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Life and Times
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Life and Times They say that one of the signs of getting old (for males at least) is the realisation that the Australian Cricket Board (or similar) is not going to give you the call to come and bail out the test team on its latest tour to wherever. Surely another sign is when a business decides that you are no longer worth the effort of training and will not accept you for an entry level position. Having decided that one more apple stacked would be one too many, I have tried to parlay my experience into other jobs in other sectors only to be variously turned down because that experience was gained in a supermarket or, I suspect, my age was a factor. When people think of the local supermarket, whether as part of a national retailer or even as a standalone, it is difficult to remember that even the smaller operations can have a turnover of $5million per year; some of the larger ones run to $2 or $3million per week. There are companies listed on the stock exchange that would have a<b> wet dream </font></b>at the idea of $5million per year. Quite often, the burden of the operations, even the national retailers, falls squarely on the humble department manager. When one of the duopoly amalgamated its recruitment departments, supermarkets were placed firmly and squarely as priority Z; anybody relying on the company recruiters for applicants was in for major disappointments. Quickly grasping this fact, I learnt the skills of the pro-active recruiter; the value of keeping the people I had recruited even more. So it was something of a blow to discover that, while broadly pleasing, the fact that I had learnt all this in a supermarket was regarded by one business as �unfortunate�. The other one I am learning to hate is the discovery that I fit the job description and interviewed well, only to be then told that they have gone in another direction. I have been told that this is code for going with a younger employee. With this in mind, I have decided that I am going to earn some qualifications through Open Universities and that stacking apples to pay for it is not so bad after all. It won�t be at my last employer�s though; the final straw was being blamed because one of the other staff members in my department decided that picking his up from school was more important than filling the shop. Even now I am unsure what it was about this scenario that had the boss particularly upset, but seeing how I had literally just walked through the door to be confronted by a screaming maniac demanding to know what I intended to do about it was more than enough. I had actually reached the stage where the prospect of going to work made me physically nauseous. I was literally in a position where everything that went wrong was my fault without being in any position to be able to do something about it and that everything that went right was due to somebody else�s intervention. My only consolation from the experience, other than to learn how fun it is to ride public transport, is the weekly advertisements they have placed for more staff. The thing I miss most is the daily entertainment provided by the other people using public transport. It reminded me of an episode of Days of Our Lives or General Hospital with only a constantly changing cast of characters being the difference between them. Having worked in a supermarket for years, I thought I was well used to the public�s propensity to play out its crises regardless of spectators. How wrong I was! Every day was an exposure to the society�s sores; infidelities (theirs or their partner�s), abuse, racism, divorce, abortion. Any number of medical procedures or examinations dissected and described in minute detail, often at full volume. My favourite is difficult to narrow down, but the funniest remains the Aboriginal man who declaimed at length about being willing to put up with all the white people but not being overly fond of the rest of the racial rainbow. I think it was George Burns who once lamented the fact that the world�s greatest problem solvers were condemned to being mere taxi drivers and hairdressers; I would like to add the more vocal patrons of public transport to that list. Be that as it may, I have accepted a position at one of the local supermarkets. I have some misgivings about this. A recent advert in the press offered a $90k remuneration package for the position of produce manager at one of the better IGAs. A similar amount is on offer for the better managers at Woolies and Progressive IGA so I would imagine that a middle ranking store, like this one, would have a base salary of around $60k plus bonuses. Given that it is essentially unskilled work (unskilled in terms of qualifications) it is a very good wage. But given the standards of so many supermarket produce departments, like this one, I find that I am questioning the value provided for the money on offer. I did a one day trial with them so that I could see how they did things and they could see if I actually knew what I was doing and all day I kept hoping that they would not ask me what I actually thought of the store; I have a tendency to be honest to such questions and I don�t think that with my shirt in the state that it was when I had finished that my answer was going to be what they were looking for. If I said it was a crap hole it would barely be describing the experience. The real problem is that it is not much worse than many of the other places I have seen lately. One of (and by no means the least) of the problems was that they had a lot of what would be referred to as lines that are over and above the standard range; things like persimmons and tamarillos. They are not so rare these days that people don�t know what they are and you would expect that somebody who has being working produce for as long as the two senior staff had been would know when they were no longer saleable. Not so. Not only were some of these lines rotten, but many had been mislabelled. I just could not quite grasp how the manager could be paid what I assumed he was being paid (and it could be a lot higher) and not grasp what, to me at least, was a fairly basic facet of being a produce manager. But even some of the standard lines were atrocious in quality- the apples in particular looking as if price had been the sole determination in their purchase from the markets. My problem is that I have always detested such people, and now I am going to work for one. The bigger question is why people persist in shopping in such places. Within a twenty minute drive of this store are two produce shops that have been recent finalists and past winners of Produce Retailer of the Year and another two or three that could have won or made finalist but did not nominate. Even allowing for the extra fuel and 10-20% extra on the prices, surely the better quality on offer would be better than putting up with this crap? Past figures show that some 70% of customers at a supermarket choose their destination based largely or solely on proximity, something that I have never quite understood. In that group or overlapping it was another 50% who chose their destination on the basis that it was in a major shopping centre with other shops like Kmart or BigW. The difference this can make to an operation is significant; one of my former stores was based close to another store in the same company but in a major shopping centre. My Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday sales were high enough that the other shop�s much greater Thursday and Saturday sales meant that they wouldn�t pass my week�s sales until late on Saturday- but beat me they did. I can understand the draw of convenience, but not at the expense of having to put up with such substandard produce as seems to be more the rule than the exception these days. Even the proliferation of produce shops in these major shopping centres does not seem to have led to a lift in quality; the majority of those that have opened near us have quickly assumed a quality standard that is on a par with the supermarkets (while, of course, still charging a premium). I recently had a discussion with some in the industry (growers, retailers, marketers) about the bashing dished out over the price increases and price differential between, say, Australia and New Zealand. Some reasonably pointed out that the price differential allowed a level of profitability which ensured the survival of the local fruit and veg retailers and a level of employment that they could not otherwise afford if prices were closer. I made the point that this was valid only if the quality was on a par and I did not think that that was the case; having met a number of Kiwis who worked produce at home and now here, they are invariably derisive about the quality of most WA retailers. Given the fact that there is a sizeable portion of the local retail industry that does perform well, it seems to me that many people involved in the industry are simply going through the motions. I always hate these regular beat-ups over buying local produce- knowing full well and having met many of them, that a lot of local growers make do with a near enough is good enough attitude and relying on the fact that you�re going to buy local. Likewise a lot of the buyers simply go for the cheapest on offer, not really caring about the quality except in the broadest definitions; the store staff will accept this as being good enough and then do the bare minimum to get paid; and finally the consumer will just accept it on the basis of convenience or price. Being a workaholic at the store for upwards of 60 hours a week and generally only venturing to the better stores to compare how I was doing, I am coming to the opinion that my view of the industry was somewhat warped. Realistically, probably less than twenty percent of supermarkets produce sections and only slightly more of the dedicated retailers have something close to a reasonable quality offering. I cannot see how people can expect the consumer to shop locally for better quality if, in fact, you are not offering better quality; in essence a lot of these campaigns simply amount to emotional blackmail. I usually avoid any store, produce or not, that tries this line on the basis that if it is using that as its main selling point, it does not speak well for the other factors that should be the priority like quality and value (as distinct from price; crap tomatoes at 99c are still crap) and range. Because we have a number of good produce sections/shops nearby I have had the option of voting with my feet if quality goes down, but I don�t understand those people who have fewer options simply not demanding better. If you�re paying for a better level of service then you should be entitled to that better level of service. If you are not sure what you should be getting, try Herdsman Fresh, Carine Fresh, Broadway Fresh (Southern River) the Boatshed (Cottesloe) or Tony Ale�s (Jandakot) (good supermarkets are IGA Canning Vale, IGA Stirling and IGA Doubleview) for a week and then compare the prices, range and quality at your local supermarket or produce retailer.  In truth is there no beauty? I am not in love; but i am open to persuasion. |
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Great idea , drive across Perth to save a few bucks. Sobriety is a serious business and business has not been good.
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