Back when I managed a Jack in the Box, we once had to close for the weekend in order to have our obsolete and barely functional 30-gallon grease trap replaced with a state-of-the-art 3000-gallon one that wouldn’t cause our backroom to flood with greasy water every time we washed the dishes. This involved digging up the backroom as well as digging a large trench in the parking lot to install the new trap.
During the time the construction was underway, I had to go in on Monday morning to do the weekly inventory and close out payroll for the week. The store was very obviously closed - there were multiple heavy vehicles parked in the lot, dirt all over the place, aforementioned huge trench, and the driveways into the lot were all coned off AND cordoned with caution tape. As I was in my office that morning, going over the inventory, I suddenly heard the beep on our overhead PA indicating that a car had pulled into the drive-thru. Our would-be customer had moved the cones and driven through the caution tape to get to the drive-thru as if he thought it was an obstacle course at the end of which laid a loaded breakfast burrito and jalapeno poppers. The guy even had the audacity to accuse me of lying when I grabbed a headset and turned it on to tell him that the store was closed, there was noone in the building besides myself and the construction team, and all the cooking equipment was turned off.
Day 21. A 2-8 shift on a Monday, nominally. I ended up making it in a little early because my mother dropped me off early on the way to a doctor’s appointment (which ultimately got rescheduled anyway, because the doctor called in sick).
BLARG.
As if to drill it into my head that I absolutely must ask someone if they’re a 7-Eleven Rewards member every time, this was the first time I scanned someone’s stuff, rang them up, forgot to scan their Rewards, and then they told me after the fact that they should have gotten a sale price. I needed to call my boss and get her code to void the previous transaction and fix it. That was embarrassing. But a valuable lesson was learned, for sure.
Very early in my shift, some customer gave me a “hypothetical” situation, asking me whether it’s okay to beat the living hell out of a “nerdy” guy who’s trying to get him fired. “There’s got to be consequences.” I told him that I don’t believe in violence as a way to solve problems. It was just a very bizarre conversation.
Next time you get a hypothetical question you might want to defer to that person’s barber or hairdresser. More seriously, I would say, “I can’t endorse that.” If pushed for an answer, I would add “I don’t believe violence is an answer.”
I saw someone go into her car with the gas hose still attached to her car, and both me and my mentor were afraid that she’d forgotten about the hose, and was going to pull off and break it.
Nope! It was simply after dark, and she was by herself, and she didn’t want to be caught unaware by someone.
That’s kind of a sobering thought. But an important one. Not for the first time, I reflected on how much different it is, being a man.
Yeah, I’ll do it in reeeeeally sketchy areas and/or if the wind is particularly chilly. I mean, lockable shelter is right there and I can keep an eye on the pump through the window.
Heh. When it’s ten below zero with nasty wind, I (and most people around me) stand, hands in pockets and shoulders hunched, while my gas is pumping. Maybe it’s local tradition but that’s just the way it’s done IME.
Also an excellent time to knock off the slush frozen in the wheel wells. Fück, I hate winter. Every winter I swear I’m buying gloves.
My 20-year experience with Midwestern winters rarely got much below 0F. But there was lots of gas-pumping with temps in the teens and a gentle zephyr howling down from Canada. And that “special” week every February where the high was 5F and the low was -10F. Uggh. Glad that’s over with.
For me gassing up in winter it was always a tradeoff between opening the car door a couple extra times to get in and out and losing all that cabin heat versus standing out there in the cold & wind freezing my rump & ears off. I’d try to stop at the pump least in the wind and facing the car with my door on the downwind side.
One thing wife & I did when entering or exiting the car in winter anywhere was to ensure we took turns & both doors were not open at the same time. That greatly reduces how much hot air gets blown out by the wind. I was always amazed to not see other couples doing the same. Nope. They’d walk up on both sides of their car, open both doors at once, lose 100% of the warm air in 3 seconds flat as the wind whipped through the passenger compartment, then get in and shiver.
Well, it’s late November in Hampton Roads; no sub-freezing temperatures yet, let alone slush or snow. But anyway, I should really learn to mind my own business.
Today I work 3-8, and then tomorrow I work, nominally, 3-10, with the new gal, and I’ll basically be in charge of the shift. Still nervous about it. No less so when I realized that the person replacing me has a tendency to be hours late, sometimes.
If you do climb back into your car, be sure to ground yourself by touching the pump when you slither back out. It’s only a small chance a static spark will blow something up, but it gives catastrophic failure a whole new meaning.
Me, I reduced the temptation by moving back to Arizona.
The guy even had the audacity to accuse me of lying when I grabbed a headset and turned it on to tell him that the store was closed, there was noone in the building besides myself and the construction team, and all the cooking equipment was turned off.
More seriously, I would say, “I can’t endorse that.” If pushed for an answer, I would add “I don’t believe violence is an answer.”