Your Opinion Matters On This One!

I have enjoyed writing this blog and sharing interesting stories as they happen. In my previous blog, I shared how I use Google Analytics to keep track of the traffic on stlbeerman.com. I have been contemplating on how to further advertise stlbeerman.com.

I've also noticed how my site has been getting several hits through many different Google searches...varying from "how heavy is a beer mans tub" to "where to buy beer in busch stadium"...So this started to get me thinking...

I mean, how many beer men do you know that blog about their experiences? Why not market this site a bit more...I can't really display something on me (like a pin or a button) on my uniform while working. I don't think it'd be appropriate to hand out a slip of paper or something while handing out change to customers. I have contemplated writing out "stlbeerman.com" on the dollar bills I use as change...but then again, that's defacing government property...(even though I get tons of $1 bills with the "wheresgeorge.com" link on them while working at the stadium).

I mean, I guess if I get into a conversation with a fan and I bring up my blog...there's nothing wrong with that... Now it's not like I'd just bring it up myself...I usually get asked a lot if I have interesting stories from working at the stadium...It's kind of crazy how many times I get asked about my work experiences at the stadium while selling beer to someone.

SO, here is where I'd like for you to sound off your thoughts...besides sharing the link through my facebook and twitter status', how do you think I should advertise www.stlbeerman.com? Better question, how would you advertise it?

---8 game home-stand starting tomorrow...lots of updates this week!---

Never shake a baby...shake a beer instead.

Do I have your attention?

Great!

Some of this may intrigue you, some of it may bore you...either way, you've already read this far and by now nearly 77.5% of you have closed out of this blog.

For the most part, I'm sure you'll ignore this entry and visit again when I have stories from an actual game...and I'm okay with that.

In this entry I want to share with you some interesting statistics.

What if I told you that as of 12:00a.m. on Friday, May 29th, ever since April 6th, I could tell you that www.stlbeerman has had...

- 824 visits out of 287 unique visitors
- 1310 pageviews
- 61.17% (504)of those visits were from people who have Cable internet
- 0.97% (8) of those visits were from people who are crawling along on dialup internet
- we've gone INTERNATIONAL! (visits from Canada, Mexico, Sweden and the U.S. of A.)
- visitors from 32 of the 50 states in America (i'd personally love to see all 50 states represented)
- 7% of you clicked on the link in my twitter status. 30% of you clicked the link in my facebook status. And 52% of you know how to type in "www.stlbeerman.com" into your browser or have it bookmarked
- 24% of you have been loyal followers and have visited here more than 10 times
- 14% (105) of the visits have come from either an iPhone or an iPod

Now I've taken into account that 77% of the visits to stlbeerman.com have exited the site under 10 seconds, and this may include bots who search sites for information...or people who didn't get to realize how sweet of a blog this truly is...i'll go with more bots than people though...I've also been able to extract my visits to my own blog so that the stats are not skewed in any way.

Here's images of maps directly from Google Analytics:





By now, at least 20% of you have read through this much of this blog entry.

I'm able to do find out all of these things through Google Analytics.

I'm sharing this with you because of several reasons...

1. I'm a web designer and following these statistics is important in how marketing is done with sites.
2. I care about the people who read this blog...and i'm curious as to see who (not literally who, but where the people are located) is reading this blog. (but then again, if I only know one person from a certain city/country (mexico/canada I only know 2 people from each country) and I get a dot showing someone accesses this blog from that city...it warms my heart to know you've read).
3. I'm a dork.
4. I actually was wondering if anyone read this blog...because there hasn't been a consistently high amount of comments on my entries (which I'm not asking you to comment, it wouldn't bother me at all if you never commented, but only read the entries).
5. I was very curious from the marketing side of things...does word of mouth work best or facebook/twitter status'...

While I was at a wedding this past weekend, I was surprised by the number of people who told me they actually read this as well as the number of people who had no clue that I was a beer man...I mean, come on...people know all kinds of crap/gossip from everyone's facebook/twitter status, but you're telling me you haven't noticed a consistent status that links you to a site with the word "beer" in it!?!?!

As I digress...I want to let you know that I appreciate you reading this blog and that as long as the statistics are consistent, I'm saying this to only 14% of you...but I still appreciate the 86% of you who are speed readers!

So remember...never shake a baby...shake a beer instead.

Day 23 - Better Late Than Never

I apologize for there being a week since my last post...but a wedding took up several days of my time...not to mention, I actually went to this past Sunday's game.

Back tracking a tad...On Wednesday, I was coming off of a great night of selling beer and was ready to bust my butt off for the 2nd game of the 3 game series for the Cards/Cubs.

And I did just that! I sold 4 cases of beer! Best night of my beer man career yet!

The thing is, I could have sold 5 cases if I hadn't spent the whole first inning and a half catching up with the Plumiers. It was well worth getting to talk to them though than getting to sell another case. It had been way too long since I've seen them.

As the night progressed, I thought it was going to be a slow night...I mean, I hadn't sold my first case and it was going into the bottom of the 3rd. Then it happened...I went through 3 cases in a matter of 3 innings.

I luckily made it through that 4th case in the bottom of the 7th with 2 outs left.

Now, I'm sure you are asking yourself what could make this night any better...sold 4 cases of beer, got to visit with the Plumiers...well how about getting to see Lynn Laughlin and Ed Plumier at the game!?!?! For those of you who know them, you know what I mean, and for those of you who don't know them, you're missing out. I stood in the Coca-Cola Patio area with Lynn during the top of the 9th as the Cards put the Cubs away.

It was great to get to see Jordan and Sammy at the game. It was even better to eat some Steak n' Shake with them and hear about the amazing things they are getting to do in Rhode Island. I was called a "bad person" by our waitress in Steak n' Shake because I was the one who got people drunk at the baseball games...her tip was going downhill quickly...

Totals thus far:
32 Bags of Cracker Jacks
33 Bottles of Water
94 Bags of Peanuts
1264 Bottles of Beer

I don't have any amazing stories since its been nearly a full week since this game and lots has happened since then...

This past Sunday, I did something I haven't done all season this year...I actually went to a game. I bought tickets for myself and my beautiful girlfriend for Sunday's game between the Cards and Royals. It felt really weird to be in the stadium and not carrying a tub of beer around...I almost caught myself yelling my beer call while walking to our seats.

It felt weird to sit back and watch other beer men and see what they did...I was also able to come up with a new beer call while sitting there that I'll share at a later date.

Visit back later this week to read about something I do with this site and how I know stlbeerman.com has taken "International" status.

Day 22 - Rookie of the Year...so far

Cards vs. Cubs...dare I say more?

Oh, but I will!

I had a rough night overall...or so I thought.

It all started off by waiting in line to clock-in. It's a very frustrating process when all of the "kids" (majority of the high school students and anyone under 21) rush up and push through to the front of the lines of the time clocks. It's frustrating when they want to hurry up to clock in, but then just go to get their product (cotton candy, peanuts, cracker jacks, ice cream...) and stand around in the seats and text on their phones or talk in groups...frustrating I tell ya!

So as i was trying to get to clock in, I ended up getting a time clock with a messed up printer...it was just a frustrating time with all of the commotion of the "kids" and having to wait to get the printer fixed.

I finally get clocked in and head on up to Commissary 240. It felt great to be back up there and see familiar faces...like being on vacation and coming home to see friends/family you may have missed. I love these people I get to work with in 240.

I want to take a moment to apologize for not getting to visit my friends who were at the stadium tonight. I stuck around in the 200's for the night to get back in the rhythm of everything. I had planned to come visit after I was clocked out but by the time I was done and clocked out, the game was over.

After getting my beer on ice, I head out early to start making some sales. I felt like I was having a really slow night...even after the game started, it felt like I was having a hard time to get through my first...then something just snapped...I nearly went through 3 cases on the night.

While standing in the commissary after returning beer/peanuts/cracker jacks, I was talking with some guys and they were asking how much I sold. I told them, "10 short of 3" (translation=10 beers away from selling 3 full cases). Several of the guys didn't even sell 3 full cases. One of them commented on how I seem to be selling just as good if not better than most of the experienced beer men. He told me I already won the Rookie of the Year award because of how well I've been doing and for sticking it out through the slow selling games.

He explained how he has seen some guys quit after only working 5 minutes. Some guys just have different expectations and don't do very well and don't make money and just quit.

I don't think I'm up to my full potential as a beer man, but I'm still mastering things on how to get someone to buy a beer...I'm enjoying it though...and sticking with it cause the extra income is nice...and the Home Run Derby & the All-Star Game...duh!

So as for stories tonight...

-Cards shut-out the Cubs...always worth mentioning!

-I tailored my beer call again for the Cards/Cubs games and added in something...it goes like this, "Ice cold Beer! Bud Light, Bud Select, Old Style....just kidding!" I got several people to laugh with it and some Cubs fans actually didn't think it was funny...I did.

-I had several small children wave at me and then try reaching towards my beer tub as I would stop for a moment to sound off my beer call.

-After selling a beer to one guy, he told me to hang on and wanted to give me a tip, so he gave me a handful of change out of his pocket...about $0.73 in change...

-I had a guy stop me and ask me how beer men get paid. I explained how we get paid through commission and he carried on a conversation with me how he thought we should be getting paid a lot more. I didn't disagree and I didn't really go into how we also get tips too. He was curious if we could sell enough to make $100 or more on commission in one night. I told him that some guys can make over $100 on an average night.

-While walking to the stadium, I witnessed an old lady driving a car that nearly hit a family crossing the street. She was on her cell phone...and wasn't paying attention to the cross walk and she nearly hit them all. The father was yelling at her and told her to get off of the phone. She kind of sputtered her car into the intersection and stopped her car and flipped the guy off. It wasn't just any middle finger...it was an old, long, wrinkly grandma finger.

Totals thus far:
30 Bags of Cracker Jacks
33 Bottles of Water
93 Bags of Peanuts
1168 Bottles of Beer

Day 21 - Make up Game

Day 21

Friday's rain-out game...Monday night!

Because the stadium only estimated about 15k people to show up, only a few commissaries were open and only 3 porter stations were open in the whole stadium! Most of the beer men of Commissary 240 took the night off. They felt that because there were supposed to be so few people in attendance, there would be too many beer men there to make any money.

Jokes on them. I made me some money.

I was assigned to commissary 168. There were tons of beer men there. I was caught off guard on how they did things in commissary 168. The different setup, location of everything...I was just caught off guard...I had a routine nailed down for while I've been working in Com. 240.

I walked around in the lower area for awhile. I saw a few friends of mine that were in attendance who ironically enough were sitting down in the lower sections. Another friend of mine was sitting in the green seats behind home plate and since it was in the area that beer men are not allowed I did not get a chance to visit with Nikomas.

I noticed that the sections that I normal vend (230-255) didn't have a single vendor up there. So I finally figured out how to get up there after being told how I wasn't allowed up certain escalators and zig-zagged around to finally get onto the level of the 200's.

Come to find out, there were only 3 of us vendors who realized that we should head up and vend in the 200's. I sold 3 cases of beer after finally getting a pattern nailed down on how to get to and from the 200's. If I was able to carry more beer at a time, I could have easily sold 4 cases.

So the game may have not been that great, but selling beer went great.

While walking through one section, I was stopped by a few guys and they asked to see my ID. As I stopped to pull my license out, they were saying how they were just joking and didn't want to see it...so I asked them how I old did they think I was...they said 21...once again, blessed/cursed with these young looks..

I don't know if it was from getting a hair cut, shaving differently, spraying on a bit more cologne or simply being naturally this ridiculously good looking...but a plethora of ladies seemed to be paying extra attention to me throughout the night as I made my ways through the sections. I caught numerous ladies checking me out...perhaps it was the tub of beer I was carrying or maybe it was the bag of nuts...and cracker jacks that I was selling...who knows...too bad for them I've got myself a pretty awesome woman that's got my full attention...

Overall, a great night! Made more money on Monday night than I did all weekend.

Totals after Sunday night:
28 Bags of Cracker Jacks
33 Bottles of Water
82 Bags of Peanuts
1034 Bottles of Beer

Totals after Monday night:
28 Bags of Cracker Jacks
33 Bottles of Water
91 Bags of Peanuts
1106 Bottles of Beer

Day 20 - "A Typical Sunday"

Day 20

Today was a really slow day. I don't know what else to really say about it...

...ok, so yes I do...

I sold my first case of beer before the first inning was over...I knew it was a Sunday, but I had some high-hopes for today...it was a feeling of just wanting to do well and sell as much as possible...then my balloon of high-hopes was popped after that first inning was over.

I only sold 8 beers into that second case between the start of the 2nd inning and the bottom of the 7th. I sold more bags of Cracker Jacks in those remaining 6 innings than I did beers.

Now for the stories...

I made my way down to the bottom of a section in the 3rd inning and saw a group of girls drinking beer and asked if they needed another one yet. They said not yet, but to come back soon. Then one of the ladies in the row behind them asked a question, but I couldn't quite hear here nor did I realize she was talking to me since she had on sun glasses and looked like she was looking past me. I just had this dumbfounded look on my face because I was confused and then all of the girls in this group laughed at me...I was confused. I just laughed with them and was asked her to repeat herself. She was asking me if I could go get her a mixed drink... I told her that I was only selling beer today. She asked if I was possibly carrying around a mini-bar in my Cracker Jack bag...I played along with it and got a laugh...she was already drunk and didn't need another mixed drink or any drink at all. I was on my way back to the group of girls in the row below when I noted they had left...they never came back the rest of the game.

Usually throughout the game if a beer man sees a fellow beer man, we'll stop and say hi and ask how we're doing. One fellow beer man of Commissary 240, Donald, stopped for a minute at the top of a section and we talked for a minute. He was doing good to finish off his first case half way through the game. He just shook his head and said, "today is just a typical Sunday. No one buys beer on Sunday afternoon games." It didn't help that people sitting in the shade were cold. Many of them had blankets or sweatshirts. I had to take a double-take when I walked up one section because I almost swore I saw a lady wearing a snuggie...she was not...it was just a blanket...guess her arms will get cold if she needs to reach for something and she won't look like a wizard...

I think despite the fact that the game was a crappy performance by the Cardinals and beer sales were slower than the norm...the worst part of the day was the drive home. There was some huge festival taking place in Keiner Plaza. It just so happened that people were leaving it the same time the game was getting over. Since the game was sucking, tons of people left early which caused a larger than normal traffic jam...I sat in traffic for about an hour before I got onto the interstate downtown...about 8 blocks took an hour...it doesn't help that everyone else thinks they are amazing drivers when in reality they worsened the jam with their stupidity.

Friday's rain-out game rescheduled for tomorrow night...

Day 18 - 19 - When it rains, it pours, but not in my pocket...

Day 18 - Rain Delay

I knew the storms were coming. The sky was nearly pitch black to the west and the winds were very strong.

I was looking forward to a rain delay...it's the only time that we can stand around under the covered areas and sell beer. Normally we cannot sell any beer unless we are next to the railing behind a section or in the stands.

One of the first sections I sold some beer in, a group of 3 older gentlemen had asked for 3 beers. As I was making the sale, one of them stood up to get the beers from me and blocked the view of the people behind him. After I completed the transaction, the guy went back to his seat further into the row. The guys that had their view blocked noticed the guy didn't tip and that they had changed their mind about 5 different times on what combination of beers they wanted. They made the comment that I probably would be avoiding them the next time I came through that section since they were being tight by not tipping and difficult. I just laughed and said that I never said that. The guy laughed back and was told me I may not have said it but I was thinking it. I thought to myself, touche...touche. With the rain that came in, I never was able to make it back to that section.

I had already gone through one case of beer before the 1st inning was over and I felt like it was going to be a great night! After getting my 2nd case, I was walking through the stands and noticed that the clouds weren't looking all that great and that it looked like tornado weather. Several people had already abandoned their seats and headed for the covered sections of the stadium.

As soon as the 2nd inning was completed, the flood-gates opened.

Of course I just made my way to the bottom of a section and people had already started to head to the covered areas...then as I was making my way up to the top of the section to the covered area, some guy in front of me kept stopping and looking back and wouldn't move forward, and everyone was yelling at him...he got the hint and finally got to the top of the steps.

As soon as I walked into the covered section, I sold several beers right away...but that was it...I did run into someone I went to high school with while waiting for the rain to pass. He was a year ahead of me and it just felt random to run into someone from high school.

At one point during the delay, I looked out to the stadium and you couldn't see that well across to the other side of the stadium. It was pouring. We were told to check out at 9:30 even if the game started back up. The rain had stopped by 9:15, but we were still free to go even before they called the game. While checking out, I overheard someone saying they thought they were going to reschedule the game in August...oh they were wrong...I found out today that the game is now reschedule for this coming Monday.


Day 19 - A Death Grip On The Quarters.

I understand that I didn't sell much beer yesterday, but for some reason, the tips haven't been the same lately... As for the ratio of tips/beers sold...I made a lot more money the first month of the season. The economy hasn't drastically changed in the past month...if anything the economy has gotten a bit better...but lay offs have still been taking place...especially in the STL area.

I've learned that about 90% of time, I get better tips from out of town and people who are rooting for the opposing team. Now I imagine people from the STL area tip less because they will be visiting Busch Stadium more frequently and in turn will be tipping more over the span of several games vs. coming to one game and tipping a lot.

With last week's games, last night's game and today's game I really noticed that I haven't been making the tips that I had been through the first month of the season. Now I still make commission off of every sale I make, so any tip I do receive is an added bonus. I'll drop this topic now, because I'm not wanting to sound like I'm complaining, but just making an observation...people have death grips on that quarter out of the change they get when they buy a beer at $7.75...and some people will say that the beer is expensive and overpriced...well, you aren't required to buy to anything.

Today's game was decent...sold a full case before the first inning ended, but then it was a bit slower as the game progressed...still sold 3 cases...well, 1 short of 3 cases...which brings me to a story from today...

I had 2 beers left in the bottom of the 7th with 2 outs. I have 1 out left before I have to stop selling. I find someone who wanted one of them and at the same time a guy on the other side of me said he'd take that last one...well, I make that first sale and as I'm doing so, that last out is made and I'm stuck with 1 beer short of selling 3 full cases. I have to tell the man I'm sorry, but I can't sell him this beer...He understood, but the 3 other people who stopped me on the way up the steps of that section didn't. I had one lady get really pissed at me. She was rather husky...oh, how do I put it...she looked like Xena Warrior Princess...she clearly explained how she had her hand up calling for a beer before the last out was made and it was my fault for her not getting that last beer. I told her there was nothing I could do about it, I wanted to sell a beer to her, but I couldn't and I did as I was trained and got out of that section...I could have sworn she did her Xena war cry and threw a few spears at me as I made my way into commissary 240.

Not my fault she didn't yell for me before I passed by her going down the section.

Total sales thus far:
11 Bags of Cracker Jacks
33 Bottles of Water
75 Bags of Peanuts
1002 Bottles of Beer

Beer Man Here!

I wanted to take a minute to refresh everyone on the job of "Beer Man".

Now I know I've described my job in previous blogs, but after numerous recurring questions I wanted to clarify what it is that I do as a Beer Man.

We (beer men) have a window of when we can show up at the stadium as early as 2 hours before and as late as 45 minutes before the first pitch. We clock in, get our commissary assignment and then eat if we'd like to.

Yes, at that time we get a discount on select foods and are guaranteed to have a free hot dog or bratwurst and a small soda. I usually get a hot dog, but after a few games they start to lose that ballpark taste. I then make my way towards my commissary.

There are 5 commissaries that I could be assigned to. The first home series of the season, I was assigned to commissary 261. Ever since then, I've been at commissary 240. I'm only able to buy/return beer at the commissary I'm assigned to.

I show up to the commissary and get my first load of beer, soda/water, peanuts/cracker jacks. This is all credited to my account which I'm required to pay back at the end of the night for whatever I sell from my first load. Typically I sell through several cases of beer and so I'll have money to pay for numerous cases through the game.

After I have my beer on ice and everything ready to go I usually hang out with the other beer men in the commissary. Usually it's small talk but there are several guys that I've gotten to know on a deeper level than just, "Hi." Yes, the same guys are typically assigned to the same commissary every game...that is unless things aren't working out for someone and they can be moved, but that's usually not the case.

So I've kept is as a rule of thumb to not go out into the stands till the National Anthem has taken place...I learned from a veteran beer man that you'll just go and get tired before the game even starts just to make a few sales. I didn't learn this till after the first week of games and noticed a huge difference in how much energy I saved just from waiting to go out into the stands that early.

I'm able to go anywhere in the stadium that there are seats to sell beer (with exceptions to a few sections). Usually I stay close to the commissary I'm assigned to since that's the only place I can buy beer from...I don't want to end up halfway around the stadium and be out of beer...So I've typically stayed in sections 230-255.

...National Anthem plays...then game on!

Then I sell beer...blah blah blah...insert interesting stories/encounters here...

As soon as the last out is made in the bottom of the 7th inning, I must stop selling beer. I then head back to my assigned commissary to make any returns that I may have and cash out for the night. With about 15-20 of us in commissary 240, I sometimes don't get out of there till the middle to the end of the 8th inning. I then go and clock out and am able to make my way out of the stadium. Now if I end up having to walk through the stands to get to my car...then I make my way towards an exit...even if it means watching that last inning.

I know several people have wondered how I get paid...well if you never have thought about it before or done it in the past, please TIP the beer man. I get paid by tips and commission only...so no sales = no pay... To give you an idea of commission...I make about $0.90 per bottle that I sell.

I love working at the stadium. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night's game and the upcoming home stand. If you happen to ever go to a game, let me know, I'll come say hi to ya and sell you a few beers (if you're old enough).

Visit back here late tomorrow night for stories from tomorrow night's game!

Day 14 -17 - Is there something wrong?

Day 14 (May 4th)

Sometimes I get some of the weirdest looks from people sitting in the stands. It's a look of disgust sometimes...and sometimes it's a look as if I just landed in STL from another planet and have told them that I will destroy them and everyone around them.

Monday night, I was getting more looks than any other game I've worked. I started to wonder if I had something on my face, if my shirt was on inside-out, or was there snot hanging from my nose?...

I just looked back and heckle out my beer call while the monologue is going through my head (yes, just like J.D. does on Scrubs, I narrate most of my life in my head). I think to myself, "what are you looking at? who are you to be eye-balln' me and my tub of beer? NO BEER FOR YOU! (said in my best soup-nazi monologue voice)".

There are some people that stare at me as if I'm causing a problem...there have been a few times that I get someone staring at me and then back to my tub of beer and they look like their mouths are watering and they just gaze at the beer as if it's a tub of millions of dollars...I sometimes wonder if they are recovering alcoholics and if they are tempted to relapse and buy a cold one from me...this has been one of the few times that I wrestle with my job.

I've caught girls checking me out before...which makes it awkward for them and hilarious for me.

I get all kinds of looks...

Usually the moms that is at the stadium with her husband and kids are the ones to look at me with a death stare...it sounds like they are yelling at me..."how dare you bring that alcohol around my babies"...

I often times get some funny looks from kids.

Kids also say the darnedest things...

Monday night I was walking down some steps into a section and a little guy about 4 years old looked up at me and said something...I have trouble understanding kids sometimes and it sounded like he was asking for ice cream...I told him I didn't have ice cream. He mumbled it back to me and pointed to my tub. I then realized he was asking for an ice cold beer...he had mimicked my beer call and was saying 'ice cold beer'. I chuckled and told him that he needed to come back in about 18 years and he can buy one then...

While I was in another section, 2 little guys that were probably 6 or 7 would wave at me every time I would yell my beer call. It kept confusing me cause I've got that trained eye to watch for that and every time it was throwing me off...I waved back and then people around those kids were confused...oh sometimes it's a confusing job all around...


Day 15 (May 5th) Cinco de Mayo

I honestly thought that I would sell more beer on Cinco de Mayo...wrong.

Everyone was having trouble selling...which makes me feel good knowing its not something I'm doing wrong.

I don't have a single clever story to tell from Tuesday night other than that I carded a woman who really shouldn't have been carded...

She definitely looked in her early 20's from sitting as far away as she was. When she asked for a beer, I couldn't tell if it was for her or for the girls sitting next to her, and after asking if it was for her, she said yes, so I went ahead and asked for an ID...her jaw dropped, she was so happy, i was so scared...she got up and as she walked towards me, you could tell that she was every bit of in her late 40's... Sure enough, she was 46 and she was so happy to be carded...i was scared to death of this lady and sold her a beer and got out of there...she was creepy up close...I was happy to see her go back to her seat when she looked like an early 20-year old.


Day 16 & 17 Sitting the bench.

I took Wednesday and today off. I just started to work as a temp again back at the Federal Reserve Bank and was wanting a break from it all..going from 8-5 and then 5-10 is exhausting...not to mention, Monday and Tuesday were very slow nights for beer men and they already had projected the attendance numbers to be lower on Wednesday and today...and today was also a day game. I decided that this guy needed to ride the bench for a few games because the rest of this month is going to be crazy busy with another full week of home games (cards/cubs series in there!), wedding on a weekend, few days off and then a stretch of 8-home games in a row.


Total sales thus far:
4 Bags of Cracker Jacks
33 Bottles of Water
70 Bags of Peanuts
892 Bottles of Beer

*I forgot to add sales into my count when I blogged about the Cards/Cubs, so that's why my sales jumped up.

The Men of Commissary 240: A Quitter & Making the Cut.

Majority of the jobs I've held, the co-wrorkers work together as a team...some of the teams have been very strong, well knit groups and worked well together...some of them have been the worst team to work with and couldn't communicate worth crap.

As a beer man, both commissaries I've worked in, the beer men work together as an amazing team. We are supportive of each other when making large sales during a game. We communicate to each other about where people are buying or where people aren't buying. We help each other make sales. For example: if one beer man ran out of Bud Select, he'll ask a passing beer man if he has any and if so, he'd tell him where to make a sale where someone asked specifically for Bud Select. Sometimes it feels like it is cut-throat too since it is every-man for himself as for commission and making money, but overall everyone works together as a team.

Sometimes a team has to make some cuts and sometimes people quit the team...

Last Wednesday night's game that took place during the last home-stand, a beer man quit and walked out during the middle of the game.

Come to find out he was an ex-Marine. He walked into out commissary and yelled, "I never worked this hard in the Marines and I am not going to work this hard as a beer man."

This ex-Marine had just started the day before and I didn't even get to know his name. Most of the guys around when the ex-Marine quit laughed and was glad to see him go because fewer beer men means more money for the rest of the beer men working.

I still don't know what to think about the ex-Marine quitting...I mean, yes, being a beer man is very manual-labor intensive, but I never thought someone would compare it to being harder work than anything the US Marines do. I've known several people who have gone into the military and I have every reason to believe that this ex-Marine beer man who quit was simply a wimp (to lightly put it).

This last weekend during the Card/Cubs series, it was final-cut-weekend...if someone was unable to make at least an average of $25/day in sales...they were going to be cut from working at Busch. I've had a few tough nights working, but it'd be tough to not sell at least 4 beers a game...needless to say, I've mad the cut and looking forward to the rest of the season making sales...even if the work is "harder than anything the Marines do"...ha...I know that my work is tough, but it's nothing in comparison to what Marines do...