Multiply 365 Day 232 - A case of the Mondays

 

At least it is over. That is the plus coming out of today. Because other than that it wasn't all that good. Just lots of me getting in trouble for things I did and didn't do. It was day where I was glad to get out of work.

Apparently my problems started Saturday night when Ed made one of his not so surprise/surprise visits to the store. I say not so surprise because while they are relatively unannounced, he does them so often that it has become almost expected by now. Still, him showing up isn't a bad things in and of itself. I had already received as note from him, as well as a phone call on Saturday saying that he wanted me ordering more back stock on paper products. It isn't the first time I have heard such a request. Probably will not be the last either. Some of the items were legitimately my fault, others I can only make suggestions on but at the end of the day I can not buy them myself.

There were a couple of other things that we were low on as well, and I will fall on the sword for not having them. Still I could have probably escaped relatively unscathed, certainly I would not have been pulled into the office for lecture today, say for the complete ineptitude of some of my coworkers. Apparently when Ed showed up Saturday whoever was in charge proceeded to tell him we were out of coffee for the coffee machine. Now I do not do the ordering for the coffee machine, Rick actually takes care of the coffee station products (coffee, sugar, creamers, etc.) so this would have fallen outside of my purview to begin with. What was worse was that we did not in fact run out of coffee, it was right where it has been for the last 2 and half years that I have worked there. But because no one could find it (let's not look where it always is) that set Ed off. Worse was he wanted the open air cooler restocked with microwave burritos, breakfast sandwiches and what not and again no one can seem to locate them (again items I am not responsible for) and again they were exactly right where they always are in the freezer in the basement. Of course Ed wouldn't learn this until today, two days after the fact because no one can be bothered to pick up a phone and actually ask. So instead he is under the notion we do not have these items, which pisses him off. And once that ball gets rolling, everything is going to set him off. No matter how big or small.

So today was a day where everyone who was lucky enough to get called into the office proceeded to get ripped for how they are doing their jobs. Things that Ed and I covered on the phone and addressed Saturday afternoon were brought back up like we never discussed them.. The things we did have and nobody could actually locate were now our fault as well. Their incompetence became our fault as well. What is worse is that I have now got stuck in a pissing contest between Ed and Pepsi. I have made mention in that our Pepsi orders have been quite large, we currently are the largest account they have in downtown Pittsburgh. But for every order we put in, there are almost always shortages of some sort. On a 250 case order it is not uncommon to get say, 235 cases with 15 cases being items that are out of stock. One of those items that regularly comes up as out of stock are the syrups for the Polar Shock machines (Pepsi's slush puppy like product). I tend to keep one extra case of each one in house, and with three machines we carry 6 different flavors, blue raspberry, cherry, orange frost, strawberry melonade, mocha and french vanilla. I only keep one extra case as back up because for two reasons, each box carries 3 gallons of syrup which is not a small amount, by the time you do the mixing with water (4 parts water to 1 part syrup) you have a significant amount of product there, 24 gallons of each flavor and the cases are not cheap as the fruit flavors run $90 a box and the coffees are $99.

Well a couple of weeks ago I walked through the Pepsi order with Tom, our rep, and we were on the last case of vanilla. So I ordered one so I would have a back up, our turn around on Pepsi is quick, we order Wednesday and they deliver on Thursday.. So the Thursday delivery come and no vanilla. While the two coffee flavors are our slowest movers of Polar Shock, they still do sell. And as luck would have it, we ran out of vanilla in the week between orders. I explain to Ed what happened, we ordered it, it didn't come in and while he may have been upset it was something I managed to keep under control for the most part. So Wednesday Tom is back and I order two cases of vanilla, one for the machine and one back up and Thursday the truck arrives and again no Polar Shock. Now I am pissed. I tell Ed that again it didn't show up and he tells me to call Pepsi and find out what happened, because it was listed as in stock Wednesday (Tom had checked before we ordered) and sure enough they did have some and just didn't bring it, their argument being that it was close to being out of date (the sell by date is the first week of September) and I said I don't care about the date, I don't have any and I can't sell what I don't have. So Tom tells me he will see to it that the product gets to us, even if he has to drive it in himself. I get off the phone and tell Ed what is up and he tells me to get back on the phone and tell Tom not to bother, we are just going to have Pepsi pick up the machine and take it out. Now this gets into all kind of ugly contract shit about what we are required to carry and what not, things I am not all that privy to (above my pay grade and all that jazz) but I call Tom back an tell him what Ed told me, he doesn't want the product, he wants rid of the machine. Of course Tom can't make that call on his end either, we are both middle men playing out in this drama between our respective managements, but he says he will make sure his boss (Shavone) calls Ed hopefully they work things out.

So Saturday while I am working on the order a Pepsi driver arrives with the two cases of vanilla Polar Shock. I assumed that it meant Ed and Shavone had spoke and patched things up and he approved the order, so I accepted it and went ahead and hooked up the beverage and got it running again. Well it turns out they didn't speak and apparently Shavone told them to deliver it anyway, so I got drug further into this pissing contest between Ed and Pepsi. On the plus, Ed didn't blame me for accepting the order but he was none to pleased that they delivered an item he specifically said he didn't want. Not that I can blame him there, that is $200 that he didn't authorize to spend (even though when this eventually all plays out I think we would have bought it anyway) because he said he didn't want it.

The thing is, in general I like Tom (as I do most of our reps that come in) and I don't like playing the bad guy with him, yet here I am calling him back up again today telling him Ed is all kinds of pissed off about that delivery. And I am not sure how this will eventually play out, on one hand Ed can be a pretty big pain in the ass, he has shut off Coke deliveries entirely on two different occasions since I worked there just because of disputes with them, on the other Pepsi is by far our best seller in the store, it runs in the ball park of a 4 to 1 edge over anything Coke offers, so to go all cold turkey and just kill Pepsi ordering would seem to be an unlikely move on Ed's part. Which just means most likely lots more days of this unenjoyable status quo where both sides bicker back and forth and nothing ever truly gets resolved.

This job may drive me to drink yet.