No more SNOW, at least for now ... :D

A few days ago, the local weather forecast indicated it would be at least five to eight inches of snow falling on the next Tuesday and Wednesday. The city's trucks already are running around to spray a mixture of salt and chemical to keep ice from forming on the roads. They also predicted that it would be in the low thirty during the days, and in the low twenty during the nights. Dang, will it ever be getting warmer around here any more? I asked myself.

We prepared our stores, and our employees to get ready for closing on those two days. The food would need to be rotated, and watched more closely to prevent spoilage. The schedules had to be changed to accommodate their hours worked. We know so well that our employees, most of whom Spanish speaking immigrants, depend on every hours they have every week. They live paycheck by paycheck so it will become really tough for them to adjust to the short checks. They have to worry about where or how to fill in for the missing money during those short work weeks.

People always take things for granted. Out there, many people have to count every dollar they earn, hence, if it's a hundred dollar short for the week, they'll be struggled big time to recover. Most of the times, they have to borrow for that. And unfortunately, it takes them a few weeks or a month or even longer to recover. Our workers are very hard working people, but in return they earn very little (minimum wage) due to language, and unskilled problems. Most of them speak very little English if not at all, and very few have any trade to work in any industries beside serving in restaurants. They prefer to work in the kitchen. Working long hours is not an issue to them, as long as they can find a decent or fair pay.

More than half of our workers have been working for us since we bought our restaurants. If they don't have to move out of the area, they stay with us. We know each of them individually, who came from where, and who still have family to support back home. This is a tremendous achievement because the turn over ratio for this kind of job is very very high. Owners and managers in the fast food industries can never retain their minimum wage workers for more than a few months. They come in the front and sometimes go through the back on the very same day.

Lucky for all of us, the weather getting better toward the weekend. And by Sunday night, they changed it to a single snow day Wednesday. On Monday morning, the weatherman announced that there were only light rain on both days. All of the sudden, the temperature is getting really warm to compare with the last couple days. They were in the low fifty during the days, and in the high thirty at nights.
To day is Wednesday, and it's raining lightly throughout the day. The temperature is pretty warm. Hooray, everybody back at work in full swing. Everybody is happy include this owner.

We are ready for the next step, which is the renovation of one of our stores this coming month, February. To take advantage of the situation, we are going to take a long vacation. Yoo-hoo ...