Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Trip Journal -- Day Five, Third Entry

I guess I wrote a lot on Day Five.

13 Oct. 2004

"This cookie is broken.  It's not good enough to serve to the guests," I overheard the crewmember say as she walked off eagerly with two cookie halves in her hand (on their way to her mouth).

Took me back to when I work concessions at a local movie theater and some of the staff would "waste" candy.  Which is to say, should there happen to be anything wrong with some candy -- like a torn wrapper, broken bar or smushed edge -- something that rendered the candy unfit for sale but still suitable for human consumption, the candy would be taken in back, accounted for on the inventory as "waste," and disposed of however the staff saw fit.

Given this policy -- and the fact that our employee discount did not, in fact, apply to candy -- it wasn't long before the crew started "wasting" candy whenever they got a sweet tooth. Management caught on and instituted a policy whereby a manager had to see all "wasted" candy and approve it as genuinely unsellable before we could officially "waste" it.  This, in turn, led to such practices as restocking the candy shelf by taking aim from 20 or 30 feet away and pitching the candy toward the shelf.  The results were, of course, too battered to be sold and thus were approved as "waste." 

Management only succeeded in putting an end to hazardous candy chucking games when the policy became:  all wasted candy must be turned in to management for management to dispose of.  No point in "accidentally" breaking a candy bar for your manager to eat.

No comments: