It's not a summer at Bakers without a trip to the cooler...

So,
Looks like it's been more than two weeks since my last entry. That's pretty pathetic. Oh well, this entry should help to make up for my absence.

Today was super hot and super humid. Seriously. It was like 95 and with 80% humidity the heat index was in the triple digits. We weren't especially busy which was nice, but at the same time it wasn't since the first half of my shift just crawled by. We did a great job keeping most of the carts in, it was just too hot to have people getting lots of carts later on so I insisted that the baggers pull their best "used car salesman"to make sure that they went outside every time, regardless of whether or not the customer wanted help or not.

Additionally, I was informed when we got there that the weather was only going to get worse later on during the shift, mainly the hot, muggy day was going to produce nasty thunderstorms later on. By mid-afternoon, it was so hot that one of the condensers broke down, which meant that the huge cooler-display cases that the deli uses for all of the pre-made salads, etc. had to be taken out since they weren't getting cooled.

The heat kept most of the customers away, although we weren't dead we weren't busy by any means. I sent two people home early as the flow remained steady during our normal busy period from 5-7. However, the boring day was going to get really shaken up.

Right around 7:15, the sky turned black and it started pouring. I took my lunch right around 6 and watched the weather the entire time. The storm didn't look too bad during the news cast, we were in just a Severe Thunderstorm Warning which here in Nebraska is nothing to be afraid about. However, things went from bad to worse at 7. The rain came and the wind gusts increased to nearly 70 miles an hour. Suddenly, I heard the sirens...

Now at Bakers when the sirens go off, by law we have to stop everything immediately and go back to the dairy/produce cooler. Even if the transaction is almost done and we just need them to sign their check, we can't. The tills lock, and the registers go blank. We're done, no questions asked.

Customers are allowed to stay or come back with us and once we all got in to the cooler there were about 30 customers who had decided to stay with us and not brave the storm. We got some jackets for people to wear, it's not freezing in there but it's probably cold around 50ish degrees. If you're only wearing a t-shirt and shorts, it's frigid.

I've been back to the cooler several times in my 5 years at Bakers and honestly it's kind of fun and it never gets old. It's just not a summer home without a trip back there. This time though everyone remained pretty calm. We knew that there wouldn't be a tornado, they just blew the sirens because the winds were getting so out of control. We hunkered back down there for about half an hour and then we were free to go.

There were countless abandoned carts in the store, some filled with groceries. We pushed those back to the coolers, they'd be re-stocked later. And then it was back to business as usual..

Just a day in the life in Nebraska.