After working til midnight on New Years Eve, my next shift started at 11 AM. When I clocked on I was told that two employees called in “sick.” What a shocker! After New Years Eve, can they make it much more obvious!? Grrrreat! So we had two checkers instead of four by noon. People were coming in to get groceries for the Rose Bowl and the lines were ridiculously long. This is one of the biggest games in Oregon Ducks football history and the whole city is rooting for a victory at the Rose Bowl against Ohio State. Even if we had four checkers it still wasn’t enough, our schedule writer forgot that this New Years day is an unusual one because of the football game. The lines were filled with cranky customers. Seems like some of them just woke up or had really bad hangovers and to have them stand in super long lines didn’t help their attitudes. There was another checker coming in at 12:45 PM and he was going to be our savior but as 12:07 hit, I get a phone call…
Checker Irv: Hey man, I’m really sick and I can’t make it today…
Me: You kidding right?
Checker Irv: No way, I had a bad night.
Me: Oh really, you did?
Checker Irv: Yeah, so I can’t make it.
Me: You didn’t happen to hang out with David and Jeff yesterday did you?
Checker Irv: Uh, yeah…
Me: Well…
Checker Irv: [cuts me off] I know, I’m sorry man. I’ll be ready tomorrow.
Me: I was just going to say your two buddies just called in before you.
Checker Irv: Oh… so what does that mean?
Me: It means they beat you to it and you gotta come in.
Checker Irv: Crap… I’ll be right there.
When Irv came, things went a lot smoother. Too smooth because he came when we weren’t as busy.
With the game going on, the store was very slow. We focused on restocking the beer aisle but you can’t stock anything you don’t have. We put out our back stock the night before and the beer vendors didn’t bother coming in today.
I didn’t have to ask anyone about the outcome of the game. I can just tell by the customers faces and moods that the Oregon Ducks had lost in the Rose Bowl. Its always been like that on Saturdays during football season. If the Oregon Ducks or Oregon State Beavers win depending on the customers team then they are the best customers a grocery clerk can ask for but if they lose well, its a crappy day for those that are working. I’m so happy college football is over…



