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| Fortress of Solitude: Produce Department highlighted in green. |
From the very beginning of this whole
chaotic ordeal, we knew that certain areas and certain departments were on a
ticking clock. Out of all of these, none was more vulnerable than the Produce
Department. See, here is the thing.
What many people do not understand is that
a store like ours received three trucks per week (on Monday, Wednesday and
Friday) and then we would receive a half truck on Saturday. Rotation in a
department like Produce is essential for success and very little in our
department was on the shelf for more than a week before it was either sold or
thrown out. Obviously, some product holds up better than others. Apples, any
citrus, and certain heartier vegetables like carrots and onions can last
months. Anything leafy or frail like iceberg lettuce, romaine, or red leaf was
gone in a week. We did our best to eat the perishable items first. All those
close dated juices that are only good for a month? We were drinking those
first. Granted, nothing was thrown out on its expiration date like when the
store was operating but with 20 people consuming them, they didn’t last. And yes,
conservation is important for us with things like canned vegetables and fruits
but on these items where it is basically eat them or they spoil, we treated
ourselves.
Certain canned fruit like Del Monte
pineapple in glass jars have a shelf life of over a year. Those were quickly
transferred to the dairy cooler. Sharon led the offensive when it came to
canning but Aisle 5A only had so much canning supplies on hand. We ran out of
jars and lids before we ran out of product. Our #1 seller in the department –
bananas – went spotty and black before we could eat them all. I know that
sounds horrible but the shelf holds nine cases and we had eighteen cases in
back stock. That is over 1,000 pounds of bananas. There was no way we were
eating them all. It was just impossible. So a lot got tossed down the
compactor. Lettuce was gone in a week.
Tomatoes went quick. Without those supply trucks rolling in every other
day, the department thinned out quickly.
Sure, things like peanuts, the fruit cups,
and dried fruit will last way past our Year One plan but the department was
easily emptied. Here on Day 58, the department is all but closed.
We transferred as much back stock (apples,
citrus, etc.) to the dairy cooler as possible and then Tommy unhooked and shut
down the produce cooler and the department cases. The last thing we wanted was
to have a Freon leak bleed out all the coolant. Plus it will limit the amount
of generator juice we need to spend to keep the store running when the power
goes out.
We rolled the produce display tables that
were originally in the center of the department back into the Produce Prep Room
for storage and so we have this wide open area now. The biggest debate was what
to with this sudden wide open space that you can see on the map. So we turned
it into our dining hall so we could all eat together.
