Last night was my first night working for Giant Eagle. Nervous about how it would go, last night/early this morning felt like nothing at all. In fact I think I picked up where I left off.
Before I talk about my first night on the job, let me enlighten you all with a little backstory on why it went very well.
I worked for Giant Eagle briefly about three years ago because I wasn’t happy with the way things were going at WIS. I didn’t like the bullshit Target special projects we were doing; our office had less than twenty people in it; and I gave in to speculation that Target was going to be horrible when we would get the account back in 2019.
I got a call from the Eastgate Giant Eagle in November of 2018 and took the job when they hired me. I went through orientation a few weeks later and worked my first night on Dec. 15 (coincidentally my ten year anniversary with WIS). At the suggestion of my dad, he told me not to give up WIS in case Giant Eagle didn’t work out. I worked three days at Giant Eagle and two days at WIS. That would turn out to be the deathknell of my short lived Giant Eagle career.
Working overnight at Giant Eagle and daylight at WIS just wasn’t going to work out. On my end, it really meant no days off in between jobs. On their end it was hard to schedule me with the other job. With a gap in between days, it was too hard to learn my new job when I was already ten years into working at WIS. A month into it, I told my boss at WIS I was coming back. That turned out to be a good thing as they got a driver back, I was able to take part in Toastmasters events, and that Fall saw me find new interests that made me who I am today.
The changes made this year as WIS bought RGIS have not been in my favor. Therefore, I was ready to make a change. I applied at Giant Eagle and Goodwill and thought of Target, Walmart, and Excela as other options. From the looks of it, most people are bailing out of WIS so it’s not just me.
Last night I got right to work and met some of my new coworkers. Ian (the HR representative who trained me) told me I was going to enjoy working with the night crew and he didn’t disappoint. The team was really awesome and they made my first night go really smooth and I’m thankful for that.
I started on paper products and that went really quick. From there it was onto pet food. Hardest part of that is putting away the little cans of Fancy Feast. Easiest part is putting away the big bags of dog food that weigh 20-30 pounds. That’ll give your muscles a workout for sure. I took my first break around Midnight. When we finish a section, we need to block it to make it look good for customers when they shop.
We put away juice, coffee, and some baking products and blocked the other aisles and then it was onto the biggest job of the night, stocking the dairy aisles. One thing I learned about dairy is that you need to rotate it all the time. Check the dates, especially on milk and cheese. While we put away dairy, another guy was putting away the frozen aisles. That’ll be my next task I’m sure.
After the meal which we usually take around 3am, the rest of the night usually goes fast. We stocked the aisles from the other vendor (UNFI). They have a warehouse out in New Stanton near our WIS office. How can you tell if it’s UNFI? Check the labels. If it’s blue, it’s Giant Eagle. If it’s orange, it’s UNFI. Yellow means it’ll be a separate vendor (Frito Lay, Pepsi, Coke). We finished all of UNFI around 6am and wrapped up with some Health and Beauty. Overall my first night was good. Hopefully I won’t hear of anything bad we did when I get there tonight.
I even got my Giant Eagle mask last night. Does this mask make me look legit?
Stylish 🍒 