Well, I decided last night before I went to bed that I was living an extremely eventful 24 hours right now. The Red Sox were in Game 4 of the World Series that they went on to win after 84 years of... being the Red Sox; a lunar eclipse; my first day at Panera; getting Joy's engagement ring set; asking Joy's parents the big question; and an assortment of homework and driving along the way.
Wait! This is is supposed to be about my first day at Panera, so let me get into that...
I got up at 4:20 this morning. Did my morning groove and made it to the bakery-café three minutes early for my start. I was told that I couldn't actually clock in and then I was introduced to Angie, the lady I'd be working with for the rest of the morning.
Uht! Time to get back to class! More to come later. Details! Details!~
UPDATE -- 10/29/2004
OK, where was I? Ah!
Angie talked to me for a little while we set up the shop. She kept on telling me that I was so lucky to have someone around to actually show me how to do it all, because she didn't have that luxury when she was being trained. It took us a little over an hour to set up the pastry display, set up the bread display, and get all the bagels off of the baking trays and into their baskets.
Before we had even finished setting up the store opened and we had our first few customers. I was really excited and hyper that we had customers that early. Angie didn't quite understand my enthusiasm. I attribute it to the fact that I have been in businesses where my earnings were directly related to number of customers and size of orders in so many of my jobs in my life. Anyway, that made my day great, because Panera sold out of these pastry things in the first ten minutes of the day. We were also really, really busy the whole day, which doesn't bother me when I am in the mindset that each customer/order is good for me personally.
By the time we had actually finished setting up everything I was beginning to learn how to use the register. It is insanely easy to use, but my problem is that I don't know what all of the menu items are just yet. I also don't understand the way things are organized in the register's directory. Some of it is alphabetical, which is really cool, but there is no real organizational unity to the directory, so I will have to memorize everything next week.
After roughly a half an hour of that we were swamped so I couldn't handle the learning process and the customer load and Angie took over again. I was quickly moved to getting orders, which was fast paced and fun. We sold close to a thousand bagels that morning.
After doing all of that for a while, I was also sent to the back of the store to get stuff from time to time. That was a good thing because it let me move my legs naturally for a bit and I got to learn more about where things are in the store while it was still my first day.
I like lists, and I was wanting to do this really badly; so here is a list of things that I did on my first day.
Watched the set-up of the pastry display.
Set up the bagel display.
Set up the bread display . (Still learning this)
Manned the register. (Still learning this)
Made café beverages. (Definately still learning this!)
Learned all the bagels and cream cheeses.
Assembled trays for eating in the restaurant.
Refilled Napkins and other things at the coffee counter.
Swept
"Mopped"
That doesn't really seem like all that much, and it definately doesn't seem that hard. I guess that is why I was having so much fun with it all. The only thing that I think will still be a challenge for me after working next week is learning all the café beverages. Luckily, most of the people who order those are pretty helpful when they see me struggling with the process. Also, I think the regulars instantly recognize that I am a new face and take advantage of the situation and get me to do "made to order" drink orders for them. That is fun because it makes them happy.
Anyway, the point of all of this is that I really like my job a lot so far. I like waking up when it is still dark. I like seeing all the caffeine addicts before they get their fix. I like rushing around and getting stuff and putting things together. I love handing people their orders before they've even paid. That is awesome, because it makes me feel like I am ahead of the game. This whole job thing is just a whole lot of fun, which is really good because it doesn't pay all that well.
Posted by David at October 28, 2004 02:12 PM