Healthy Shopper Market meat case

Following that whole Inside Scoop phone call from Scott Wickander, and the controversy over removing dates from products — a charge Corey denied, incidentally — the bosses learned that this wasn’t even necessary. As it turns out, it’s perfectly legal to have expired product in your store. You’re just required to place it in a designated, separate area, and mark it as such. So they go to the trouble of rearranging some things along the back wall at Palmyra, to set up one four foot section for marked down outdates. Yet this proves a short lived experiment because the customers are completely up in arms about it, and they have no choice but to remove the display anyway.

In other developments, Sharon Tolliver, a prematurely white haired lady, is hired in vitamins for Palmyra. She’s somewhat older, but not that old. Certainly not as old as the person she is replacing, Alice, who has moved on to the great medicinal herb department in the sky. Despite the distance she drove and the grumbling, not to mention her advanced age, Alice was insanely dependable, and everyone knew something had to be wrong when she failed to show one day. A short while later, after calling the police up that way to check on her, she was discovered, deceased on her kitchen floor of what is termed natural causes.

Employee turnout is strong for her calling hours and funeral, although many are remarking how lame it is that no management figures whatsoever can trouble themselves enough to attend. Maybe the ones way up top are excused, on account of not knowing her well, or at all, although any reasonable cutoff for this would have to end with Duane. Harry is technically just a grocery merchandiser and is possibly exempt, too, on grounds of not being a superior, also not really knowing her, and having his own very old wife at home to take care of. Nobody seriously expects Pierre to catch a, what, three hour series of bus rides up here, one way, although it’s kind of surprising he missed out on such a golden opportunity to gossip and gab with his coworkers.

No, most of the wrath is limited to Corey, who was her boss for over five years, and is nowhere in sight. It says a lot that people are not necessarily surprised that he doesn’t bother, though still plenty angry, especially considering that random employees from other locations, such as Walnut, do find the time to attend. So the message from up top is summarized as: we expect you to give your left lung to this place, to leave it all on the field; however, should you happen to croak in the line of duty, don’t kid yourself that any of us will care.

Edgar himself was on the fence about whether this was appropriate, whether a family only event or whatever, until learning how many employees planned on making it. He winds up driving his mom and a couple other Palmyra workers. Corey’s no-show is definitely the second hottest topic of the day, sadly enough not too far behind discussions about what a sweet lady Alice was, despite the gruff exterior, her impressive dedication to the Healthy Shopper Market, and how much she will be missed.

Otherwise, it’s business as usual. Chef Mike is fired from the deli, busted for drinking on the job. On his birthday, no less, which is kind of sad, although it’s true that he was celebrating back there by grabbing at least one known six pack directly from the beer aisle. And in his absence, Palmyra decides to make due without any sort of official chef for awhile, considering that they haven’t had much luck on this front.

If only they could find just grounds for dispensing with the meat cutter. Jimmy Ray is wily if nothing else, however, and furthermore seems well aware that he is mostly despised. He revels in this distinction, an ability to frustrate everyone by dancing around any and all potential charges. Nothing conclusive is ever pinned upon him, though flagrantly pushing buttons all day long. Which is bad enough in its own right, but he appears to have also brainwashed his only subordinate over there, Christie’s former mother-in-law Ruth, into the same toxic mindset.

Edgar receives another unforgettable primer on this topic during his next Palmyra visit. He’s within earshot of the deli department and can’t help but overhear every word said. Actually that’s just about true anywhere you would happen to stand in this building. It’s a relatively large store, but sound really projects from that deli for some reason. One reason for this, it occurred to him not so long ago, probably has something to do with some extremely loud overhead fans or compressors or whatever back there. It doesn’t sound that loud from anywhere else, but if you’re standing in the deli, they’re blowing your eardrums out.

So this might explain why customers are frequently complaining they have to shout to get someone’s attention in that department. It also could have something to do with why sound seems to project from back there — it isn’t actually that, but rather that they have to holler at the top of their lungs to hear one another. Like the day this thought popped into his head, Edgar was in the middle of a distant grocery aisle, but could plainly discern another new hire — Andy, the body brought in to replace Chef Mike’s forcibly ejected one — speaking extremely loudly about some past experiences with cocaine, laughing as he recapped the reasons why he had to give it up. And if Edgar could make out every word from where he was, then surely so could every shopper in the store. It could also perhaps provide a valid excuse why they are positively blasting the radio back there often, though maybe not the day former butcher Nick jacked Rage Against The Machine to the ceiling. Regarding today, however, yes he can once again hear everything, but will later have considerable reason to wish he hadn’t.

“Hey, I happened to notice you guys have a bunch of outdated chicken,” he hears his mom tell Ruth. She has apparently brought a few of those packages in with her, and set them on the counter, on her way to the deli side. “I pulled these. You might want to head out there and go through the rest.”

“How many times has Jimmy Ray had to tell you!? Stay out of this department! You don’t belong back here!” Ruth snaps in response.

Most of Edgar’s reactionary impulse can surely be chalked up to defending a family member. However, as he happens to know a little bit about this subject himself, he can’t resist chiming in. From where he’s standing it’s a matter of dipping around the corner to the meat counter, his clipboard full of invoices in hand.

“Actually, she does belong back there,” Edgar tells Ruth. “Where do you think these meat department numbers go?” He holds up his clipboard so she can see it, and fans through the invoices, “I go through these every week, and I can tell you, these are the deli manager’s responsibility. The meat department is underneath the deli.”

By the time he has arrived to deliver this speech, his mom happens to have dipped out of the department momentarily. So the only witness he has is Brian, who is over on the deli side, preparing something for the service case. He looks up once, briefly, but doesn’t say anything, merely returns his attention to his work.

Ruth holds up her hands and shakes her head, grumbles, “I’m not arguing with you.”

“Well, okay,” he shrugs, “I’m just telling you. Meat belongs to the deli. This is her responsibility.”

And walks off, thinking no more of the matter. Until the following afternoon, when Duane calls his office, from Palmyra, and tells him he needs to stop by on his way home. Even so, Edgar isn’t necessarily troubled by this request, up to the point he is ambushed back in Corey’s office.

The illustrious store manager himself is nowhere in sight. Doris the HR lady has commandeered the room for her purposes instead, for a series of depositions concerning yesterday’s events. Edgar was the last participant and/or witness summoned, after even Jimmy Ray, who had no direct involvement with those events whatsoever. And it’s immediately apparent that Edgar’s late arrival might factor heavily against him.

An allegedly highly traumatized Ruth had gone to the phone right after Edgar left yesterday, and called Jimmy Ray to relate this exchange. He in turn had blown this minor incident way out of proportion, and intentionally so, surely, by calling Doris to file a complaint. According to him, his employee no longer feels safe back there in the meat department, and therefore HR must do something about Edgar.

Laying it on even thicker in person today, Ruth holds her hands up and exclaims, “I’m back there by myself and I’m surrounded by knives, I didn’t know what he was gonna do!”

Which is not only taking that minor conversation to extremes, considering they were separated by a service counter, a few feet of floor behind it, and then another table beyond that, on the other side of which stood Ruth, and Edgar’s voice was not in the least bit raised or menacing, nor was its content threatening. But it’s also not true. While Edgar’s mom had unfortunately drifted out of the department seconds earlier, and heard nothing, had very little to offer about the incident, Brian had been back there the entire time. He too has already filed a report, but although conceding that he couldn’t actually hear what was said, he looked up, and judging from body language alone, didn’t think anything about this conversation whatsoever, and paid it no mind.

To Edgar’s thinking, this is a point in his favor, but Doris isn’t hearing it. She is extremely frosty to him from the outset today and doesn’t even ask for his side of the story. He’s not sure what the deal is. Duane gets to speak on his behalf, declaring, “he was just stickin up for his mama!” but Doris has no interest in hearing Edgar’s tale directly. Even though they’ve had no interaction whatsoever in his time with the company, and to his knowledge, he hasn’t had anything even remotely negative in the ledger against him up to this point. Unless counting maybe Corey’s weird decree about not speaking to Zaire? But even so, his reviews have been strong, strong enough that he has maxed out on the six month raise percentages all three occasions thus far.

All Edgar can figure is that maybe it’s some female solidarity thing, and she’s automatically taking Ruth’s side. Or does this have something to do with those x-rated jokes he and Tonya used to email one another, before she sent that blanket email telling a bunch of them to knock it off? If so, then upon looking a little closer, she would see that Tonya went down that road first, Edgar didn’t start that. Or maybe that is the problem. Maybe she’s pissed he had a much younger and prettier young lady sending him naughty messages, that nobody ever sent any to her. Not that any of the above scenarios have anything to do with this episode, but still, people have been known to take attitudes about situation A and apply them to situations B-Z, to every subsequent situation. Even allegedly professional human resources folks are not immune from this mindset.

“We are suspending you for two days, without pay,” Doris robotically drones, staring him down. “You are not to confront anyone ever again, or you will be terminated. Is this understood?”

Oh yes, this is quite clear. For one thing it neatly categorizes this murky debate about whether or not he is a “management” figure. Duane can call him such, and figures ranging from Rob to Harry can act as though he’s supposed to be throwing more weight around, that he has some authority over a bunch of these people and they’re vaguely disappointed or baffled that he’s not throwing more weight around. Meanwhile everybody else is telling him to stay the fuck out of their affairs, and according to this grumpy human resources crone, they were correct in doing so all along.

Squeaky wheel, meet the grease. Nothing whatsoever happens to Jimmy Ray or Ruth. Meanwhile, those who were attempting to remain professional and act in the company’s best interests have been fed into the paper shredder. It’s pretty obvious that Edgar’s mom should have gotten in front of this by continually contacting HR, for multiple incidents with Jimmy Ray, stretching back countless months. That Edgar also should have lodged complaints against the argumentative Beer Hipster for at least two separate incidents, as well as Jimmy Ray, and has now lost the chance to do so.

“Look, don’t let this fester and…turn into something else,” Duane counsels, pulling him aside after Doris has left, and this tribunal has disbanded, “I think you have a really bright future with this company. Let’s just try to forget about this and move on from it.”

Which he appreciates, even if it’s Duane’s future son in law causing all these problems. And truth is, the optimist in him concludes that maybe this isn’t so bad. A couple of unexpected days off in the middle of the week, during which he sure as hell isn’t checking his email or adding new item batches, that’s totally fine. Looking ahead, this gives him not just fuel but expressly stated backing for remaining in his office, head buried in some spreadsheets, and documenting every single conversation via email messages, with all the bosses copied.

And others may have occasion to high five him, as well, in the immediate aftermath. Taking one for the team, so to speak, he is paying his price with two days off, but Ruth quits on the spot during the first of these, this is the last they see of her. Maybe even she realizes she screwed up, and doesn’t want any part of this ongoing war. Now if only somebody — somebody else — could do something about Jimmy Ray.