Jason McGathey

Getting a handle on this bulk madness is presumably one of the reasons Duane asked Harry to come up with a list of what each store is carrying. The results were evidently not quite what he had in mind, though, for he asks Corey to do it all over again. When Edgar hears about this, apart from considering it comical, his next thought is that he could come up with those lists in about five minutes, o...

The eighth column in the new items spreadsheet is dedicated to a simple flag, to mark whether the product in question is packaged or random weight. The number 1 is placed in this column if so, to trip a function in the system that will weigh this item at the cash register, but is otherwise left blank. For as much time as he spends arguing with alcohol zealots, heightened now by hiring Jake Gifford...

Nearly two months after that lone time hanging out together, the night of Dave’s band performance, Brady randomly asks Edgar if he wants to go grab some beers. It’s a Friday at the end of October, and while refraining from dressing up themselves, they figure there are bound to be a few Halloween related happenings in the region tonight. As an added bonus, it seems that former meat department goofb...

Edgar is also able to take advantage of Corey’s predictable schedule, albeit not quite in the same manner as the recently busted loafers. Rather, frustrated already with his Corey related dealings on the beer-wine front, this has given him a great opportunity to secretly shift into Plan C. After months of trying it Corey’s way, it’s pretty obvious to Edgar that this simply isn’t going to work. He...

The personnel nightmares continue at Palmyra, anyway, which demand far greater attention than anywhere else. As much as can ever be the case in this high overturn industry, the other two locations remain stable – and in fact, it’s not uncommon for Liberty to go months without a single change. Some of Palmyra’s vagaries are explained away as the result of hiring college kids, in a college town, tho...

“I like Christie, don’t get me wrong. But…” It’s amazing how many conversations start out this way, Edgar’s thinking. As Arnie begins to rant in what amounts to a slightly elevated whisper, up here in his office. With the other computer in here unoccupied, though the Orchestra server is connected to it, Arnie has unofficially claimed this as his work station, whenever in need of one at this store....

Though Microsoft’s cloud storage OneDrive platform uses a few different icons for its “Something Went Wrong!” message, there’s one that cracks Jack Lincoln up, every time, which would be the one which resembles a pile of doodie, wearing a birthday hat. Allegedly this is supposed to be a piece of birthday cake, but it doesn’t really resemble such, even a half crumbled one, and anyway that wouldn’t...

Modern efficiencies can be great, if that saved time is put to good use. This is one of the things Glenda thinks about often, as she’s humming along entering invoices, in her island of a cubicle at the Bellwether HQ. If you are banking that time to get better at your job, be it by catching up on other things, or learning more, or tinkering around in an attempt to find even better methods, then thi...

The emails continue between Edgar and Tonya on a frequent if not daily basis. At no point does he ever mention doing anything socially with her again, nor does she. Until a handful of weeks have gone by and out of the blue it’s 2:30 in the afternoon on a Friday, and she dials his office for whatever reason, in seemingly a giddy mood. Says she’s getting off at four herself, it’s a gorgeous fall day...

Well, Tonya Flaherty never called him that Friday. Or at any other point. However, the highly entertaining email exchange continues unfettered, such as when Edgar inquires about this line of incense which mysteriously appears in expected fashion, upon the shelves of Liberty Avenue. Attempting to ask Sam about the origin of these, which feature a different semi-nude female on each separate aroma, o...

Well, Edgar thinks with a wry smirk, it’s funny how the technology is bullshit to certain people, most of the time…except when maybe they want a project knocked out in lightning fast speed, last thing on a Friday afternoon. But whatever. He’s just here to facilitate whatever goofy ideas a guy like Harry might come up with – and considers it a fun challenge, anyway, to see how efficiently he can pu...

With the promotion of Edgar’s mom to deli manager, this means that the part time fuckup Steve is now into his fourth administration. Having arrived on the scene before Dolly, even, and outlasting not only her but everyone who’d been around in the deli prior to his arrival, including the previous merchandiser, the wine enthusiast. “Hey, it’s a warm body,” Corey is known to shrug, whenever anyone me...

The sixth and seventh columns of the new items spreadsheet are dedicated to cost and retail, respectively. Cost obviously doesn’t appear on their shelf tags, and there’s nothing they are doing within the Orchestra system that involves these numbers – the monthly margins are calculated at the invoice level, i.e. the sums coded to each department based on how AP is entering them. They are giving the...

Liberty Avenue remains his least investigated outpost thus far, for obvious, business related reasons. Even if in many respects still his favorite to visit, because it is so chill, there’s not enough going on to justify driving over there more than once or twice a month. Even regarding the price updates, which, at Corey Brown’s suggestion – and a genuinely good idea he had, for once – they are now...

Still, there is one aspect missing thus far from his repertoire with the Healthy Hippie Market, somehow, even eight months into this experience. And it will take the Palmyra crew to begin resolving this oversight, however indirectly. When word begins to circulate that the newest guy in the deli, Dave, is also a musician, and that he’s playing out this Friday night in Chesboro, a decent chunk of th...

He hates to see Dolly go. She was one of his earliest and most vocal champions, and this isn’t something he takes lightly, or will ever forget. Also, as a sidebar, it’s worth noting that she was continually trying to hook Edgar up with her daughter, and while this didn’t happen, he appreciates the effort. These twin topics are dominating his thoughts, in the wake of Dolly’s firing. As is always th...

Once a week, after going through the invoices, Edgar emails the department managers, spelling out what they could have ordered cheaper elsewhere, and/or should have for possible some other reason, like quality. The vendor and the item number are after all listed on their shelf tags, are two of the fields on the new items spreadsheet. Merchandisers are copied on these emails, although the degree to...

The Hobart Scalemaster program is Edgar’s clunky if just barely passable portal into adding and editing items on the deli and produce scales, at Southside and Palmyra both. While Liberty does have one all purpose scale in back that everyone uses, it has never been online, and this is considered no great loss. If anything is ever needed there, he jots down a note of it, and does so the next occasio...

The fifth column on the new items spreadsheet is dedicated to package size. While not nearly the headache represented by brand names, these also need to be uniform. You couldn’t spell out ounce half the time but abbreviate it to oz the rest; similarly, you couldn’t put a period behind lb on occasion yet omit it on the remainder. And this said nothing of the whole metric versus standard dilemma, wi...

As such, while yes, maybe she is partial to Edgar, Glenda feels there is at least one major reason to be: his experience almost always neatly matches her own. He’s the kind of guy that would keep his lips zipped about these individuals — but if you asked, as a confidential, business-related inquiry, will admit his own take on the situation. She brought up Pat one day to him, and Edgar chuckle...

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://jasonmcgathey.wordpress.com/2021/01/30/tales-of-a-scorched-coffee-pot-chapter-eleven/