Uly's Blog

Hi I'm Uly.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

This post is my sorry.

It is about my part time job that I work just for this summer holiday. I work at Japanese sweets shop in a department store. The company also runs a cake shop in the same place, so I sometimes help the cake shop too.
What hurts me is that I have to throw away all the foods that are not sold. The shop starts 20% off at 17:30 every day, but we still cannot sell all of them. My coworker told me that they used to do 50% off, and all the sweets were sold out, but department people-in-power did not want any shop to look empty, so they warned us not to do 50% off any more, and the company makes even more sweets so that our shop do not look empty.
Once they warned, they check our shop very seriously, and when lots of sweets are sold, they warn us that we should prepare more foods so that everywhere in the department store looks lively. When there are lots of sweets in our shop, I start 20% off a bit earlier, but it does not always go well. I feel guilty so much every day when I throw away those foods because I have learned about starving people who spend a day less than $1 with not enough food or water while people in developed countries have too much.
What am I doing? I studied about hunger, gap between the rich and the poor, and third and fourth worlds in Global Issues class last year, and now I put each pack of Japanese sweets into rubbish bags by my hands. It really hurts me, but I cannot see any solution.
At the end of a day, I have to count how many sweets are remained, and note them on the list. After that, I make several bags of assorted sweets, and give them to staffs in neighbour shops, but I think that they do not want to receive same sweets every day. The department store close at 20:00, and the company pay til 20:30. The jobs that I have to do after closing take about 30 minutes, but if I make those assorted sweets for neighbour shops' staffs, it is around 20:50 when I finish everything for a day. The 20 extra minutes is not included for my salary, but I try to give some sweets to people around my shop anyway. I love sweets, so I am glad that I can bring those sweets to home, as all of my family members love sweets too, but I cannot bring all of the sweets. There are too many.
When I walk from our shop to rubbish bins carrying rubbish bags, they are really heavy. How many people can survive if those foods are theirs? Today around the world, children die one after another in every three seconds. How many can live if they can eat? There are 4 more days that I work in the department store, and I still cannot find a solution.

11 Comments:

  • At 6:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

     
  • At 11:24 PM, Blogger CCoder said…

    that's really sad. it reminds me Mc Donald's policy... they throw lots of hamburgers after certain time period... meanwhile, kids ask for money meters far from there...

    in my town, there's a shop that 30 mins after closure, sells all stock at 25% price (not 25% off)! so they don't need to trash nothin'.

    it's really hard to find a solution...

     
  • At 7:48 AM, Blogger スロ / Bernat said…

    You can leave in a place, where homeless people can see what's inside and take it.

     
  • At 7:53 AM, Blogger スロ / Bernat said…

    In Barcelona shops don't make discounts.....because it makes a bad image of the shop... i hate that catalan (money centered) view of the world.

     
  • At 12:53 PM, Blogger Pradeep Nair said…

    A very nice post. You are very right. These are some hard realities of life.

    Today was polling in Japan. How did it go?

     
  • At 10:11 AM, Blogger Uka said…

    Aww... thats what Id been feeling when I was @Mc. All humburgers would be thrown away only 10 mins after they were made. On every weekends, I saw heaps of humburgers in a backet in the kitchen.
    Now the system hav changed and they throw away less and less food, so it gats better I feel...

    But in ya case....

    I hate the manager of the department store!!

    He/She affects your shop's productive and income, too. If many sweets are left, they its a great loss!

    Many shops @ department stores sell lovely sweets, I know. But sometimes, they attract more n more ppl when the number of sweets are limited! Then customers rush to the department... I think this way can work well for the department, too... as customers who cannot get the sweets will buy other stuffs @other shops in the department store!

     
  • At 10:16 AM, Blogger Uka said…

    Yup yup, I managed the place to stay, and a bullet train to bk to Osaka.

    There are many cheap hotels ard Hiroshima Peace Memorial Pk... but be careful, as there are also shameful shops&bars ard there!!

    You can buy bullet train ticket @ Hiroshima, too. I did so. Although it depends on the season, I could buy the one I wanted to take;)

    Enjoy!!!

     
  • At 1:48 AM, Blogger Uka said…

    Hola mi amiga!

    Thats very sweet of you to send me stuffs.... Im so happy to hav a sweet mate like you ;)

    Well, Im having a week off now, and its mid-semester break next week. I try not to be lazy, coz I have much to do... esp assignment;(

    Talk to ya soon,mate!

     
  • At 11:51 PM, Blogger erika said…

    Hello!! I recently started writing my blog again. I read your blog and also hurt. I work in supermarket as a chasier and I always think plastic bags are waste. Everyone should bring their own bags, I think. I want goverments to make a ordinance.

     
  • At 7:41 PM, Blogger Scott Douglas said…

    Wow, that is so creative! I really enjoyed reading it!

     
  • At 9:21 AM, Blogger Uly said…

    Thank you for youe friendly comments always. I love my readers because you guys comments encourage me in many ways. I finished my summer part time job, but I tell you that the shop has restarted 50% off just 30minutes before it closed. Is it a little improvement, you think?

     

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