#trust me when i say something was moldy and had to be binned

[tamedstray]

Today is already a "post Self indulgent memes despite how many drafts you already have" day 😭

[dollsonmain]

Got up at 3:30 on a day off just to breathe.

Here comes Son. I need alone time. Trying not to cry.

Anyway. Long, long rambly about food storage and handling.

Still EXTREMELY frustrated by the food handling and storage situation at the gas station, like it takes up space in my head when I'm not at work, and trying to remember what made it so efficient at Wegman's. I've probably already been over this I just can't remember. I'm also just like CAN I say anything? Would that go over well or be annoying? I don't know.

They've owned the place since 2020 and have been doing things this way the whole time as far as I know, and also afaik haven't been tracking expiration dates well at all so likely have no idea how much food/money they're wasting or how much expired food they're feeding customers.

I can't tell if Manager has had the food handler's training and is certified. It could be that she is certified but doesn't really care and it's not a place that a health inspector is likely to wander into and catch them.

Granted Wegman's is a food selling place so would care more about food handling and storage than a gas station, and turns pretty big profits so has more to spend on food handling and storage.

Though proper storage would save money over time and likely increase sales because customers would be able to trust they're going to get something "good" every time. Consistency is important to building a good reputation.

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Storage

The first thing is a place for everything, everything in it's place.

If we were out of cheddar, for example, there would be an empty shelf in the big walk-in cooler. You could see with a glance that we were out of cheddar or that we had 5 blocks left and it was time to order more.

In the gas station, right now, there are 3 boxes of chicken patties. One in the primary freezer, one in the ice cream freezer, and one in the cooler, thawed and moldy. They should all be in the same place. They should all be frozen.

I wouldn't know there were three if I hadn't happened to stumble upon them myself.

The second is clear containers and washable labels.

Cheddar would arrive in cardboard boxes with each 40lb block in it's own plastic bag and each bag had a printed label on it. Cardboard boxes were discarded and the bags stacked on the shelf. This worked because a block of cheddar was a rectangle.

For things that don't stack easily, like olives which arrived in little plastic kegs, when it was time to open a keg they would be dumped out into large, clear, plastic food storage bins and labeled with what it was and it's expiration date. Once that date hit, regardless of what container it was in, it was discarded.

These food storage bins all had lids designed for stacking and it was very efficient to store because you could just stack everything neatly, see the labels, and see what was inside, it's status, and how much there was. If it got moldy or was running low, you could see.

Some for hummus, it came in large bags and was dumped into steel bins to be put onto the olive bar. The detriment to this is that being spread out into a steel bar bin means more surface area, so in the case of the gas station, keeping the sandwich salads in their original, plastic tubs works just as well in the mini fridge as transferring them to bins would. Less surface area in the containers and the round tubs take up about the same amount of space as the rectangular, stacked bins would. However, getting things in and out would be easier with stacked, rectangular bins.

The places where plastic bins would help the most at the gas station are the freezers and the cooler, though usually we don't have any deli stuff in the cooler other than bread. Right now there's lots of meat in there, too.

Don't get me started on how that's being stored. tl:dr it's wrong.

The dirty shipping boxes are put into the freezer as is, then opened, a hole ripped in the bag inside, and we just stick our [gloved] hand into the open bags to get stuff out. It is not ideal. If the box is up on it's end I can't see the label without taking the box out, if the box is lifted out of the freezer the wrong way the product all falls out, and you can't see how much is left without pulling out the whole box and looking inside. Knowing when to reorder is difficult because everything has to be dumped out to see how much is left.

And, since the bags are just open in there, everything gets frostbitten.

The cooler stays at 35F which is actually a bit low for food storage but is ok. One of the fridges (has factory-made sandwiches, lunchables, and small snack cheeses) gets up to 45-48F now and then long enough to be able to feel the change if I stick my arm in, and that's not acceptable, but I can't do anything about it. That fridge's compressor rattles something awful, too. It'll break soon I think.

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Expiration dates

We get tubs of sandwich salads pre-made and Manager doesn't seem to understand how expiration dates work.

When we make the sandwiches, she wants the ones made with refrigerated ingredients marked for disposal after 7 days (it should be 4), and with frozen ingredients marked for 9 days (it should also be 4 because those ingredients are thawed as they sit in the cooler) (as a matter of fact the tubs should also be discarded 4 days after they're opened).

That's regardless of the expiration date on the pre-made salads or ingredients. Which is wrong.

For example, we had egg and tuna salads that expired on Oct 3 and were still making sandwiches with them on Oct7 because she decided they're still ok because of when they arrived.

Arrival date has no effect on expiration date, it's manufacture date and the expiration date of any individual ingredients when it's manufactured that affect the expiration date.

Anyway, those sandwiches were still being marked for 7 days out.

We got in a new tub of chicken salad but it expires on the 16th. Every sandwich with that chicken salad, regardless of when it's made, should have a disposal date no later than the 16th, but we're still marking them for 7 days out from when they're assembled.

A new-new tub of chicken salad arrived Thursday that expires on the 17th. Anything made with that tub should have a disposal date no later than the 17th. I guarantee they'll be marked 7 days out regardless of when they're assembled.

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And like, if I were officially put in charge of these things I would implement these changes and put in a request for food bins immediately but I'm not in charge.

I already solved one minor problem. When I first started she would tell me to make as many sandwiches as there was bread in the bag because she hates trying to keep the bread fresh in the cooler.

Buns are in big, long, weirdly shaped bags for restaurants I guess, and they're difficult to close once you've ripped a hole in the middle to get to the bread.

I open the bags on a corner and tie the bags shut when I'm done.

... That was it. I just tie the bags shut, and the bread keeps longer.

Like.....

I'm so frustrated. Just let me fix it......