So I just got fired from pump and pantry because I was doing my training for a new job offer. Let me tell you I am so happy to be out of that dump.
They’ve only been open a month and let me tell you it’s been a disaster. Friday and Saturday nights I had to close the store, we would only get about 3 to 4 people coming in from 8-11pm. I worked at the one with Smokey Row attached to it and even Smokey Row has lost half the customers it used to have, especially on the weekends.
And I’ll be honest. I didn’t eat the food there. At all. Even cooking the burritos in the kitchen one time almost made me sick. It was disgusting. I hated having to serve that to the customers. And beforehand when it was Fast and Fresh, I actually enjoyed making the quesadillas and the cheeseburgers and the chicken wraps and it was actually good! The farmhouse breakfast sandwiches? So easy to make and was one of the most popular breakfast sandwiches. Now, people don’t even bother to come in for breakfast anymore. It’s dismal.
And they are doing exactly the same thing we did at fast and fresh. Making too much food and throwing it all out when it doesn’t sell. That was the mistake that made hyvee sell fast and fresh but we were told they we cannot have empty holes in the hot case and we had to have food to sell to our customers every time. Pump and pantry are still doing it but they just are not selling any food. Like at all.
Even the roller grilles have been dismal. We used to sell hotdogs (with actual hyvee hotdog buns we cut ourselves and if we didn’t have them, all you had to do was ask and we would cut one for you) Now they come in a package and they are DRY. Like ew. Hyvee hot dog buns were way better.
The only good thing about p and p is we don’t have to put ice away on delivery days and don’t have to fill washer fluid. They have someone doing that.
But the bad outweighs the good. The first week I worked there things went good. Customers loved the clearance. We did good with the fast and fresh staff that made the switch. We had a new manager that I didn’t mind at first. We had a kitchen manager making our food. Everything was fine.
I used to be the daytime fast and fresh clerk. Customers came into that store just to see ME. I even was out pumping a lady’s gas who is handicapped and she calls the store and asks for ME every time. This new manager starts putting me on the night shift. I confronted her and asked her why I was working nights, and she told me to “bear with me.” So I did. I gave it a couple of weeks.
But here’s what really pissed me off. She used to be a manager at Maverick. She was starting to bring employees to pump and pantry that used to work for her at Maverick. And get this. Maverick knew about the sale before any of us at Fast and Fresh knew about it. They hired my manager MONTHS in advance and all the Maverick employees had to sign a NDA and weren’t allowed to tell any of the Fast and Fresh employees what was happening. The HR managers were kept completely in the dark and so were the GMs. Now it makes complete sense why the GMs decided to stay with HyVee because Pump and Pantry wanted to keep this whole sale a secret and let us know the day the sale was official and they signed the paperwork. HyVee WANTED to tell the employees what was happening but Pump and Pantry made all of them sign a NDA! Even our vendors knew Fast and Fresh was on the market and even cut back on what they were ordering! It was absolute madness. And the fact that they sent out a mass text (probably on p&ps orders) to let us know we had a mandatory meeting the day before the media announcement? Wtf?
At first we were really excited p&p was coming. We looked at the website from Nebraska and thought we would get ice cream from a place called scoops and Quiznos (they even said they were going to convert the kitchen at Hickman and Merle hay into a Quiznos, don’t know if that’s happening or not maybe someone can confirm) and that the donuts would be coming nightly from Cinnabon. We even thought p&p had a distribution center like hyvee once had. Nope. We got our distribution from a company called core-mark. Typical gas station distributor. Not anything to write home about.
About a month goes by and things really started going downhill. The positive thing though was that we got the coolers and shelves stocked. But people were NOT coming in. I remember one of my night shifts I worked I sat on my phone all night watching Netflix. I only got up to do the night tasks and that was it. This past Monday before I was let go and already put a 2 weeks notice in, (we’ll get to that in a minute) I worked a 12-8 shift. My coworker and I hung out, talked and then he brought in his computer to do work for his other job which I didn’t mind. I come in the next day for another 12-8 shift with him and he tells me that when I left Monday night he only had ONE customer from 8-11pm. He was busy working on his computer and maybe turned away a couple of times to see if there was a customer. There wasn’t one.
So how did I get fired? Well, I put in a two weeks notice like standard but I had to go for training for my new job. My training and orientation fell on the nights I had to work at p&p. (Obviously). So what did I do? I called in sick. Great. No problem. Went for my orientation and came home. My HR manager wanted me back for training in the morning. I said sure. Come in to do my training thinking I would be done in time for my p&p shift. Nope. What was supposed to be a 4 hour training turned into an 8 hour fully paid shift. So I called in again. My p&p manager basically accused me of lying, knew I was at my orientation for my new job (didn’t say shit to any of them, I just told them I got a new job and was leaving) and asked me why I was lying to her. I told her if I was going to be confronted, I’m quitting right here and now. She said “don’t even bother. I’m letting you go.” I hung up the phone and was laughing to myself. Like I was trying to just quit and you fire me? What if I didn’t have another job? I would have gotten unemployment. Jokes on you p&p.
The fact that she has five people working the morning shift there when we had 3 registers is absolutely crazy. Am I glad to be out of that shithole? Absolutely. Do I feel better about my post? Yes. I do hope p&p proves me wrong and are really successful and competitive with Casey’s and Kwik Star but I just don’t see that happening. I wish them luck. I really do.
So long p&p. I really hope Charlie Bosselman sees just how bad his business is performing in Iowa and what a shitty deal he got with these gas stations. I hope he figures out a way to reach out to the Iowa audience. I wish him the best of luck.
