and there's the grocery side, and we're all owned by a single company. Subway is typically used as a threat or punishment whenever grocery side cashiers are not meeting up to standards. And sometimes we have actually had cashiers sent over to us because they were slow or not up to snuff.

So we have one person who was transferred over to us. She was training to be a sort of equivalent to my role, basically acting as a manager when a manager isn't there and being in charge of the shift. But she was having issues keeping her shift straight, and they transferred her over. And she says for her review she was due to get a $.50 raise.

Now, for the company, a raise that high is pretty rare. You have to get really high marks on your evaluation, which they rarely give above a 3 or 4 on most things (because oh noes, you might not have incentive to improve otherwise!). $.25 raises are more standard. (That's the most that I've gotten, and the only time I've heard of someone getting a higher raise is if they were being promoted). 

So again, we have someone who was training to be in a role similar to mine on grocery side, but moved over to our side because they weren't cutting it. And yet somehow she was due to get a $.50 raise? Something just doesn't sound right.

--Qygibo 

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