It's a slow day when only one customer gets pissed.

The health department has many rules and they are designed to protect the health of food service customers. The meat department handles raw poultry, beef, and pork therefore the health department will no longer allow us to handle opened cooked product because of the chances of cross-contaimination. To my knowledge, no one has ever became sick from a food born illness as a result of mishandling of product or cross-contaimination in any meat department in which I have worked but I still must follow the law.

Today a man came by the meat department while I was out to lunch and handed the man in seafood a cooked boneless ham quater and asked him to slice it. He had no idea how and as I just returning from lunch he asked me how to slice the ham for the man. I told him we couldn't do it in the meat department but before I had the opportunity to finish my sentence he said "Why?"

"It's cooked product and besides, we don't have a slicer. It will have to be taken to the Deli to be sliced."

The customer heard our conversation and he spoke rather loudly "Well foret it."

"Sir, we will slice your ham. We just have to do it in another department."

"No, just forget it?"

I hate that I lost a sell and a customer went home unhappy but his unhappiness was his own fault. It would have only taken 30 seconds to have walked over to the Deli and have the ham sliced for him. He either has to go home without the ham he wanted or he will have to go to another grocery store and start the process all over because only Food Lionand harris Teeter still cut meat and if their meat cutters follow the law like they should, he will have to wait while they take it to the Deli to slice it for him.

Patience is a vurtue.