daidoji_gisei (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
daidoji_gisei) wrote2007-03-25 09:42 am
daidoji_gisei) wrote2007-03-25 09:42 am
Leaves from a Baker's Notebook: Problems, Resolutions
Work was more than a little aggravating this week. We got no rolled oats in Monday's shipment from our main supplier--they were out of stock on commercial regular-cut rolled oats. They weren't going to get any in stock any time soon, so I ordered organic rolled oats for Thursday's shipment. My staff then proceeds to flounder around looking for things to do, because we are totally out of oats and about 4/5 of our most popular items call for them. I end up filling my time by doing R&D work, and both the crustless fruit pie and the sugar cookies get high marks by the Open Harvest Testing Panel. (The OHTP, by the way, consists of any and all employees I can corner. It's not the most scientific of methods, but so far it has given good results.)
Thursday's truck comes in, with no oats--they are out of stock on organic oats as well. How can a distributor that services the natural foods industry be out of oats? It isn't right! It's also something of a crisis for me, because four out of five of our A-list cookies, plus our wildly popular granola bars, use oats. Our store's buyer springs into action and calls her usual supplier of organic rolled oats, a small company started by some farmers in central Nebraska. They only deliver to Lincoln about once a month, which is fine for grocery (which has a larger storage area and only has to keep the store's bulk bins filled) but is inadequate for my needs, which is part of the reason why I normally get oats from our main distributor. Anyway, our buyer gets a hold of someone at her usual supplier and attempts to wheedle them into making a special emergency delivery to us the next day. After some checking, they determine that they can't, BUT one of their guys lives outside of Pleasant Dale, a short distance from Lincoln. If we are willing to drive out to his place to pick it up, they'll load our oats into his car to take home.
We are very, very willing, so that evening Margo and I drive out, load 300 pounds of oats into the back of her car, drive back, and carry them into the store. Rapture!
Friday was granola bar madness in the Bakery. We needed granola bars for us, the coffee shop next door, and a special order for our office manager whose daughter's diving club was having a meet this weekend and needed refreshments for various hosting needs. As it happened we didn't get them done in time for her (granola bars take forever to cool), and I ended up running the finished bars out to her at the stadium after work.
Saturday could have been bad but wasn't. I don't normally work Saturday, but one of my Saturday people needed to be written up (=minor disciplinary procedure). I had been tempted to let my assistant manager take care of it, but decided that wasn't fair to her. She's still a little new to exercising her authority and this particular case had some sticky bits, so it was not a good training exercise. Therefor, I went in to do it myself. As I had expected the employee didn't think they deserved it, but they accepted it when I explained how I saw the matter--that a ball had gotten dropped, and the write-up was a notice to all involved parties that a ball had gotten dropped and everyone was going to be more careful in the future. So that resolved peacefully.
Monday will be cookie madness, as I attempt to make all the cookies that didn't get made last week because we had no oats. I'll probably also be making gobs of granola bars again, as it is about time for coffee house #2 to put in another order. And I need to make inquiries about how much additional oats we would have to order before the Nebraska farmers would agree to make more frequent deliveries to Lincoln. Their oats are not that much more expensive than my current supplier, they are local (by Nebraska values for "local"), and they have a lot better customer service.
Thursday's truck comes in, with no oats--they are out of stock on organic oats as well. How can a distributor that services the natural foods industry be out of oats? It isn't right! It's also something of a crisis for me, because four out of five of our A-list cookies, plus our wildly popular granola bars, use oats. Our store's buyer springs into action and calls her usual supplier of organic rolled oats, a small company started by some farmers in central Nebraska. They only deliver to Lincoln about once a month, which is fine for grocery (which has a larger storage area and only has to keep the store's bulk bins filled) but is inadequate for my needs, which is part of the reason why I normally get oats from our main distributor. Anyway, our buyer gets a hold of someone at her usual supplier and attempts to wheedle them into making a special emergency delivery to us the next day. After some checking, they determine that they can't, BUT one of their guys lives outside of Pleasant Dale, a short distance from Lincoln. If we are willing to drive out to his place to pick it up, they'll load our oats into his car to take home.
We are very, very willing, so that evening Margo and I drive out, load 300 pounds of oats into the back of her car, drive back, and carry them into the store. Rapture!
Friday was granola bar madness in the Bakery. We needed granola bars for us, the coffee shop next door, and a special order for our office manager whose daughter's diving club was having a meet this weekend and needed refreshments for various hosting needs. As it happened we didn't get them done in time for her (granola bars take forever to cool), and I ended up running the finished bars out to her at the stadium after work.
Saturday could have been bad but wasn't. I don't normally work Saturday, but one of my Saturday people needed to be written up (=minor disciplinary procedure). I had been tempted to let my assistant manager take care of it, but decided that wasn't fair to her. She's still a little new to exercising her authority and this particular case had some sticky bits, so it was not a good training exercise. Therefor, I went in to do it myself. As I had expected the employee didn't think they deserved it, but they accepted it when I explained how I saw the matter--that a ball had gotten dropped, and the write-up was a notice to all involved parties that a ball had gotten dropped and everyone was going to be more careful in the future. So that resolved peacefully.
Monday will be cookie madness, as I attempt to make all the cookies that didn't get made last week because we had no oats. I'll probably also be making gobs of granola bars again, as it is about time for coffee house #2 to put in another order. And I need to make inquiries about how much additional oats we would have to order before the Nebraska farmers would agree to make more frequent deliveries to Lincoln. Their oats are not that much more expensive than my current supplier, they are local (by Nebraska values for "local"), and they have a lot better customer service.