We will get to the meaning of my title in a bit, but first some things need to be taken care of. For starters, I just finished a survey over at mysurvey.com, a long, drawn out survey that I actually spent three days on. Not that it took three days, but it was just so boring that I had to keep stepping away from it and coming back. I finally finished it this evening and for my painstaking effort I was rewarded with $7.50. While that might or might not seem like a lot, it did help greatly in achieving my goal of a free coffee pot, putting me within 15 cents of my much wanted prize. Now if that were the only money I had received these last few days that would be one thing, but there is more. I found another 33 Coke reward points, not sure what I will do with them, perhaps another blog giveaway will be in the offing, I haven't done one of those in a while. But if that is the case, I need to find an adequate prize in the Coke collection that might be worthy of giving away. That will be in the future however, as I am still only at 55 points, and there really isn't anything worthwhile for 55 Coke points.
The change meter had another big bump as well, an additional $13.11 which pushes the grand total to a, dare I say respectable, $132.38. Visions of great things for the change meter continue to dance in my head, the greedy me is thinking $150 by the end of the year is possible, but even if I didn't find another penny this year, I still have hung better than $90 on it in 2009, which is far better than I have ever done previously.
I guess this blog entry wouldn't be complete without a rundown on the G 20 in Pittsburgh last week. I guess the best way to put it is that it lived up to just about everyone's expectations, well save for my boss that is. Ed thought that the summit would be an economic boon for the store, which didn't happen, but first lets deal with those whose expectations were met. All of the G 20 leaders that came to town had their photo op and brief discussions, this time the topic on the table was executive compensation for business leaders that invest OTM (other people's money). Of course they all talked about how great progress was made without of course coming to any sort of agreement, so, lots of sound and fury signifying nothing. The protestors that follow the G 20 around like the Grateful Dead also had their moment, most marched peacefully, some broke shit, and allegations of the of the police using too much force were abound, much as they always are. Greenpeace probably had the most noticeable protest, hanging a sign off of the West End Bridge about Global Warming. The sign hangers dangled from the bridge for a while, the police were smart enough to let them come back to the bridge on their own and not go all Gwen Stacy on them (kudos if you got that reference). Security had their day in the sun as well, they managed to pull off the summit with little in the way of security problems, sure their were inconveniences for the locals, myself included, but it was scarily impressive how a combination of the National Guard, Coast Guard, FBI, Secret Service, Pittsburgh Police (and other police units), and Department of Homeland Security could lock down a city like it's nobody's business. The Chamber of Commerce was all gushy about the free press they got, and the alleged money the summit brought to the city. I say alleged because.....
As I stated my boss thought this was going to be an economic boon. As I blogged earlier, I was going to be happy to get out of this as a wash, we would lose as much business as we got. If only that were the case. The security grid was so tight downtown that even public transportation was checked in and out when it went through town. Everything ran through checkpoints, cars were persona non grata inside the downtown area. The result was most poeple just avoided downtown altogether. Needless to say our business suffered, big time. It wouldn't be a stretch to say we were off probably 80% from what we normally do. My personal plan was to come in Thursday morning (the first day of the two day summit) and stay until my shift ended on Friday. Usually I would work 7am-3pm, but given some of our people couldn't make it in, we were running a skeleton crew. So I showed up for work Thursday morning and we waited, and waited, and waited for business to pick up and it never happened. Finally 3pm rolls around and still nothing. Since nothing was going on I talked to Ed, said I was going to go across the river to Station Square and check out Bradley's Books, a discount bookstore that I recently learned a friend of mine, Jim, manages. I figured I would pester him for awhile, pick up some new reading material, then venture back to work to see if I was needed. Well, I hung out at Bradley's, talked to Jim and during the course of my visit he had a customer or two, including his first credit card order of the day. The fact this occurred at 4pm meant his business was taking a beating as well. I tried to help out by buying three books, to fiction paperbacks that were marked down to 3 bucks, and a new release hardback, which they sell at 10 or 15% off. Flush with new reading material in caes I was spending the night at work, I trudged back across the river to see how business was going. Still slow. Actually slower than slow. I told Ed I was going to get something to eat at The Lantern, a little dive bar just down the street from us that opted to stay open. I didn't know what to expect from their food, but open businesses downtown were few and far between, save for the normal fast food junk I wasn't in the mood for. Ed gave me $20 to buy dinner with, which was way cool of him as I was content to buy my own dinner. So I head down to bar, open the door and the place is empty. I mean way empty, I was the only guy besides the bartender that was actually there. My first question was obviously to ask whether or not the kitchen was even open. Given how slow it was, the kitchen being closed wouldn't have been a surprise. But the bartender assured me it was in fact open, so I ordered a 1/2 cheesesteak and onion rings, to which the bartender told me it might be a few extra minutes, they hadn't turned the grill on yet. This is almost 5pm now and I am the first customer. Yikes and double yikes. Better still was that it was so slow that the barteneder was also the cook. He was doing both, mind you since I was the only guy there, it wasn't like I was taxing his abilities or anything, but still. So I ate my dinner, watched some of the anarchist vs. cop protest stuff taking place in the city's Lawreneceville section on the local news, and then headed back to work again. Still nothing going on, but the stockperson on duty, Bob (t), said he wasn't feeling well and asked if I would take over for him. I said it was up to Ed, but as long as we were doing no business I couldn't see why he would want either of us working. Ed cleared Bob to leave, so I said I would stick around till Bob's shift ended in case I was needed, which would put me there till 11pm. I finally was needed around 8pm, business picked up slightly and I found a couple of things that needed doing, so I worked the last three hours of Bob's (t) shift. 11pm I suppose I could have left, but I had a few orders to place on Friday and unlike Thursday, I was in charge of the store Friday, which meant if I waited to do my ordering I would have to do it after my regular shift, making my stay even longer, so instead I just did it Thursday night, finishing up around 12:30am. At that point I weighed staying vs. sleeping for a few hours in my own bed and my own bed won, so I hopped a bus and went home. Of course before I could get to my apartment my bus was detoured a couple of blocks because the protesting fun and games had moved to Oakland. Recipe for stupidity would involve one part idiots bent on breaking shit, one part drunken college students, one part rubber necking fools and one part cops in riot gear complete with tear gas and taadaa you have a cocktail of idiocy all nice and neat.
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Sorry, took a couple of days off in putting together the blog entry, but now, with Bingo Explosion (Facebook) running in the background I might as well catch everyone back up to speed. Work has been going really well recently, I have a notion something will happen to fuck it up. I have been paired with Wayne the last couple of weeks and all we do is bust ass. It is nice to work with someone that has the same or similar work ethic as myself. Shit actually gets done. I haven't had it this good since the early days of working with Grey, before they started shuttling him between stores and just messing everything up, but for the time being Wayne and I work very well together, and I know if I have to do something like place and order he isn't going to just up and disappear. Today was a prime example, we had three deliveries come in and were able to have all three done by noon, despite me pulling something in my back while catching the very first one. Not that me pulling something changes what I do, I play with pain very well, but still it was a real challenge to keep up with him in the work department. We are even getting side work done that I haven't been able to get to with anyone else. Stuff like wrapping older magazines for us to sell at discount, such as old porn mags that we have still in plastic we are bundling and selling three for $3.99. We literally have boxes full of the stuff and it is just a task that if we can get to, we work on it, but until recently I would be by myself, which would limit my chances to get such a project done.
It looks like my mom is paying me a visit on the morrow (or however that goes). We talked on the phone last night and I mentioned that I had to go grocery shopping this weekend. Well she called tonight and said that they would be coming down to take me shopping. I hope they don't plan on buying stuff for me as well, I have money after getting paid for my G 20 exploits at work, for me it was just a matter of finding the time to shop, not the money. Since my schedule now grants me weekends off Saturday has become my errand day and Sunday my sit on my ass and watch football day.
And pretty soon it will be sit on my ass and watch hockey time as well. The Penguins opened defense of their Stanley Cup win Friday, playing host to the New York Rangers. Lots of festivities including the raising of the banner to the ceiling and some nostalgia thrown in as well, as this is the last year that the Pens will play in the Civic Arena, after that they will move to the yet to be completed Consol Energy Center.
And since I am now on sports, now is as good a time as any to explain the title of this blog. The Pittsburgh Steelers, coming off a Super Bowl victory, have started the season 1-2, winning their first game and then losing the next 2. What you may not have known is that I have possibly had a hand in the current two game losing streak. You may think I am being a little egotistical in saying that, but allow me to gather me details while me may. Since Pittsburgh won the Super Bowl last year, they had the priviledge of hosting the first game of the season with the NFL's first game on week #1 on a Thursday night. So the day before the game I am just doing stuff around the news stand when a gentleman comes in and starts checking out our concession candies. Much like a movie theater but much, much cheaper, we keep a wide variety of the boxed candies that you normally see while out catching a flick. All told we probably carry around 24 different candies, everything from Boston Baked Beans, Swedish Fish, Sweetarts, Skittles, Starbusrt, Snocaps, Krabby Patties, Raisinettes, M & Ms, Bottle Caps, etc., etc., etc. This is one of the many areas I have to take care of during my order placing at work and for the most part the section remains fully stocked. The thing is, the last time Ed went to a product show, before I had even started at the news stand, he signed up for what are called product bookings, that is, if the vendor is offering a special deal on a product, or a company is offering a specail floor display, they will sometimes send those items to us even though I never asked for them. By and large these turn out to be a pain in the ass. Usually it is products we either don't normally sell, or they so overdo it from a quantity perspective that I am left with a ton of product that doesn't move. You may think I am kidding, but I have 30 boxes of Nerd gumballs, 48 cans of Duncan Hines frosting and 20 boxes of David pumpkin seeds in my stockroom that would beg to differ. Well, one of the things I get sent too much of is concession candy, so much so that they send me varieties of the stuff we don't sell and that I have no room for on the sales floor, so I have to more or less work them out of the stockroom; wait for something to sell out or be discontinued, then use one of the items we normally don't sell to fill the now empty slot in hopes I can move a few.
Hopefully that wasn't too confusing, let's call it an unneccesary evil for telling the tale I am about to tell. So the Wednesday before the Steeler season is set to kcik off here in Pittsburgh, an olderish gentleman comes it and is checking out the concession candies. I am not sure what he is looking for, perhaps he is just deciding in his brain which one to get, I don't know, but I continue putting other stuff on the floor when he approaches me and tells me that he works with the Steelers. I assume that he has a good gig, I suppose that there are bad Steeler gigs, like jock washer and stuff, but then if he was washing jocks one would think he would be busy scrubbing away, getting the jocks extra clean and minty fresh (or whatever it is they do with them) for the upcoming game. Anyway, he proceeds to tell me that the kicker for the Steelers, one Jeff Reed, sent him down to our store because he was looking for Jujyfruits. It seems Jeff has Jujyfruits every night before the day of a game. This type of stuff doesn't surprise me, from my days when the radio station was all sports and I was a credentialed member of the Penguins media, I have heard numerous accounts of what players do and don't do ritual wise leading up to a game. So I start checking our concession candy and I can't find any Jujyfruits, I can't even find a shelf tag that says we carry Jujyfruit. I was all set to tell Jeff's gentleman caller that alas we could be of no help, when I intstead had him wait a minute and I headed into our basement just to check the back stock and see if Ed might have ordered it and we just never had a place for it on the floor. Sure enough, there was a row of about 24 boxes of Jujyfruit siiting right on the shelf, so I bring one up and hand it to the man (well not man, he was out buying candy for another dude, that is almost like being Jeff Reed's bitch, but I digress) and he leaves with his candy purchase. The next day the Steelers play host to the Tennessee Titans and it would be Jeff Reed's leg kicking a field goal in overtime that would provide the margin of victory. Maybe there was something to this Jujyfruit nonsense.
Anyway, like I said, we normally don't carry that candy, so I felt no need to put it out because one person asked for it, most of my concession candy sells quite well, one of the many projects I have is recognizing what sells and what doesn't and removing the junk and getting us stuff that we can turn a profit on. How bad is it you may ask, I have cans of cranberry sauce on the shelf that years ago someone thought might be a good idea to get for the holiday season. We never sold one of them, and I just threw one out for sitting on the shelf so long that it expired. That is the type of stuff I am to get rid of and replace with items of far more benefit to the store's economic bottom line. While we had a few openings in the concession area, I have been trying to move some Mike and Ike's stuff that Ed booked, as well as fruity Starburts, sour Skittles, and one or two other concession items that we don't normally sell but Ed had bought anyway. This left no room for the Jujyfruits I still had in the basement, so I didn't put them out. Well I don't know if Jeff's gentleman caller (bitch) has come back or not, the Steelers next two games were on Sunday and I don't work Saturday, but given the quality fo some of the people that cover that shift (eyes focused on Curtis at this point) if he had come in and Curtis didn't see them on the shelf, I have no doubt he never would have even looked in the basement. Even if he had, there is no saying that he would have found them, after all, one time Curtis told me that stocking the Snapple was confusing because there was so many flavors, which was one of many instances that made me question whether or not he can even read. So he could have went to the basement, looked directly at the Jujyfruit and saw Mxyzptlk.
In any event the candies remained in the basement, and the next two weeks saw Jeff Reed miss two field goals against the Bears in a game that the Steelers lost by three points, and the following week he missed another one in a loss to the Bengals. I have since made room for the Jujyfruits on the concession shelf, but the damage may be done. Three games into the season and the Steelers are already in third place in the division, trailing both Baltimore (3-0) and Cincinnati (2-1) and one wonders if those games could have been wins if the proper candy was available. The thing is, by admitting this, I open myself up to the wrath of the Steeler Nation, after all, when Ben Roethlisberger was involved in his motorcycle accident a couple of years back, the older lady also involved in the accident was greeted with death threats for her role in the event. So denying the Steeler kicker his candies may be opening myself up to mischief from the Steeler faithful. Thankfully I don't have a pet they can hold hostage, nor a car they can vandalize. Heck this may be one time where being poor with few worldly possessions will actually be a benefit. The best I can think they will do is burn me in effigy, and if they are going to do that I just hope they give me a day's notice so I can have a box of Jujyfruit the night before. After all, it works for Jeff.
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