The first couple of days were going to be tough. Bakery boy and I worked the first shift together, splitting all of the work in half and making everything go by faster, so we had a lot of free time on our hands.
As Bakery Boy and I began to have separate shifts, I had to figure out how to do my part in the time I was given.
When working the 8am-5pm shifts, I was out of there earlier. I had to start with bagging the French bread, baguettes (sourdough, whole-grain, French), and the La Brea. The La Brea gave me tons of things that I needed to know and memorize.
The prices on each of the La Brea were $5.99, but the Country White Sourdough and the Garlic were always $4.99. At the end of the many different types of bread, there was also the Artisan Bread. There were five types. There was the Kalamata Olive, the Asiago, the Como, the Pugliese, and the Hearty Grain. All of them were $3.99.
Along with memorizing all of these prices and learning how long they were fresh for, I had to memorize their names in order to label them correctly.
I had to make notes in my head to remember how many of which type (or I could've just written it down).
On the labeling screen, there were many different sections. There was Bread/Rolls, Breakfast, Cakes, Cookies, Brownies, Tres Leches, and many others. The main ones that I used were: Breakfast, Bread/Rolls, and Cookies.
Being the Bakery Clerk meant that I was just constantly packaging and labeling whatever the Baker baked.
The Baker was always there at 3:30 or 4am. He would always make the fresh bagels for the eager and demanding customers who were always obsessed with the bolillos or the energy bagels. I didn't know why they were obsessed until I tried the energy bagels. Delicious soft bagel material with sunflower seeds, walnuts, and raisins.
When I get to the Bakery at the start of the "Mid" shift, I see 6 or 7 racks full of baked goods for me to pack and label. Most of the time, I need to wait for things to cool down (like the cookies), so they don't fall apart, or steam up their container.
As a Bakery Clerk, you take cake orders and if you mess them up (put the wrong flavor, design, name, date of pickup, etc.), you're screwed.
Along with doing these things, an important thing I've noticed is watching for customers. It's like playing Five Nights at Freddy's. You have to keep watching, or they'll pop up out of nowhere and scare the crap out of you.
Some customers that you don't pay attention to will yell or make sure you know they're pissed off that you haven't noticed or helped them.
When I started, I didn't have the best customer detector, but there was this word that got wired into my head.
I would be doing my job and I heard this voice. It was loud, clear, and dominant. I could hear it from anywhere in my department.
It said,
"BAKERY!"
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