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Creamed Cheese
I worked briefly for a bagel store chain one high school summer,
meaning I spent every Saturday and Sunday getting up at 5am to start
the 6am shift. It was owned and operated by white trash who hired
other, younger white trash to run the front, and these girls hated me
the moment I stepped foot into the store for my first shift.
There was a rule that you didn’t drop the bagel-cutting knives into
soapy water because the dishwasher couldn’t see them, and could
inadvertently get cut reaching in- well, guess who got a terribly
sliced hand the first week? Nobody cared, nobody got talked to about
it, I actually saw the girl who I know did it laughing and smiling in
a nasty way with one of the bosses about an hour later. I should have
done something then, but I was 17 and naive and needed the money.
The food handling was disgusting- halfway through every shift I was
instructed to take the huge cutting boards that span the length of
the display cases (where all bagels have to be placed at some point
if they’re being sliced) and take them back and bleach them- not
bleach AND rinse off, JUST bleach. Meaning whoever got sandwiches for
the next hour got Clorox with their egg and cheese. I have no idea why
they insisted on doing something so dangerous. I actually got yelled
at because they caught me rinsing them off one time.
Their motto on cream cheese (and I quote) was “if it doesn’t smell
bad, it’s not bad- it doesn’t matter what the expiration date on the
lid says”. Which means for flavored cream cheeses, where the
artificial ingredients can mask other odors, they often pushed
containers two and three weeks past expiration. They used old food
and condiments to dangerous limits, and people complained fairly
often about getting a bad sandwich. They’d always look terribly
surprised and then publicly chew one of the staff (me) out for not
checking the freshness (!!). Bagels dropped on the floor were always
(if nobody saw) put back in the bins for sale. Oh, it was so gross.
Ironically, about two months into it I was fired for throwing away
expired food and for taking too long to clean the food containers. I
think they called it ‘wasting profits and not keeping up’. It was my
one and only time ever being fired, and I literally skipped to my car
with a huge grin on my face.
11 Comments to Creamed Cheese
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sounds like you would have stayed longer if they didn’t fire you. good job.
Lol. “It was owned and operated by white trash who hired other, younger white trash” – don’t think to highly of yourself, eh?
No call to the health department?
Actually, it’s against health code to rinse the bleach off things after sanitizing them with bleach solution. Cutting boards, etc are to be washed, then rinsed, then sanitiized with a bleach or quat solution, then allowed to air dry. Rinsing them again would negate the sanitizing aspect.
Man, I don’t want to join in with the ‘bash the OP’ gang, but I have a hard time finding anything positive to say here. Your peers & boss were all white trash? Are you queen of the trailer park? Everything was so gross, but you didn’t quit or do anything about it? I get that we all sometimes find ourself in an environment that we don’t fit, but you come across as if your shitus doesn’t stinkus.
why didn’t you have the health department in speed dial on your phone?
I would have take my phone and make the call while still in the manager office, or on my way to my car. First option would have been cool to make him shit her/his pants, and the other one even better because he/she wouldn’t had any warning.
Something about bagels and white trash just doesn’t seem to go together. Donuts sure but bagels?
ummm – you don’t rinse off sanitizer – that would be like sanitizing your hands with germ-x and then washing them without soap. POINTLESS!
By the way, if you can’t figure out how to do dishes without getting cut on the knives in the dishwasher, you’re an idiot. Instead of grabbing at the dishes, you scoop.
What I don’t get in any of these “when I was a teen” stories is why none of you talk over your work problems with your parents or another adult. They’d advise you to report these places to the health department for one thing. Or even do it for you.
I’m going to be 34 and I STILL talk about my work problems with my mom, though my problems are with patrons, not my boss (who’s awesome), and how they don’t want to pay their late fees or nearly get into fistfights over the computers. (I work in a public library.)
“White trash”??? White people who own their own businesses are not white trash. White trash is unemployed, or welfare recipients. The people who are working for them, therefore, because they have a job, would not be considered white trash either.
What does does it matter what color they are, anyway? Is it because you are not white, and you have a problem with white people?
Also, you do not rinse off bleach! You let it air dry. If you rinse it off, it would do nothing to kill germs.
Ok, I’m usually keen to bash on the OP and while I agree that there was no need for the “white trash” comment, leave him/her alone about calling the health department. The OP clearly stated, “but I was 17 and naive and needed the money”. @Jami, I agree they should talk to their parents, but you’re the exception to the rule on that. Most teens don’t.