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