21 Comments
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Feasts and Fables's avatar

I was essentially paid in cheese toasties (Mrs Deli got actual pay to add to my pension so we got by!) … best pay packets ever! And paperwork, yuk. Best move we made … getting a bookkeeper, someone who liked post its and receipts!

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Much rather eat cheese toasties than tap buttons on a calculator.

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Feasts and Fables's avatar

Agree wholeheartedly. We had a basement. Jenny would wave, head down there, shuffle paperwork while waiting for the cappuccino I nearly always forgot in the rush of running the deli! She was a life saver! Best investment ever.

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Mazza's avatar

For Keanu

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Hehe

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Cheryl  Queen of Markets's avatar

Now I want to return to reading Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell. I'm sure he works as a plongeur, (sorry can't check spelling!) in sacking apron. The lowest of the low, badly paid & unappreciated.

Shocked about the sandwiches. I'm pretty sure I was always fed from the kitchen even at places where all the fruit scraps and peels were processed and sieved into 'exotic juice'.

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Oh that’s an excellent read. Ues most places feed staff well, a lot don’t.

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Judy Youssef's avatar

I’m gobsmacked! Always assumed (now I know wrongly) that restaurant staff would always get to eat whatever dishes on the menu which hadn’t sold well! However can anyone be so stingy?

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Hospitality is a strange world.

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Mark Diacono's avatar

I love that China Girl story. I wasn't quite ready to get into Iggy when The Idiot came out - I tried but I needed more of the tunes that came with UK new wave than US - but got there soon enough. I know Stevie Ray Vaughan understandably gets all the nods for his magic guitar on the Bowie version but jeez the drums and bass are perfect. I still have the 12" because I am an arse. Lovely episode once again Mr VB, thank you

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Thanks Mark. Mrs VB didn’t mind a bit of IP but I’m with you. Thanks for reading Mark, glad to be a source of mild entertainment.

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Matt Inwood's avatar

That staff sandwich story is quite grim. I see a few restaurants that let the staff eat something from the menu on their breaks. There's a big one which always caters a good choice of hearty dishes: I sometimes hope I can eat those dishes when I'm shooting there, rather than the restaurant ones I'm photographing! I do like the sound of DIY Sundays: though I expect there is a forthcoming chapter to reveal the problems of putting off that mountain of receipts...!

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Yes Matt, some places do amazing staff food, some just won’t spend the money. That paperwork was painful, it gets done, but under a cloud.

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Claire Ivins's avatar

When my older kid worked in a food pub just before the pandemic, there was staff food, but the chef clearly resented producing it so it was always dismal slop. And the manager used the staff tronc as a source of petty cash and for purchasing bought-in staff food for training events etc. My younger kid currently works in a big food pub, quite a posh one, where there’s no free staff food but staff can buy something off the menu at a discounted price. That’s even if they’re doing a 7 hour shift.

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Although I find it very bad it doesn’t suprise me. Happy staff, happy customers is something a lot don’t believe in.

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Felicity Jones's avatar

Still reeling from the make your sandwiches, put them in vending machines, pay for them and imagining the discussion of that in ‘management’, and the dirty plates, but NOTHING prepared me for my first ever visual of a Primark devastation.

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Haha. Well imagine that being pots in a sink. We were traumatised.

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Paola Bassanese's avatar

The sandwich vending machine story was shocking! Also, random thought: maybe the men's toilets were cleaner because the male customers didn't use toilet paper and didn't wash their hands? 🤔 Not wanting to be controversial but I have known for it to happen.

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Yes very shocking. But nothing suprised us in catering. Good point about the toilets, let’s see what others say.

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Paola Bassanese's avatar

I will always remember when I worked in an office and my male colleagues would tell me how many men don't wash their hands after using the toilet 😭 Also, without getting into the specifics, a little shake-and-go is all you need! 🤣

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Vanilla Black's avatar

😳

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