Going To Make A Map!

It's the last day of work this week, and I've got the whole system down-- well, almost the whole system-- the hardest part of the job is still go-backs, naturally. And helping customers is just as hard for the same reason: I still don't know where so many things are! To make matters worse, most of the customers here are fairly intelligent and knowledgeable of Safeway stores, so they almost always ask about the stuff that can't be answered by common sense or even a basic knowledge of the store-- the stuff that really is hard to find, like tofu, wheat germ, and mint leaves.

From the very beginning, I had been planning on creating a blueprint of the entire store, so that I could memorize everything about the store in a week or two, and be done with it. Yesterday I spent hours painstakingly surveying the entire store, literally down the the millimeter (scaled to the millimeter, mind you!) I used my footsteps to measure the store (an ancient, but very effective measurement scheme known as "paces"), and scaled each footstep down to a millimeter using a ruler. I then charted out a map of the main store area using North, South, East, West, NE, NW, SE, and SW measurements. I didn't have a geometry compass, so I manually traced right-angles to compensate. It's a very accurate map, and all things considered, a damn good one!

The whole map, when it's done, will be color and number-coded, the isles labels (i.e. isle 1A and 1B), and have a Legend at the bottom to interpret the whole thing. It's going to be a massive project, and will include the parking lot, the back areas (break room, various freezers/storage/loading areas, etc.), and will tell me absolutely everything there is to know about the store, down to the exact shelf location of every size of every brand of every type of food, product, etc.

The map will also tell me the locations of everything in the produce department, coded by PLU#; this will help me to learn the PLUs for every produce item, which I will need to know to become a food clerk or manager.

I'm completely in the rhythm of things now, and everyone, from management to my peers, really likes me. Hopefully I can maintain the full support and favor of everyone here, so I can quickly move up in the company-- I'm really looking forward to that!

Now that I've completed a draft of the map of Safeway, I'm going to (once I get a scanner, or ask my dad to use his!) scan it to jpg., and once I complete the whole thing, bundle the whole set of images as a pdf for you for your viewing pleasure here.

The Situation: (schedule-wise!)

I went to find out my schedule for next week today; here's what I found out:

* Schedules are not finalized until after 4pm (I found this out from the 2nd Assistant Manager on duty).

* When I came back after 4, I found out the schedules were finalized but wouldn't be posted for another hour (at 5).

* I talked to the Assistant Manager (1st), to get my schedule, and was called into the admin office to discuss the details. He gave me my schedule on a post-it note, and told me about how the courtesy clerk schedule worked:

* The schedule for Safeway courtesy clerks is divided into sweeping (cleaning), carts, and "default" (regular duties such as bagging groceries, helping customers, assisting with getting groceries into the car, and "go-backs" (putting a stray item back where it belongs), represented on the schedule as "S", "C", and "D", respectively. My hours are broken down as these letters dictate.

* There is also an "L" for lunch, but at the Safeway I work at, I'm supposed to ignore that and find out my lunch based on the time given at the beginning of the schedule posted.

Now that I've got that out of the way, I have a few days of until Tuesday, where I do Computer training, and begin my official first day of work (the first day I get paid for).