Blog

Working nights puts you out of sync with the real world. You make dinner before noon, sleep through the 6 o’clock news, head to the job as others get ready for bed. This morning, I finished early and left the store a couple of hours before dawn. A big yellow moon floated just above the…

Have you been stockpiling meat? I admit to freezing a few pork chops, along with a family-sized package of chicken thighs. If I had more refrigerator space, I would probably buy a ham. I”m not proud of this, but like most shoppers, I expect the selection in the meat cases to dwindle. The dire news…

It’s said that an army marches on its stomach. In a pandemic, the front lines march on aching feet. I’ve come to realize that, aside from bank accounts, housing, health care, education, voting access, mortality rates, and general well-being, the main differentiation between the classes is this. The lowest paid – you know, the essential…

In the early days of our collective madness, the stampede was from the front door to the far corner of the store, to our stash of toilet paper. That craze died down as customers realized we have a steady supply of paper goods. The next shopping binge is likely to be meat, as processing plants…

In the products-that-become-even-more -ridiculous-during-a-pandemic aisle…

How thankful are some Wegmans customers? Human Resources had to send out a reminder recently that gratuities are not allowed. It’s the duty of every Wegmans employee to be prompt, courteous and respectful, the memo pointed out. Accepting or soliciting a tip is a fireable offense. (And don’t forget, Wegmans is paying its employees a…

From the number of hot dog buns and hamburger rolls we’re selling, I’d say most people are shying away from all those exotic recipes flooding the web. I totally get that. When the mind is fogged by anxiety, simple is good. The number of recipe steps I’ll commit to has been reduced to two, maybe…

A regular customer at my store wraps every item in a plastic produce bag before checkout. By every item, I mean not just obvious foods such as fresh vegetables or poultry, but toilet paper, potato chips, and boxes of cereal. I don’t know why he does this. Wegmans workers are too polite to ask. All…

This is the store scrapyard – a resting place for equipment we can no longer use. The salad bar, the steam tables for the Asian buffet, the hot chicken wings, the signature meals, all parked in a dark corner of the store, like cars on cinder blocks. Self-serve, in the era of COVID-19, is a…

Big day. Wegmans issued me a cloth mask this morning, telling me it must be worn and must be washed between shifts. In the afternoon, I was notified that the $2/hour hazard pay bonus has been extended through May. (The hourly increase previously was set for March and April.) “While there’s light on the horizon,…