I love buffalo chicken slices and they complain every time. I think it's a lot more work to clean that messy meat and spices off the blades.

Interesting. I grew up in Pittsburgh where "chipped ham" is a thing (I didn't like regular sliced deli ham until I had been in this area for a few years and it grew on me). There, most delis would shave a lot of ham to begin with and have a bowl in the refrigerater cooler of chipped ham. They would take it and weigh it and then keep going.

In Pittsburgh, the slicers have an automated arm, the deli folk would put the ham on the slicer, turn it to the thinnest setting that would work (they all knew the setting) and then turn on the automatic slicer. If the bowl was getting low, they would turn the machine on, then take a couple of orders and just keep watch on the slicer. When the pile was big they would toss into the bowl.

It never occurred to me that delis elsewhere did not have the automatic slicing arm. That would certainly save the poor deli techs arm if they got a request for shaved meats.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked in a grocery store deli in college. Shaving the meat is a total PITA. And a full pound is a lot and will take a long time. I never would have voiced a compliant, but inside I'd be seething.

Seething, really? You’re getting paid the same wage regardless of whether you thinly slice or shave a pound of meat. Ridiculous.

So you're saying I'd get paid the same wage regardless of whether I get carpal tunnel or not, and you can't understand why I would rather not get carpal tunnel?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked in a grocery store deli in college. Shaving the meat is a total PITA. And a full pound is a lot and will take a long time. I never would have voiced a compliant, but inside I'd be seething.

Seething, really? You’re getting paid the same wage regardless of whether you thinly slice or shave a pound of meat. Ridiculous.

So true.

PP above--I forgot to mention that the food clerks (cashiers, produce, etc.) started out around $10/hr and maxed out around $15/hr.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get meat shaved so I can't speak to this specifically ...

however, in my experience the folks who work the deli counter give the worst service. The butchers are better, the baggers are happier, the people who work in seafood, produce all are pleasant. The deli people? NEVER!

Our deli folks are pretty nice about it, but to be fair, working the deli counter is a crappy job. If I worked at a store, that would be my last choice of jobs.

I'm the pp that worked in a grocery deli in college (this was in southern CA in 1993.) It really is the worst job in the grocery store. My grocery store was a union shop. Pretty much everyone had to start out as a courtesy clerk (bagger.) They made $5/hr (at the time, minimum wage was 4.25)

The next level of jobs were called "GM clerks"--this included anyone working in the bakery, the service deli or stocking "general merchandise" (health and beauty products, candy, pet food, etc.) They started around $7/hr and got an automatic 50 cent increase every six months until they maxed out around $10/hr.

The next level above that was called "Food clerks" and included the cashiers and people who stocked grocery items (canned food, cereal, etc.), dairy items, frozen food, or produce.

There were some great benefits though--GM and Food clerks got paid time and a half if they worked on Sundays, and triple time on some holidays. Also, we had excellent health insurance benefits. I knew a few other college students working with me that were actually able to put their younger siblings on their health insurance, because it was so much better than their parents.

There was a big strike back around 2004 (I think? I might be off a couple years) and I'm not sure how benefits and wages were affected by that.

Anonymous wrote: Yesterday I went to my local supermarket and asked for a pound of shaved pastrami. The lady at the deli literally rolled her eyes at me and asked you want a whole pound of pastrami shaved? To which I replied yes. The whole time she was shaving it she complained loudly about how her arm was hurting from so much slicing. The truth is that I don’t even eat deli meat but I have three kids I will only eat deli meat if it is shaved. I have had thinly sliced ham go bad because they won’t touch it, I guess the three of them just don’t like the texture when it is sliced anything thicker than shaved. I have had other deli workers get annoyed by my request, I can read it in their faces. Does anyone else get this type of attitude when they ask for shaved deli meat?

When they really don't like you they throw the meet onto the slicer and move as slow as possible, even stopping mid point to do something else. Also they will grunt and throw the meat when finished slicing. I say you got off easy.

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if you could order it ahead of time so that it’s teady when you arrive and they can spread it out over longer time or take turns or whatever to get it done.

Giant has an ordering kiosk where you can do this. You select your meat and thickness. They'll call your number over the PA when it is ready and you just pick it up. I found out the meat was not always sliced to my specification when I did this, though, and it's not discovered until I'm ready to make a sandwich so now I watch them slice it in person.

Yes! I asked for shaved turkey from a deli counter 10+ years ago at a local Giant. The woman working said something along the lines of: "Are you kidding me? They should really charge you extra for this because I hate shaving meat." A recent transplant from Upstate NY and lifelong Wegman's shopper where everything was done with a smile, I had to shovel my jaw off the ground. I only like deli meat shaved (its a texture thing) so I rarely order it now. The woman probably did my insides a favor. This was the same grocery store where the checkout clerk refused to speak to customers (but loudly complain to coworkers)/ make eye contact and only sighed loudly and pointed at the total on the register when he was done checking people out. Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and Wegmans all get high marks for having the friendliest employees. I get it - you don't love your job - but I also don't love going to the grocery store. Interacting with friendly and helpful employees makes a difference to me.

Off-topic. Years ago I used to shop at Weis (non-union, less skilled workers). There was a deli worker who clearly had a literacy problem. She would pretty much guess which hunk of meat you asked for. I would deliberately skip the deli counter if she was working.

Oh FFS if you work in a deli this is your JOB. this is why America is failing. There is no such thing anymore as customer service. The customer is the enemy. Always. And that’s why Amazon but ultimately kill all other business. The day today worker does not understand how their livelihood depends upon the place they work doing well. And if I had to deal with that kind of interaction I would not go to that supermarket any longer

I wonder if you could order it ahead of time so that it’s teady when you arrive and they can spread it out over longer time or take turns or whatever to get it done.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is it about shaving that is more difficult than slicing?

The deli worker has to manually run the slicer and it requires a lot more passes to shave it than to make thicker slices.

Ahh. Too bad someone can’t invent a blade that could do that so it’s not manual.

I have seen automatic slicers but they seem to take longer than slicing manually.

Anonymous wrote:I don't get meat shaved so I can't speak to this specifically ...

however, in my experience the folks who work the deli counter give the worst service. The butchers are better, the baggers are happier, the people who work in seafood, produce all are pleasant. The deli people? NEVER!

Our deli folks are pretty nice about it, but to be fair, working the deli counter is a crappy job. If I worked at a store, that would be my last choice of jobs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is it about shaving that is more difficult than slicing?

The deli worker has to manually run the slicer and it requires a lot more passes to shave it than to make thicker slices.

Ahh. Too bad someone can’t invent a blade that could do that so it’s not manual.