Day 149 – FoS: Washing Machine & Dryer

I enjoyed working for Reason’s but the only problem I ever really had was the upper levels of management. Not the management in the store but the corporate guys that would come to check in once a month. It was just like anything. Some of them were cool. Others were complete tools. I guess it is neither here nor there. But these are the guys that were in charge of all the executive decisions that got sent down to all the different stores. A couple of years ago, the corporate goons sent down this idea that we were going to do in-house cleaning of things like meat coats, bakery smocks, produce aprons, and all the other uniforms that we used in the store. So they brought up a pretty large washing machine and dryer for us to use.

Yeah. That lasted about a week.

Then we switched over to farming out the cleaning to some new company that signed some contract with Reason’s. Well, they just left the washer and dryer in the store. Now, it was used every once in a while if it rained really hard. Guys would throw their jackets in the dryer every once and again. So thankfully, we have access to a washer and dryer to help us out with our clothes. And we have all kinds of laundry soap available so that is not really an issue.

Note: While they are not the most stylish of apparel, the jackets that are provided for the produce and bakery are pretty rough and tumble. The fabric is thick and designed for a work environment so they make for nice things to wear while we are working around the store.

Thankfully, Yulonda was thinking ahead when all this went down and she brought over fresh socks and underwear. The sortie teams have been pretty smart with a lot of the houses that have been close. A prime target was the apartments right across the street. Once those apartments were swept and cleared, they started looting things out of season like heavy winter coats and extra blankets.

I know in all the zombie movies, the people are always gross and their clothes are filthy. I know it is done for dramatic effect in those films. It is just not accurate with us. If you are imagining us wearing the same clothes day in and day out, that is just not the case. With Langley wiped out so quickly, there are more clothes hanging in closets than we can wear. The tough part is humping them back to the store and getting it inside. You don’t realize how much space clothes take up until you try to stuff five full outfits in a backpack. Now multiply that times 30 survivors… But we have managed.

Thankfully, we are lucky enough that we have a pretty nice washer and dryer to help us keep clean. And everyone has several changes of clothes to wear. It goes back to that whole thing of it is the end of the world but at least we smell good and clean…