Good eyes on the Coke thing. Yes, a lot of places have stupid rules where someone or some two would get in trouble over that.
I've never really seen a wrapping machine that I like. I'm faster than any machine* that I've ever used. I just want a stand to set the meat on with two sizes of film underneath and a heat belt going straight to the scale. Less problems that way.
*of course wholesalers have faster machines, but I can beat any Safeway, Vons, Lucky, Nob Hill machine
You must work with some slow machines. Could you wrap at that pace for say 6-10 solid hours?
Probably not, and if I can, I couldn't do it for 40 hours a week for 30 years. But today most meat depts (that I've seen, except for Costo types) don't have the machine running for 6+ hours a day anyway. You have to pull the case in the morning, you have to do reworks, you have to fill the case, you have to help customers, safety observations, work the freezer, work the wall deli, do paperwork, do temperature checks, fill and display the sanitizer bucket, clean the floor drain and document that you cleaned it, do a bacteria count on the grinder, treat customers like everyone is a secret shopper, etc., etc.
How many cutters are in your shop? Without all the crap I listed above, I bet I could keep up with all of you if all I have to do is wrap.
I'd take your bet if i could.
5 cutters(4 full time and one part time) and myself if i chose to, or have to cut on a certain day. Two full time wrappers, and 4 part time general helpers. We also have a full time seafood manager and 2 part time seafood people that also have product to wrap from time to time .
We (my shop) do all of what you listed above and the wrapper machine does run for 6-10 hours a day depanding on the time of month.
*Just a side note on somthing you have listed above. Treat that customer like they are your mom, dad, or wife. Treat them with respect and kindness not because you think they are a "secret shopper" but because they are the reason you have a job and its the right thing to do.*
-- Edited by number9manager on Tuesday 8th of January 2013 05:16:55 PM
Good eyes on the Coke thing. Yes, a lot of places have stupid rules where someone or some two would get in trouble over that.
I've never really seen a wrapping machine that I like. I'm faster than any machine* that I've ever used. I just want a stand to set the meat on with two sizes of film underneath and a heat belt going straight to the scale. Less problems that way.
*of course wholesalers have faster machines, but I can beat any Safeway, Vons, Lucky, Nob Hill machine
Good eyes on the Coke thing. Yes, a lot of places have stupid rules where someone or some two would get in trouble over that.
I've never really seen a wrapping machine that I like. I'm faster than any machine* that I've ever used. I just want a stand to set the meat on with two sizes of film underneath and a heat belt going straight to the scale. Less problems that way.
*of course wholesalers have faster machines, but I can beat any Safeway, Vons, Lucky, Nob Hill machine
I work in wholesale. The wrapper is a quick... It's a Hobart. It compeletely sucks and who-ever purchased it got hosed something fierce. It wastes stickers galore, throwing them as far as 4 feet from it's intended target, it totally misses stickers branding the conveyer, it eats roasts with alarming regularity, launches trays of burger, won't wrap size 4 trays without snapping them in two, sometimes it randomly decides to get error messages for no apparent reason, it takes forever to change the plastic roll. I estimate it doesn't actually wrap about 1 out of every 4 packages that goes through it. It is exceedingly tedious to clean and is a general health hazard. I don't think it is NEMA rated because you can't get it wet, sometimes when changing the sticker roll you have to turn it off and reboot the whole thing. If I don't set my cube steak packs in there just right it refuses to accept them. I can't wrap anything bigger than a size 9 tray. I reckon it probably destroys up to $100 in meat per day (on the busiest days around the holidays). The auto-wrapper actually kinds of kills margin (I think). It's so damn finicky. I'd rather they just hire someone to wrap taking trays of meat from me while I cut instead of having me roll giant roll-away rack and spend the next 30 minute wrapping everything myself. It doesn't make financial sense but what do I know with my straight A's in college economics.
We had a brand new Hobart hand wrapper (that didn't weeble and wobble) but the regional comformity big-wig manager guy decided that he play power trip and steal it, giving it to our deli. We are using the old hand wrapper again and the plastic never is tight. The old wrapper is all crooked and eats rolls of plastic. It gets good and hot that was the best part of it; it's hot plate was better than the new Hobart hand wrapper. Here, I am expressing my opinion because from all outside appearances it looked like a power-trip. I have not lost respect for the man, he surely knows what he is doing, but honestly, no general wins battles without his sergeants and company grade officers.
I asked (a different fella) the regional manager (personally)... more like told him... that we shold have a vacuum sealer machine (even a cheap one... $400 cheap from Cabelas) so that we can seal extra large roasts (you know the $50 roasts some folks buy) but he quickly retorted, "That would be expensive." No! What is expensive is throwing away $50 dollar roasts that dozens of customers insist they break the packaging so they can feel the meat. I worked in a small shop where we would vacuum seal even chuck-eye steaks... so it can't be that expensive. Actual figures at the time for wrapping meat ($0.13/lbs). We did fine with our margin and we never threw away anything. But that's cool Mr. Regional, I'll continue to explain to you everyweek why we grind filet mignon, culotte cap steaks, and sirloin center steaks everyday... as well as top round london broils, and the ocassional rib-eye and strip steak.
Oh.. and not allowed to have even black coffee even out back, outside of the cutting room, where fork lifts buzz around, next to the trash compactors. Also not allowed to have coffee from the company coffee machine (which is for salary employees only). Generic coffee is $1.06 for 6-oz from the eatery area. I bring my own thermos. Eff-em! At the last shop (the small shop) the inspector didn't mind if we had coffee where cut as long as it was 'away' from the product when we consumed it. We were also allowed to graze. But, we never took breaks and days were 12-hours because simply put, it's less expensive and more efficient to let me throw some salt and pepper on a prime rib-eye or tenderloin carpaccio and let me eat some raw steak, or throw a burger or a grinder together, than it was to have us stop and lose momentum. I miss three and four day work weeks.
-- Edited by JimmyMac on Tuesday 8th of January 2013 07:27:04 PM
self and tell you, I know how OLD you are and in 5 years I want to hear you say that !! LOL and if you do I'm putting my
ON YOU !!
HAVE A GREAT DAY MY FRIEND
By the way, how many vacations you getting this year??
I've been known to be wrong, but not a BS'er. And I hope to be out of the business in about 4 years 11 months (less than 5). I have about 2 ½ years (for golden 85) which is age plus years on the job. When they equal 85, you can retire.
With the exception of those size 25 and maybe 9L (value pack) trays, I am faster. I'll race anyone over a 40 hour week if we can set up two machines side by side. Machines often eat (crush) trays and it takes a long time to open the machine and remove the crushed tray and reset everything. They mess up between the changing of paper size. In a lot of shops, they tell me "just leave it on large for everything"
BTW, we don't have a wrapping machine where I work for the last 10 years. It's all 100% full service. We wrap in paper. But I spent 20 years using mostly hand wrap and some machine. I use machines about 10-15 days per year when I get extra work on days off. They are s-l-o-w and/or problematic. A problematic fast machine equals a slow machine. Machines have problems. Other than my personality, I don't have problems at work.
Good eyes on the Coke thing. Yes, a lot of places have stupid rules where someone or some two would get in trouble over that.
I've never really seen a wrapping machine that I like. I'm faster than any machine* that I've ever used. I just want a stand to set the meat on with two sizes of film underneath and a heat belt going straight to the scale. Less problems that way.
*of course wholesalers have faster machines, but I can beat any Safeway, Vons, Lucky, Nob Hill machine
You must work with some slow machines. Could you wrap at that pace for say 6-10 solid hours?
Good eyes on the Coke thing. Yes, a lot of places have stupid rules where someone or some two would get in trouble over that.
I've never really seen a wrapping machine that I like. I'm faster than any machine* that I've ever used. I just want a stand to set the meat on with two sizes of film underneath and a heat belt going straight to the scale. Less problems that way.
*of course wholesalers have faster machines, but I can beat any Safeway, Vons, Lucky, Nob Hill machine
You must work with some slow machines. Could you wrap at that pace for say 6-10 solid hours?
Probably not, and if I can, I couldn't do it for 40 hours a week for 30 years. But today most meat depts (that I've seen, except for Costo types) don't have the machine running for 6+ hours a day anyway. You have to pull the case in the morning, you have to do reworks, you have to fill the case, you have to help customers, safety observations, work the freezer, work the wall deli, do paperwork, do temperature checks, fill and display the sanitizer bucket, clean the floor drain and document that you cleaned it, do a bacteria count on the grinder, treat customers like everyone is a secret shopper, etc., etc.
How many cutters are in your shop? Without all the crap I listed above, I bet I could keep up with all of you if all I have to do is wrap.
We (my shop) do all of what you listed above and the wrapper machine does run for 6-10 hours a day depanding on the time of month.
*Just a side note on somthing you have listed above. Treat that customer like they are your mom, dad, or wife. Treat them with respect and kindness not because you think they are a "secret shopper" but because they are the reason you have a job and its the right thing to do.*
"depending on the time of the month"? You mean "sometimes", right?
The problem with treating customers like they are your mom, dad, or wife is you would soon be fired if you treated customers like they are your mom, dad, or wife. You'd be fired for not asking them stupid questions.
Secret shoppers are a$$holes and your mom, dad and wife are not. If you want to survive out here at most markets*, you better treat people like they are a secret shopper and not someone you're friends or relatives with. Secret shoppers will rat you out if you don't say hello to every person within 15 feet of you. Secret shoppers will rat out the checker if he/she didn't ask each of the 3 people in line ahead of her/him if they need help out or if they found everything OK, or if they want to donate to breast cancer. The checker may recognize two of those shoppers as regulars who never need help out etc. A person who's sick of the stupid questions. But the secret shopper will report them for not asking and the checker and the manager will be in trouble and the manager won't get his bonus. Secret shoppers will report you for not having a name tag. Your mom wont. Secret shoppers will overhear you not making a serving suggestion for the pig feet you cut for someone and report you for it. Secret shoppers will report you for not smiling. Would your father report you in writing for not smiling?
So, you have to do all these stupid things in fear of being reported. The secret shopper will overhear you not giving your mom (who's the best cook in the world) a serving suggestion. The secret shopper doesn't know who you were talking to. At Safeway, your/my secret shopper reports are probably the most important thing to your/our manager. His/her bonus and job depends on it. If you get him/her in trouble, you better watch out. It's (secret shoppers) a stupid game that detracts from production.
If you're not good with customers, a REAL customer will report you. There's no need for secret shoppers.
*Fortunately we don't have secret shoppers at my company. But I've been shopped at my previous job.
"depending on the time of the month"? LOL you mean "sometimes", right"
LOL. Wrong hotshot. I mean all the time. Sometimes of the month is more (10 hours or so) sometimes less(6 hours or more)
"How many cutters are in your shop? Without all the crap I listed above, I bet I could keep up with all of you if all I have to do is wrap."
I'm just going to say it. "Nope."
I'm not even going to comment on the secret shopper thing anymore and i should have not in the first place. Might be a new thread to start?
Do you have some personal issues in your head that make you call people "hotshot? I'm a very meek humble quite person and in 51 years of life including 35 years of meat cutting you're the first and only person who's called me that. You may call me anything you want, I don't care. I've been called a lot worse. Just wondering. I'm not the only one here you've called that.
I guess its just my thing. I'm sick in the head like that. You know "issues". I'm going to bed now. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow with waiting on the secret shoppers, following and enforcing stupid rules,and praying the wrapper does not break down.
Good eyes on the Coke thing. Yes, a lot of places have stupid rules where someone or some two would get in trouble over that.
I've never really seen a wrapping machine that I like. I'm faster than any machine* that I've ever used. I just want a stand to set the meat on with two sizes of film underneath and a heat belt going straight to the scale. Less problems that way.
*of course wholesalers have faster machines, but I can beat any Safeway, Vons, Lucky, Nob Hill machine
Yep, but you might get tired, sick, or want a day off sometime!
The last independent I worked for, the owner hated automatic wrappers and much preferred the"tighter" hand wrapped look. In one store where I was meat manager we had a Hobart auto-wrapper wth shrink tunnel that came with the store when he bought it.
SO...we went out and bought some 2x4s and some 4x8 paneling and we built a new wall at that end of the meat room where the auto wrapper sat. making the auto wrapper forever invisible to him from that point on. We never used it after that and he never saw it after that.
I doubt anyone here still uses shrink film but if you remember it you have to admit the shrink tunnels on those auto wrappers made great pizza ovens for the crew!
JimmyMac wrote:
Burgermeister wrote:
Good eyes on the Coke thing. Yes, a lot of places have stupid rules where someone or some two would get in trouble over that.
I've never really seen a wrapping machine that I like. I'm faster than any machine* that I've ever used. I just want a stand to set the meat on with two sizes of film underneath and a heat belt going straight to the scale. Less problems that way.
*of course wholesalers have faster machines, but I can beat any Safeway, Vons, Lucky, Nob Hill machine
I work in wholesale. The wrapper is a quick... It's a Hobart. It compeletely sucks and who-ever purchased it got hosed something fierce. It wastes stickers galore, throwing them as far as 4 feet from it's intended target, it totally misses stickers branding the conveyer, it eats roasts with alarming regularity, launches trays of burger, won't wrap size 4 trays without snapping them in two, sometimes it randomly decides to get error messages for no apparent reason, it takes forever to change the plastic roll. I estimate it doesn't actually wrap about 1 out of every 4 packages that goes through it. It is exceedingly tedious to clean and is a general health hazard. I don't think it is NEMA rated because you can't get it wet, sometimes when changing the sticker roll you have to turn it off and reboot the whole thing. If I don't set my cube steak packs in there just right it refuses to accept them. I can't wrap anything bigger than a size 9 tray. I reckon it probably destroys up to $100 in meat per day (on the busiest days around the holidays). The auto-wrapper actually kinds of kills margin (I think). It's so damn finicky. I'd rather they just hire someone to wrap taking trays of meat from me while I cut instead of having me roll giant roll-away rack and spend the next 30 minute wrapping everything myself. It doesn't make financial sense but what do I know with my straight A's in college economics.
We had a brand new Hobart hand wrapper (that didn't weeble and wobble) but the regional comformity big-wig manager guy decided that he play power trip and steal it, giving it to our deli. We are using the old hand wrapper again and the plastic never is tight. The old wrapper is all crooked and eats rolls of plastic. It gets good and hot that was the best part of it; it's hot plate was better than the new Hobart hand wrapper. Here, I am expressing my opinion because from all outside appearances it looked like a power-trip. I have not lost respect for the man, he surely knows what he is doing, but honestly, no general wins battles without his sergeants and company grade officers.
I asked (a different fella) the regional manager (personally)... more like told him... that we shold have a vacuum sealer machine (even a cheap one... $400 cheap from Cabelas) so that we can seal extra large roasts (you know the $50 roasts some folks buy) but he quickly retorted, "That would be expensive." No! What is expensive is throwing away $50 dollar roasts that dozens of customers insist they break the packaging so they can feel the meat. I worked in a small shop where we would vacuum seal even chuck-eye steaks... so it can't be that expensive. Actual figures at the time for wrapping meat ($0.13/lbs). We did fine with our margin and we never threw away anything. But that's cool Mr. Regional, I'll continue to explain to you everyweek why we grind filet mignon, culotte cap steaks, and sirloin center steaks everyday... as well as top round london broils, and the ocassional rib-eye and strip steak.
Oh.. and not allowed to have even black coffee even out back, outside of the cutting room, where fork lifts buzz around, next to the trash compactors. Also not allowed to have coffee from the company coffee machine (which is for salary employees only). Generic coffee is $1.06 for 6-oz from the eatery area. I bring my own thermos. Eff-em! At the last shop (the small shop) the inspector didn't mind if we had coffee where cut as long as it was 'away' from the product when we consumed it. We were also allowed to graze. But, we never took breaks and days were 12-hours because simply put, it's less expensive and more efficient to let me throw some salt and pepper on a prime rib-eye or tenderloin carpaccio and let me eat some raw steak, or throw a burger or a grinder together, than it was to have us stop and lose momentum. I miss three and four day work weeks.
-- Edited by JimmyMac on Tuesday 8th of January 2013 07:27:04 PM
These machines have been around for quite some time- I resisted them early on, because - again, this was to cut hours, cut workers out of a meat department, a good wrapper is a backbone of a meat dept. You start replacing "people" hours, by machines, it's going to affect the whole department- my bosses told me, I was "resistent to change" but, I could see the writing on the wall- machines come in, wrappers go out= no machine can answer the buzzer, give advice to customers, be the "eyes" on the case- but the wrappers always could.
When the company first started pushing them- no matter how well they worked,,,it was chipping away of the hours and the human factor, I had the issue with, funny thing, when they first come out. they always broke down.
I could see the value in huge volume, or wholesale, but not for us at that time,
That is exactly what I talking about. When I learned to wrap it was getting in and wrapping 300 or 400 pounds of burger milk-cow at in one-shabang; obviously paper and plastic. I learned how to do the tray and film thing only in the last few months. I cannot say I am a fan of it. Working a service case is a lot easier sometimes. I did that for a season and we definitely lost much less product.
The auto-wrapper cannot clean itself like a paid human wrapper can. If I were an inspector I would make a b-line for the auto-wrapper and swab it... EVERYTIME... until there were no more auto-wrappers in my territory. I figure all of the intangibles of a human wrapper more than make-up for the long-term expense of having a person in the stead of wires and metal.
