Another 5am start for me today and the first day of heading to a different store to assist with stocktake. Today was at Karama which is only just around the corner form me, so that was nice. It took less than 15 minutes to drive there, and also nice to not have to pay for parking in the ‘burbs’. But when I got there the store was shut, where Darwin City opens at 6am. Interesting…..
So I did a lap around the building and noticed people going through a door at the back and followed them. I managed to locate the staff entrance and there were many tired looking people waiting to begin the day in the Staff Room.
Stocktake was surprisingly physically challenging. It was good to expereince it and see how they manage it. An interesting experience. The freezer section is up first and it is awful, your hands burn in pain trying to count the items. I seriously could not wait for that part to be over. The rest of it was ok, but it is pretty tough on your body and there were not enough steps for everyone. This makes it pretty tough to try and count the top shelf when you are only 5 foot 2. It is also tough counting the bottom two shelves, the old body is not so great at kneeling on the hard floor or even sitting for long periods of time. So we started at 6am and finished about 1pm. A day of doing step ups, squats and getting up and down off the ground. I do appreciate that component of the job, it is a good workout. First stocktake done! Three more to go.
There was a core team that are based in Townsville in QLD and look after the NT and North QLD Woolworths Group of Stores doing stocktake. I cannot imagine doing that as a full time job!! Iteresting to do 4 shifts of it, but OMG everyday, no thanks, not this little black duck. They usually bus it to the stocktacke locations and stay away to complete them including BigW, Woolies, BWS, Dan Murphys (to name a few). Luckily they get to fly to Darwin and don’t have to bus it. I couldn’t do it day in and day out.
It is good seeing other Woolworths stores too. Strange being somewhere familiar yet different.
When I got home I decided to have a go at feeding the kites and walked out onto the grass area behind our van. I had some off cuts of raw steak from the night before and started throwing these up into the air. In no time there were many Kites circling above me and diving and swooping as I threw the meat into the air. It was actually a lot of fun and another good work out. I will definitely be doing that again.
The ole Aussie saying ,’Just around the corner ‘hahahah
True Jo