Hello, my darling hores.
You may be wondering why I have been absent a lot lately.
No, it's not because of Granado Espada (though that may be a valid reason somewhat).
I've landed a job at...
SHOP N SAVE (!!!)


Usually I wouldn't even mention something like this because it's very degrading for me but um, I guess that pretty much everyone I know knows about it.
Even Mr Roger Lim wtf? He asked me about it when I returned to school to grab my recommendation letter from Mdm Rohanah. And he wouldn't tell me how he knows.
Probable Speculation: Mr Jawahir saw me there and told everyone about it. Either that, or Jolly Roger personally saw me working there. But let's just skip that for now.
Okay first off, let me share my personal working experiences there at Shop 'N' Save.
NOTE: I'm not gonna tell you where though, or else you may end up provoking me like Khai did on my first day, god I totally regretted that moment -.-


My agency, TBC HR Consulting, sent me to work there under the Groceries department.
Groceries, meaning your toiletries, canned food, snacks etc.
Unfortunately, during my arrival, they stationed me at the F&V (Fruits and Vegetables) department! At first, I was damn miffed because I hated vegetables.
Trust me, I couldn't tell the difference between a sweet potato and ginger AND also between cabbage and cauliflower. Like, I don't eat those things. And I don't plan to either. Whatevs.
The first time I was stationed there, I guess I was pretty much ridiculed repeatedly by my superiors (not intentionally) for knowing little about these things.
On a positive note, this relatively new exposure does give me knowledge and experience in the vegetables corner. For example, what they are called, how to check whether or not they are fresh/bad and the different types/categories.
I like Maggie, Nancy and unnamed auntie (my superiors). They're so nice, they pardoned my mistakes because I was still a newbie and were really friendly!


And mind you, I've a hell's load of mean things to say right now, but let's just reserve it for later after my contract ends. I wouldn't want to risk termination, especially after working for 5 long days already.
At first, I dreaded going to work and contemplated on lodging a complaint to the agency for a breach of contract (because had i seen 'f&v' instead of 'groceries' stated in the contract, i might have not agreed to it).
But then I decided to give things a try and now, I guess it's pretty much working out.
My duties at the F&V counter are to help pack and arrange the fruits and vegetables, attend to customers needs and to carry the stocks from the cargo hold.
It may seem easy for all of you (like i did before), but trust me: my arms are aching.
Nevertheless, I'm kind of enjoying the job. Thanks to all this exposure, I get to know the different types of fruits I never thought ever existed! Hahaha.


However, the challenging part is the arranging of stocks and the memorizing of item codes.
You know like, when you (or your mom, let's say), want to purchase a certain vegetable (for instance, bean sprouts aka "taugeh"). She'll pack how much she wants in a plastic bag, and bring it over to the counter to weigh and price.
Yeah, part of my duty is to man that counter and entertain your mom. Ok that sounds wrong on so many levels but you get what I mean right? :l
There are MANY DIFFERENT kinds of fruits and vegetables, and each one of them have special codes that we are expected to memorize (even i, as a temporary employee have to do it).
I do remember the more common ones like:

Tomato - 173
Cucumber - 484
Sweet Potato - 838

Ginger - 1082
Banana (Phillipines) - 346

As far as I know, those few are the only ones I've got at the back of my head. I've still yet to get used to the rest.
Yeah, unfortunately I have to handle pork as well. It's not so common for people to buy it and come over to weigh them but there are such instances that take place.
And luckily for me, I'm kind of excused from remembering the codes because like I said, such occurences are pretty rare. Even my superiors have to refer to the sheet most of the time!
One woman actually came by and waited for my superior to return in fear of offending me.
And I thought that was really considerate of her! Those are the kind of customers I love and wouldn't mind serving. Hahah.


So as for the more negative experiences, let me give all of you guidelines on what NOT to do in the supermarket that can potential piss the employees off:
1) Do NOT ask us dumb irrelevant questions like "This banana grow from which farm ah? Under what conditions and where is the main plantation place located at?". Seriously, who effing cares. Bananas are bananas. You eat them, they become shit. That's final.
2) Do NOT ask us the location of certain things when you JUST stepped into the department. Sheesh, have the courtesy and effort to look for them yourselves first can?
3) Do at least say THANK YOU or at least SMILE. If you sour pussy-faced customers expect and emphasize so much on "QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICE", please have the kindness to at least reciprocate/initiate it first. Capiche?
4) Do NOT disarrange our neat fruit masterpieces unnecessarily. If you don't wanna buy them, THEN DON'T TOUCH THEM. It wasn't easy stacking those fruits nicely. Sadly some customers think that it's a fun game of Jenga -.-