NOT SO OLD COFFEE !

One of the practices that I find not good working for 7-Eleven is the fact that we “mix” the oldish coffee with the fresh, maybe is not an extended practice but hey! in all the stores that worked before is very usual and accepted practice, and to try to talk about it with the franchisee and is always a risk of being profiled as a “bad employee” because they asume that we dont care about profits.

The scenario is not unusual, we just made a fresh brew and somebody takes a 20 Oz. cup from that fresh pot. . is great. But if there is quarter of a pot with coffee sitting there for about half an hour that nobody wants because every time they sniff -they put literally their nose right inside the pot- smells bad and burned, characteristic smell of an old coffee, simply they refuse to buy it. Well, the extended practice is let’s mix the not so fresh coffee with the fresh one and nobody will notice and they’ll buy it anyways, which is what happens all the time.

And is understandable from the point of view of the franchisee, nobody wants their numbers messed up, nobody wants to waste a quarter pot of coffee, is a loss for the bussiness and is going to hurt the inventory. The philosopy is : nothing goes to waste, everything must be used, so let’s mix them and it will sell!

Assuming that an employee makes a new pot of coffee and has the time to move it to a new location in the coffee section, away from the old coffee that now is in prime location, preferably where the fresh one was and with more than a quarter full, the customer will take the not so fresh and will leave the store assuming that the coffee bought is with the right quality, fresh, and everybody is happy, the store makes a dime and the customer saves a dolar or so by not buying in Starbucks for whatever reason.

My point here is : we know why we mix the coffee. . for profit. We know that the customer will buy it. . for their own profit and savings. Must be a solution for this . . and is quite simple.

Like I said earlier, let’s make a fresh pot, move that one to a new location, the best being away from the old pot and not leaving the new one in the same place, I mean . . that is why after all that the old coffee is being sidelined and ignored by the customer right? . . move away the fresh coffee. Is it cheating, yes and no! yes because the franchisee sets the standard of what is old when talking about coffee, and no because if that criteria is set right the customer will benefit. When is time to dump the relatively old coffee onto the sink? when is less than a quarter full. Of course that is not always 100% the case, almost all the time the patron will squeeze that old pot of coffee till the last drop. Is far better system than mixing, don’t you think?

And you know, the best stores always use that system, and sell tons of coffee, of course it took time those franchisees to mold the mentality of everybody. From one side -the worker- to take care for quality and time to earn the trust of the patrons that we do not cheat and we care for quality and freshness and from the other side -the patrons- to convince themselves that is really happening.

Those two sides of the coin really enable the relation customer-employee-franchisee, and we all know that once earning the trust those sales are going up, And never look back in cuestionable practices. Come on is for the good franchisees! you are going to maybe loose a little at the beginning, but the earnings are going to be fantastic and maybe wih time . . a pay raise to employees Uh?

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AM I A MONKEY ?

Sometimes you find people that are trying to offend you when they don’t get what they want; my statement is because certain night a customer came into the store asking for Lotto tickets, you know, the scratchers; he asked my co-worker for a few to buy but Mohammed is from Pakistán and he’s getting by with his limited English and with a blunt statement he said that we can’t sell tickets after 9 p.m. every night, the customer of course got angry and demanded an explanation, Mohammed tried to explain but communication was being bad.

As always I was in the cooler fixing things, getting organized for the next shift, I noticed that the conversation was hot and the exchange of words was escalating in something big and useless.

I went outside and I said : due to the store policy we do not sell tickets after 9 at night, is the store policy; all of a sudden the customer said : and who are you? a Monkey? I said no, I’m just explaining the situation why he can’t sell tickets.

Of course when you try to help somebody in a predicament, you often get bruised with nasty comments like that, is very common especially at 7-Eleven, but you get used to it and always fix the situation in one way or another, but not even with such comments towards me the customer was satisfied, he wanted more, he wanted the tickets in a very demandng way.

Looking at him straight in the eye I said in a very firm way, if you don’t get out of the store I’ll call the police and you will be in troubles because nobody is making nasty remarks against you, but you are calling me monkey in front of the people without any reason, so get out NOW !! . . he left telling me fucking monkey, bastard, Son of a Bitch . . felt aggravated and assaulted; when I got home that night I just grabbed a banana with a glass of milk, and enjoyed it !

NEW JOB

Today I’m going to start a new job at the local 7-Eleven, I worked before at a number of stores in the past 11 years, some of them very good, other ones regulars. But above all fair to me because this job gave some economic stability to sustain myself and others.

In this blog expect anything, from a simple comment about customers to rants about the job itself, sometimes with mild profanity, so don’t be disturbed. This writings and comments does not represent the 7-Eleven Corporation or their employees opinions and policies at all.

Also this blog has no association of any kind with the 7-Eleven Corporation, nor receiving any sponsorship; is just my own writings talking about my daily chronicles in the job.

Enjoy it and Welcome to 7-Eleven, can I help you ?

The 7-11 Guy.

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