The American Way of Eating (Next 100 Pages)

The next 100 pages of "The American Way of Eating" reveal some of the atrocities of working for Walmart  and the duties of an expeditor working at Applebee's.

 

Tracie first travels to Kalamazoo to find a job in a local Walmart. She lives near downtown in the historic district. She desires to work in produce, but no positions are available, so she starts by working in the toy and general merchandise departments. Eventually, Tracie is able to work in the "grocery" section and works primarily in the baking aisle, stocking shelves. She befriends many of her coworkers and learns of their times working for Walmart.

 

Tracie mentions the idea perceived by many that Walmart has a very high turn-over rate, however, many of the people Tracie worked with had been with Walmart for many years. But apparently, those that haven't been with the company long are always in fear of losing their jobs. This was a very interesting concept to me. I cannot imagine working at a place, so powerful and large, and constantly worrying about whether or not I would be employed the next day.  Unemployment in Michigan is no rarity.

 

Next, Tracie moves to Detroit to finally have the chance to work in the produce section. After reading her commentary on the situation, I believe it is safe to say that she is unimpressed with how Walmart, or that particular store at least, was handling their produce section. Her young manager Randy proves to be careless and knows little to nothing about produce in actuality. Her coworkers seem to be knowledgeable and hard working but are over-worked and over-stressed. Walmart does not have an efficient system for storing or discarding food and cares more about just making the produce look good than anything else. I'm not convinced that will ever change.

 

Tracie ventures on to find a job as an 'expeditor' for an Applebee's in New York. Her duties include garnishing and dressing the dishes just before leaving the kitchen. Her work is fast-paced and requires great skill in multitasking and working under pressure. She enjoys working with the line cooks and servers and seems to feel very comfortable here. Tracie talks about the typical demographic of the Applebee's chain of restaurants and I believe she is right on target. Middle class, mostly black or Latino, not pretending that the food is prepared in the best way, but just looking to escape from the daily routine of cooking at home for a (somewhat) low cost.

 

I've never worked in a grocery store or supermarket but that's because I never, ever wanted to. I've never heard great things about working at a place like that, especially Walmart with it's extremely bad rep for treating its employees like crap. My first job was at Penn Station on Westnedge and my second job was at a family owned restaurant called Rykse's on Stadium drive, so I can relate to Tracie's experiences with working in the food industry. The work is hard and you have to be serious, focused, and skilled to get the job done right. People do not joke around when it comes to their food in restaurants, and not everyone is very kind. Like these people.