so out of curiosity

When I ran a beer truck, a couple decades ago, I made $.15/case. 1000+cases/day, 5 days a week. Not bad, right?

I'd start out of the house at 0400. Get to the truck, doublecheck everything, hammer out of there to a grocery store. They opened their doors at 0500. Hit the big grocery stores first, then the convenience stores, come back through and hit the bars. Go back to the office, settle up the money (beer was COD only...it was the law), and get home at 2300. Long freakin day. Big freakin route. It's work. I don't mind work.

The bad part of the deal was they had pre-salesmen. They would go into the store the day before and make the orders. They too would make $.15/case, but they're pushing pencils, not a hand dollies loaded with beer. They made more money than we did. Here's the WTF part of this post:

A salesman would have a beer display set up in a grocery chain. lets say a 100 case display of Coors Light in all of the stores of a certain chain. But in certain stores in the hood, they wont move 2 cases of Coors Light in a year. So the date goes bad, and the driver has to pick it up. The beer distributer would sell a case of premium domestic to a grocery store for $14.44/case. If I had to go pick up a case of outdated beer, I would be charged half of that and the salesman would be charged the other half. So I had to go pick up a hundred cases of beer that was outdated and they hit my paycheck for $722 dollars. "WTF????" I have no say in the special promotions, I didn't order this stuff, YET you expect me to pay for this? And the clincher is they expected me to throw the hundred cases of Coors Light into the dumpster.

You are out of your ever lovin mind.

I loaded that 100 cases of beer into the back of my pickup. They warned me about the legalities of selling beer. Sell it? No, I'm giving it away. I had beer stacked in the living room. Friends of friends would call and ask what I had. I told them to come and get it.

It's work. It's hard work. They money is so-so. Food service pays twice as much as beer and much shorter days. When I quit the beer gig and went to the foodservice gig, I told all the other beer drivers and they went to food service too. Now, to be fair, all beer companies aren't the same. Some companies didn't have pre salesmen and the drivers were the ones to do everything. Those driver's made more money and worked a much shorter route. Even so, they didn't make the money that the foodservice guys make.

 

Six, that is messed up. In the soda biz- if you pick up that out of code product, you get paid exactly the same as you would when you delivered it. Every case you touch (pick up OR deliver) is considered the same. You touch it, you get paid.

Charging the driver to pick up out of codes is crazy. How could they expect you to waste time and energy on something that not only are you not getting paid for, but it's actually COSTING YOU money?!! You're right, that's insane.

 

In my company we get deducted also..ive picked up bad kegs and usually pick up at least 20 cases per week..i probably lose at least 5 bucks a week due to pick ups and im doing the work..makes no sense.

 

What happens if you don't pick them up? I wouldn't. Heck, I don't pick stuff up of its not in a nice, sturdy enough box. And I'm getting paid to pick it up. Lol

 

Ive refused before..then the company calls in and complains and then my boss says pick it up thats what your xmas bonus is based on..dumb

 

Yeah, that's crazy. No way would I waste a second on something that is actually costing me money. That's like buying a job. I've never bought a job in my life.

Hey, we all gotta do what we gotta do. If that's part of the deal, ya gotta do it. I understand. Nothing's perfect- and if picking up a few kegs or cases is part of it then so be it. Gotta feed the family

 

See, the grocery store managers we were the ones who want the stiff picked up. Damaged and out dated beer. Okay, since beer was COD, they'd cut you a check. For the damaged, the salesman would write it up, and the loaders would load the truck with extra cases of beer to EXCHANGE for the damaged. We didn't get paid for exchange stuff.

If you didn't pick up, the store managers wouldn't allow you to bring in that next delivery. So it's bad for business. I don't mind replacing a 6pack of damaged or outdated...that's no big deal. But when its a buttload of beer, and I'm being charged for it...WTF?

They would work out a special promotion with a grocery chain to put a display up in a store. Big display, with some big cardboard poster of some sports guy. If you are putting a display up at a Walmart that moves 50 cases of Coors a week, no problem. The beer will be gone before it expires. But why in the world would the salesmen order 100 cases in a store that wont move 2 cases in a year? They would have people there waiting to build the display. All we did was deliver the beer. Roll it in, and they make the display. They don't drink Coors Light in the hood. Well they will. They just wont pay for it. So, I would have to change out all the Coors Light for Colt45, which sold for $10.74/case. They would move 100 cases of Colt45 in a weekend. In the hood, our biggest sellers were Olde English800 and Colt45. In the Korean owned ghetto stores, you would drop half the truck, loaded to the gills with Colt45. If all I ran was ghettos, I would have made good money. You don't need a salesman. Just fill the truck with Colt45 and run it empty, reload and empty it again. You know what, some people might get a little nervous working the hood, but it was better than the grocery stores. Grocery stores SUCK. The Koreans were cool, the brothas were cool. Yeah, 2 people died in that parkinglot last night, but da beer man is in da house!

Out in the sticks, it was Blue Ribbon. Drive down the road and the Necks will start yelling, "PBR ME ASAP!" Hit the redneck bars at night and it is highly entertaining.

 

Biggest theives in the world are grocery store managers and employees. They do things like steal a $100.00 block of cheese, then call the warehouse and say it wasn't on the truck, probably the driver took it. They'd do the same with tobacco, smoked hams, or anything they can steal then drop hints that the driver probably took the stuff.

 

The most dangerous city in America is nesr my route. I park my truck and can knock out 4-5 stops without moving the truck. Just gotta make sure I find the "man" that's running the block that day and ask him where he needs me to park that day so I don't interfere with his , uh, bizness. He directs me and then in turn he watches my truck while I hustle thru my stops. I never worry about getting robbed - the "man" won't allow it.

That's what people don't understand about the hood - keeping the cops away is very valuable. They know that if I get robbed I have to call the cops for a report- company policy. They work with me to keep their spot from getting hot. As long as I don't block their visibility for their "customers".

Some guys won't go to the hood. I prefer it

 

Thats the best thing about doing food service. No grocery stores.