Day 72 – FoS: Department Report – Dairy

Dairy Department: Cooler & Shelf Space Designated in Light Blue

The Dairy Department was an area that we identified as a problem right off the bat. With the exception of the leafy perishable items in the Produce, no other department was more susceptible to spoilage because of dates going bad. Also the display coolers on the sales floor were rife with energy inefficiency and had potential for breakdowns. The actual Dairy Cooler as you can see identified on the map is actually pretty darn solid. So we worked very hard to consume the shortest dated items in the department first (yogurts, eggs, certain juices, etc.) and we also tried to empty out the shelves on the sales floor (moving a lot of items into the Dairy Cooler) so that we could shut the cooling systems down on the sales floor. Again, this is done in the event of a Freon leak compromising the whole refrigeration system.

While we have Joe who has expertise with heating and cooling, his expertise is really in the residential aspect. I’ve seen him poking around in the Machine Room to keep an eye on things but that place is so loud, dusty, and dirty, no one goes in there unless there is something wrong. And to date, knock wood, nothing has gone wrong.

But back to the Dairy, certain longer lasting items (like teas, cheeses, certain juices) were all carefully stacked by date to ensure the latest dated stuff was consumed last. Rotation is so critical in a dairy department so we put almost everyone to task on this back during the first week of the lockdown. It sounds pretty daunting except when you realize that twenty people working together can accomplish quite a bit.

Creamers were doled out for coffee. Yogurt and eggs were eaten every breakfast. I think everyone knew that if we didn’t eat it, we were going to lose it. Let’s face it, in the case of Dairy, time is the enemy. So this was one of the areas that we really pigged out on. No one complained if someone helped themselves to an extra serving of chocolate milk or any item that had a short date. 

As you can see, it took me seventy-two days and ten different “Fortress of Solitude” entries to finally get around to the Dairy Department. As it stand right now, the sales floor section of the department is pretty much shut down and empty. The shelving has all be cannibalized and worked towards barricading the windows since that was the first department to really empty out.

With the Meat Department being relegated to the communal shower area and the Produce Department transformed into the QZ, all the back stock from those departments and the back stock from the Dairy have all been put in the dairy cooler. So things are fairly cramped but, thankfully, we have access to a couple hundred milk crates which make it very easy to stack and store a variety of items. 

We have placed a couple stacks of milk in the freezer but I have serious doubts that frozen milk will be palatable once thawed. So, as you can see, the Dairy Department is one of our busiest sections now but come February, I think it is going to be a pretty empty section of the store…