"jmcquown" > wrote in message
...
> On 2/4/2013 10:41 AM, Julie Bove wrote:
>> I did have to fill in at the deli when I worked at K Mart. Not quite
>> restaurant work and I can say that I did not like it. The Icee machine
>> liked to spew sticky stuff on me and I hated scooping the ice cream.
>> Luckily that wasn't something I did very often.
>>
> I never saw a KMart with a "deli", much less an ice cream parlor. Guess
> I've been shielded.
>
Originally they had good popcorn, a hot machine that held things that were
frozen and heated in the cafeteria. They were kept in a warmer there. They
looked like burritos but were called Taco Snacks and Pizza Snacks. The
problem? They looked alike and you couldn't tell which was which until you
bit into them. I liked the Taco but not the Pizza so much. You had to pay
attention when heating and then make sure you told the person who put them
in the case which was which or they'd get mixed up. There were also hot
pretzels but I think they may have been in one of those rotating cases with
hooks on it. We had probably a dozen or so kinds of hard ice cream. And
the Icee machine. Two flavors. Sometimes Icee Bear would come in. This
was someone dressed in a big white bear suit with a red T Shirt on. Kids
loved Icee Bear!

There was a deli case that held a red glazed ham. We discovered that the
night crew had been stealing the ham so every night it had to be reglazed so
that we could tell for sure. I think they eventually hooked up a security
cam there. The sandwiches sold were ham or ham and cheese. Very tiny
amount of ham shave paper thin on one of those huge slicers that caused more
than one employee to have to to the ER for stitches. Thankfully I never had
to use it. There was also a slice of American cheese and a little lettuce
which was also shredded on that machine. Then there were subs and super
subs. I didn't like these so don't remember the difference. I know the
super one was different but not sure if it had some other kind of meat in
addition to the ham. Both had the lettuce, very thinly sliced tomatoes,
onions and mustard. The small ham sandwiches may have had mustard too.
Those were on cheap hamburger buns. These sandwiches were made up many at a
time and put in plastic bags. They changed them out just prior to dinner
time and at that time, any leftovers would be sold for cheap. I mean really
cheap. Like 25 cents. I can't remember the prices now but I do know if you
bought more than one you got a discount. Once in a while I'd buy cheap
Super Subs when I worked the late shift and I'd bring them to my dad. He
liked them.

For some reason they didn't keep the hot snacks or pretzels for very long.
And eventually the good popcorn was replaced with a machine called Air Popt.
That popcorn was like eating salted straw. We got a lot of complaints about
that.

We also had the cafeteria and depending on who the manager was, the food
could be passable to very good. For many years when I worked there we had a
woman named Mary who ran it and she was a very good cook. Yes, the
vegetables came canned and a lot of seniors ate there but... She bent the
rules a lot and put things on the menu that did not come from headquarters
and made things that she wasn't supposed to.

At some point they did away with the mashed potatoes on the steam table and
brought in a machine that made them on the spot. It pooped them out into a
little cup that had a pink bladder in it. When the cup was turned upside
down, it would deposit them onto the place in a rounded scoop shape. The
pink bladder part looked pretty creepy and people didn't want to see it.

We had several kinds of soft drinks, including one machine that shot the
liquids up and sprayed them back down. Those drinks varied but they were
always fruit flavored. There was a big stainless steel iced tea dispenser
and I learned not to get that after a clump of mold came out into my cup.
They didn't clean that very often. And once, some high school kids called
snickering and said they were going to poison us. They had put Pointsettia
leaves in the tea. And they had! We had a high school right behind us and
we frequently had trouble with those kids.

We had a little salad bar and there were little side dishes of things like
cottage cheese, boiled eggs (dyed and in the shell for Easter), pudding, all
kinds of pie. We sold various ice cream dishes and at one point there were
balloons. If you ordered a banana split, you got a balloon, popped it and
it would tell you inside what you would have to pay. Sometimes they were
free.

One of the best desserts they had was the apple dumplings. They came
frozen. Whole peeled and cored apple in pastry and heated in a pan with
sticky cinnamon syrup. Then smothered in vanilla sauce with a cherry on
top. They also served bread pudding which my friend with the bad teeth and
the seniors all seemed to love. It was made from scratch. They served
breakfast too.

At some point not long before I retired from there, the rats took over.
We'd had severe trouble with rats and cockroaches. They had been a slight
problem for years, perhaps because there were woods behind the store but...
A little Asian place had opened in that strip mall and the owners fled. We
had no clue where they went and they left food in there. The rats got in
and then ran out of food so come over to our store through the suspended
ceiling. Sometimes when they ran up there it sounded like a herd of
elephants. Sometimes they ran around during the day and customers saw them.
I hated this because at the time I was in charge of the food department.
When I went into the back room, I'd bang on the metal parts of the shelving
units with a big stick to scare them off. Some were as big as house cats.
We lost a lot of food due to those rats!

Some of the employees called the health department and they were constantly
in there. The cafeteria employees spoke to the rest of the employees and
told us what few specific items were safe for us to eat but said most things
were not because they couldn't protect them from the rats and roaches. I
stopped eating in there.

Both the cafeteria and deli were closed not long after I left and they had
no food for a while. Them they opened the K-Cafe which is still there but
rarely ever open. People didn't want to work there becase it too had rats.
They'd see a rat then quit. My friend told me if I ever went back in there
not to get any food or drinks from it because not only were there rats but
people were getting food poisoning from the tuna sandwiches. I don't know
what all they sold there but she told me it was a very limited menu and few
people ever bought food there.

Some of the K Marts had Furr's cafeterias and according to my parents these
were very good. They may not have been in the store proper but next door.
I did see one once but I can't remember what state it was in. My mom loved
them because the had fried okra and she said it was very good. I think
these were mainly in the Midwest. I think they are all closed now.

>> Just got an e-mail from a former coworker that said all K Marts and Sears
>> will be closing at some point during the next 3 years. They simply won't
>> renew the lease. My former store is closing in March. I sure hope I can
>> still get my pension! Looks like I am going to have to try to get it
>> early
>> which wasn't what I wanted to do. Now it makes me wish I had taken that
>> buy
>> out that they offered me a couple of months ago. But it's too late for
>> that
>> now!
>>
> If you're convinced of this then please check into the pension situaton
> *now*. It's not something to daudle about.

I am too young to get it now. I think I can get it at age 55. I just read
the link that he posted. I will post it here. But unless he knows
something additional that I don't know, it looks to me like they are only
planning to close a lot of stores. Not all of them. But he did mention
something about the district manager so it could be that he *does* know some
kind of insider information. I'm a tad worried about some of my appliances
too. I just got a recall on my LG washer and it came from Sears. I have to
call repair on that. Here's the link:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/eight-...173320796.html