"Tales of a Scorched Coffee Pot" - Chapter 115

It isn't all bad, however. Unfriendly HR is blessedly the next to turn in her notice, which means Jose Dominguez is now the lone human resources person for Bellwether's Chesboro office and WSM both. While he still seems over his head and possibly scooped up from the discount bin – a longstanding company tradition! - there's no way that dealing with Jose could ever possibly be any more unpleasant than interactions with her. She probably had her fan base, to be sure, just like anyone else, but if so then Vicky and Edgar and most of the people who get it around here were not found among them.

???????????But then there's Chef Mike. Even though Central has finally gotten around to hiring a full time meat cutter, their longtime deli manager decides to move on anyway. Ever since they gave him a second chance, he's been crushing it, and is surely the best rehire Edgar's seen during his own employment here. They established a really good rapport along the way, too, and a decidedly singular method for entering recipes into the system. Despite pulling double duty as chef and butcher here, Mike was also working part time at?a music shop nearby, Revitalized Records. Anytime Edgar saw this number pop up on his desktop caller ID, he would answer, because it meant that Mike was calling with another recipe. Which he would recite over the phone, ingredient by ingredient, so that it would be available for use the next time he worked.

???????????Contrast this against Palmyra, which remains nearly as chaotic as ever. It isn't deli manager Josey's doing, because she is in fact very organized and also good at planning ahead. But the other employees, as has been the case all along, even with a constant churn of bodies, remain loosely planted all over the map. They are continually emailing him recipes for concoctions they've already made, hoping he can add it “right away,” and in some instances even go as far as – while again a very Palmyra-esque tendency, oddly enough, somehow, even though they've swapped out countless people over the years – popping something into the oven, then harping on him to add it before it comes out. In the ScaleMaster era, this was often flat impossible, if for example the upstairs computer at Palmyra was tied up, as it frequently was, by someone checking email or making out a schedule or whatever. Yet even after they've gotten rid of ScaleMaster in favor of this Recipe Boss, a program that works remotely from his own computer, he's not exactly in the habit of dancing to their music the instant they snap their fingers. His attitude on this is that, if you're going to be this disorganized, even after I've discussed this multiple times with you, then you're going to have to wait for your turn in the line. Barring a true emergency, these requests will be processed in the order they are received.

???????????So it sucks that Mike is moving on. Even though his own methods were a bit idiosyncratic, at least he was planning in advance, and therefore Edgar was more than happy to work with him. He also consistently pulled a strong margin and cranked out solid, ever evolving fare. Naturally, this departure is handled in what is increasingly becoming the WSM way, i.e. they decide to bring Josey Greenberg down to run Central instead. They apparently consider Palmyra to have the stronger staff of the two, and promote her longest tenured backup, whoever that might be, to running the show up there instead. Josey lives halfway between the stores, though, and doesn't care either way, does seem somewhat excited about this fresh challenge. And as far as Edgar's concerned, she's one of the few true allies remaining, and he's definitely not complaining about her presence there, instead of some random outsider.

???????????Things are getting hostile enough as it is. For the third time in as many months, Don emails Edgar and copies all the important people, plus Vince, saying he thought Edgar was fixing that PLU machine in bulk and asking what is taking him so long. He calmly replies in exactly the same fashion as the other two occasions, but isn't sure how much longer he can continue to be polite over this really dumb and relatively unimportant issue.

???????????They've even begun attacking their own, to some extent. To this point those who get it have maintained an extremely unified front, up until Park puts in his two weeks' notice next. After which this tight lipped and extremely mild mannered figure surprises many by openly declaring he's tired of dealing with Dale. This is maybe not completely unheard of, as the veteran vitamins merchandiser got into some hot water right around the same time Edgar did, years earlier, and was reprimanded over the tone of his emails. That people were complaining he was way too blunt, and he needed to watch it. But Edgar can honestly say in this entire time, nearly a decade at this point, that he hasn't had any problems with Dale.

???????????Whatever the case, though, it's a massive relief when Park is persuaded to change his mind, and decides to stick around after all. Edgar really cannot even bring himself to consider what a house of horrors this place might turn into without that dude around. Park does awesome work and is extremely reliable, sure, yet that's only half the equation, sadly enough. The other half is picturing waves upon waves of homemade “sale” signs, like ye olden days, except made by an even crazier and more disjointed crew. With the attendant complaints to Edgar that the vast majority of them were “not working.”

???????????Not that any of these developments register as more than a blip, in the moment. The relentless onslaught of activity continues flying in from every side – and some of it is even legitimately business related! Executed with little fanfare, known only really at this point to Todd, Felix, and Edgar, RU Data is for all intents and purposes already live, behind the scenes. With barely a month to go before the Hupp POS is installed, this move made the most sense, much more than a mad scramble trying to get both up and running at the same time. All Matt Abernathy had to do, really, was map Edgar's most common CSV formats – basically, one for new items and one for updates – so that he didn't have to change anything. While continuing to operate the same as always in Slingshot, Edgar now also connects into a remote server Matt has given him access to, and uploads the same files to RU Data, every time. They were never able to figure out a seamless feed from Slingshot to RU Data, but by adding the entire product database, and setting up the various discounts, vendor names, employee names, and anything else required, as long as Edgar updates everything in both places, then it will work just about the same.

???????????Considering that Slingshot is eventually going away, they will need another tag generating scheme in place, and Todd has already gotten the ball rolling on this as well. Surprisingly enough (or perhaps not), RU Data doesn't have its own shelf tag process, or if it does, it is apparently not modifiable enough for Todd's tastes. He has reached out to a company he's worked with before, called HSX, which has some sort of interface that is compatible with RU Data. Todd and Edgar also worked together on a relatively simple project of picking out four shelf tag sizes that they think might work, and had HSX ship them a case of each. These they intend to take around to the stores on a trial run, to show the other employees and attempt to reach a consensus on regarding what everyone thinks will work best.

???????????That's all well and good, and might work out better than what they're currently doing, who can say. One other thing that is legitimately astounding, however, so astounding it has somehow not come up before, is to learn that RU Data has no capability whatsoever for dealing with any kind of customer loyalty program. None at all. While various cashiers and store managers are rejoicing in the streets, and they've stopped giving out new loyalty program cards, it also makes basically no sense whatsoever. To throw in the towel after a year of this, considering that Todd's first order of business, upon arriving here, was to make a big stink – and a correct one, in Edgar's estimation – about all the buddy rings and other assorted hookups that were surely going down, when people could just hit a button on a register to receive a 10 or 20% discount. It's true that nothing whatsoever was ever done with targeted marketing or the theoretical accumulated points displayed at the bottom of every receipt, more lost opportunities. Todd's explanation now is that the discount situation “will be closely monitored” and therefore he's not worried about giving their loyalty program a heave-ho.

???????????Given all this, Edgar can't help but wonder if Todd is really saving money with RU Data, as he has alleged. That day Todd was in a near panic insisting they needed to cut out Slingshot right that second, this was another of those flashing arrow moments. It was when the thought first occurred to Edgar, that Todd must have executed some masterful negotiation if the combined packages of Hupp and RU Data were costing less than Slingshot. And now it's gone one level higher, considering you have to squeeze HSX into that side of the equation as well. Meanwhile, they would need to add still another piece down the road, a loyalty program interface, to truly replicate Slingshot's capabilities. And this is without even getting into the far more troubling concept of product ordering, which Matt and the RU Data clan still haven't delivered.

???????????So yeah, he's already thinking this when a longtime frozen and dairy rep named?Rodney drifts into his office one day. Rodney has been servicing their stores for years, representing a line of products that Universal and Harmony Hill both carry, and is one of these blessedly rare senior guys who is quite on top of things, knows what's going on and is quite adept with technology to boot, about as mythical a creature as a leprechaun. So much so that whenever a brand new product line is created – meaning that it's not just new to Wholesome Shopper Market, it's a brand new product, period – he will often bring the paperwork into Edgar's office and drop it off, so he can get a head start on adding the product. In all this time, Rodney and that one beer rep from Triumph Distributing, Larry, who continues doing the same, are the only two on the ball enough to take this extra step. Yes, they have a vested interest in doing so, but that's the whole point. This is the way that harmonious, mutually beneficial business strategies are supposed to flow. So what if these aren't perfectly executed new item spreadsheets – much like those phone calls from Chef Mike, with his forthcoming recipes, it meant getting ahead of the game, and was therefore a justified exception.

???????????“I heard you guys are going with RU Data,” Rodney says to him, dropping off some info on a new line of microwaveable frozen entrees.

???????????“Yeah,” Edgar confirms, nodding from behind his tiny desk.

???????????“Oh yeah?” Rodney asks and chuckles. “What brought that on?”

???????????Shrugging with one shoulder, Edgar says, “I don't know. Todd says Slingshot was costing us too much money. But I'm sure it will be fine.”

???????????“Yeah...I would be surprised if RU Data was cheaper than Slingshot, though.”

???????????Now it's Edgar's turn to laugh as he says, “really?”

???????????“Oh yes. I would be very, very surprised if that turned out to be the case,” Rodney concludes.

???????????Maybe there's a confirmation bias in play here, sure, Edgar just latching onto this angle because he wants to believe it's true. Yet at the same time, you can't just chalk everything up to zany coincidence, all the time. He'd already been thinking this might be true, common sense seems to indicate that it should be true, and not only that, but are they really trusting Todd's assessment with the cost and/or validity of anything, at this point? To say that his perspectives are quite often askew would be to suggest that they are visible in the first place. This is decidedly not the case. But, who knows, maybe this whole bit about RU Data being cheaper than Slingshot, maybe that was just something Todd had to say to sell this concept to Rob. Maybe the whole reason behind this switch – and Todd has definitely advanced this notion as well, true – is that he's so convinced that RU Data is such a robust program that they had to have it. And therefore he doesn't actually care about the cost. Time will soon sort this one out, Edgar supposes.

???????????Except then they are forced to consider some of Todd's other, far wackier expense cutting measures – which would again imply some sort of budget related panic. The most recent of these is demanding that they all switch to using Slack for their work related messaging, immediately. Because he intends to shut down their email service.

???????????Email is costing me too much money and I'm cutting it out. Effectively immediately everyone needs to move over to Slack. No exceptions.

???????????Elsewhere, it's hard to say what category Marla's hiring should be slotted into. While on one hand this might have been something she came up with on her own, it's hard to imagine that this is so. That Todd's wife would just wake up one day and decide to become a rep for Universal Foods. And while for all intent purposes she doesn't technically work here, and they don't answer to her...she is after all the boss's wife, which means they pretty much must answer to her.

???????????This situation is problematic from the outset. She is coming into this industry from a completely different background, which means she knows nothing about her new retail gig whatsoever. A fact she will remind them of quite often. Because as she's hired into some entry level grunt role – working for their longtime Universal liaison, Roberta, a really sweet, somewhat older lady who is tremendously organized and does a great job, a step or two below Corey Brown, if he's even still with that company – on one hand she is constantly grousing that she was just thrust into this role and wasn't given any training whatsoever, therefore doesn't know what she's doing, and everyone should pity her accordingly. The rest of the time, however, she's throwing an absolute fit if things are not done her way, and going to Todd with her beefs. Despite being the new hire who admittedly has no idea what she's doing.

???????????But of course, the mother of all kooky schemes might be Todd's purported Indian Lake megaplex. It's rather unfortunate that he already paid for the chesborohealthyfoodhub.com name, because that deal is now dead in the water. But hey, maybe he can flip the domain, which is sure to be a hot commodity on the open market. Or perhaps he may still put it to use.

???????????Regarding Indian Lake, however, with Todd understandably tight-lipped on the topic, rumors of a highly believable sort abound. That Rob had green lighted the original concept, in its infancy, but Todd's proposal kept getting more and more outrageous, and he eventually had to pull the plug on funding any of this. Also that Indian Lake officials informed Todd that he must have misunderstood them, because they had no intentions of installing a new traffic light on his behalf. Todd himself has given the employees nothing much beyond a terse soundbite, however.

???????????“That deal fell through, okay? It fell through.”