Last summer I worked at Red Lobster and wrote a "what I learned" blog post about that and then I have written one about my full time job as a teacher. This summer, I worked as a cashier and then a stand lead for over 100 baseball games. This is what I learned.
1. People go crazy for a sale. On dollar Thursdays, 3 times as many people would show up just to eat hot dogs for $1. I saw people order 12 hotdogs for just 2 people. I saw groups of people fight over hot dogs when I brought out a fresh batch. The last Thursday I worked, I scooped popcorn into dollar bags non-stop for a whole hour and never had more than one unsold bag sitting on the counter at a time. It's pure madness. Yesterday, it wasn't our usual sale, but we were selling Skittles for half price. That is $2 instead of the ridiculous $4 it starts out as (more on that in #2). People were going crazy over Skittles, usually our least popular item.
2. The prices are ridiculous...and we know it. Selling regular size candy that is probably 75 cents at a convenience store for $4 is just plain wrong. But I blame the crazy customers that fork over that amount of cash more than the managers at the ballpark. If I wasn't working there and getting one free meal per day, I wouldn't be buying much of anything. One scoop of Dip N' Dots for $7? No thanks. One time, a new substitute manager came in and asked me what the best food in the park was. I recommended our barbecue nachos and mentioned they were the best deal too (most food for your money). Later, he came back and told me I was right and they would have to up the price next year. He's right, people will buy it for even more than $9.
3. There is a big difference between French fries and waffle fries. I am not a big fry person myself, but I now know that these things can stir up some big emotions. We changed our type of fries a few times in the year and got big reactions. One guy dumped a whole basket of waffle fries on the ground in front of me and asked for my manager when I told him those were the only kind we had. Evidently they weren't "French fries" as we advertised. Another guy yelled at me because he "came to the game assuming he'd get waffle fries and now he didn't want to be here anymore." No joke.
4. I learned to work with all kinds of people. Not just unhappy customers, but also employees of all kinds. As a stand lead, I knew my job would be completely different every night depending on my crew. Some people handle high stress situations very well. Some have complete meltdowns. Some people are super organized and clean. Others will trash the place before the end of the night. Some need lots and lots of direction and some want to do it on their own (or tell you how to do it). I do think I learned a lot about managing all of these personalities and hopefully this will help me in ventures later in my life.
5. We throw out a lot of food. It was super unfortunate. My job as a lead was to keep an eye on inventory and make sure there wasn't too much waste or that we didn't run out, but sometimes you can't predict these things. There were a few days in which I personally dumped a full pan of hot dogs into the trash. I offered them to everyone I knew first, trust me, but leftover hot dogs aren't the most appealing item.
6. I am so sick of Fairbury hot dogs, Colby Ridge popcorn, nachos, pretzels, and chicken tenders that I think I'll go a year without eating any of them.
7. I learned to stand up for myself. I'm not very good at telling people when I'm upset or when I need something, but this year I spoke up for myself and was able to get a raise out of the deal.
Did I work way too much this summer? Yes. But I made some money for student loans and learned some lessons along the way.
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