Monday 27 December 2010

Christmas

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a very good Christmas. Work was extremely busy last week. Turkey arrived Monday and Wednesday and there was a big drama because they sent turkey crows instead of breasts. People were also clueless as to how big of a turkey they needed, even though it clearly said that for a whole bird allow 500g a person. Duck also seemed to be a very popular choice for people to have and Ham was the other big seller. I arrived on Christmas Eve at 7am to see customers waiting in line already, as we had opened at 6. We had three lines going the entire length of the shop by mid-morning, it was absolute madness. We were constantly re-stocking the sausages and bread and the produce boys, who had been there since 4am, were having to deal with complaints as we ran out of berries.Well people should have been more organised! After lunch things calmed down a bit, with it being like a normal Saturday.

Christmas over here is a little like Christmas in the UK but people don't seem to worry about it till December. Ham, Turkey, Christmas crackers and mince pies are popular, same as the UK really. But some people decide not to do a roast and have a bbq instead, and going away to the batch on the beach is popular.

On Christmas day I went to church first thing in the morning, enjoying the walk in the morning sunshine the went home, put my pyjamas back on and went to my friend's house (opening presents just isn't the same in normal clothes). There were four of us there and we made French toast for breakfast with bacon. Lunch consisted of cheeseburgers, chicken drumsticks, sausages, salads and kumera mash (sweet potato). The for my pavlova (picture of facebook). We played monopoly (i won) and Cluedo, watched movies and had more than a couple of drinks!! Boxing day was a lazy day, we went shopping in the afternoon and I found a dress for New Years eve for $15!!! absolute bargain! Work has been very quiet for the last couple days, I think it will be all week as most people will have gone away for the holidays.

Thats all for 2010, Happy New Year everyone and I'll blog again soon!

Friday 10 December 2010

Food

Things have changed over the last few weeks at Moore Wilson's. Firstly its gotten busier in the run up to Christmas but also there have been a lot of changes in the produce section. Apricots, peaches, broad beans, corn on the cob, tamarillos, loganberries and boysenberries have all come into season. Some of these are things I have never heard of. Fruit and veg are very seasonal in New Zealand, there are certain staples like apples and potatoes that you can get all year round but a few of the more rare fruit come and go occasionally. You can even get seasonal stuff out of season but it doesn't taste very nice and is expensive. For example a couple weeks ago chillies were $59.95 a kilo due to bad frost and now they are $39.95 as the weather is getting a bit better. Its because New Zealand is so far from anywhere else that it is expensive to import, however home grown food is also expensive due to farmers demanding fair wages and a fair price for their product. So its six of one and half a dozen on the other really.

Moore Wilson's is a cash and carry, however I work in Moore Wilson's Fresh, which is more of a supermarket. Its very upmarket, selling some of the best quality and freshest produce. The meat section sells everything from wild goat and ostrich to things as mundane and chicken. Frozen stuff is all in the cash and carry section, apart from a few 'artisan' products such as frozen yoghurt and NZ$14.95 a tub (£7.50) and lobster ravioli. The bakery is incredible, stocking breads, pastries, baked goods and cakes from some of the best cafe's and bakeries in Wellington with the cheapest loaves of bread starting at about NZ$4 and going up to $7.50 (the handmade ciabatta flown in from Christchurch). The cakes look amazing, but I can't afford them and the triple chocolate brownies are my favourite treat. There are a lot of 'artisan' products like home-made pies, soups, dips and condiments. Tomato chilli jam and tamarillo chutney are two of the best. The olive oils are to die for and there is a massive fridge full of blocks and wheels of cheese. Wow the cheese, there are so many varieties and they are very expensive. They have to be cut up, wrapped, weighed, priced and labelled so my friends sneak us little pieces to try.

We have also started selling Christmas things now and when the local newspaper announced winner of the best mince pies two days ago we started selling them, even though we don't stock that particular bakery. Then best thing is that on weekends there are always about three or four products being given out for tastings, so when you walk around the shop you get free food! the other day the cut up an amazing lemon tea cake and I had to take a try round the shop offering it to people. A lot of people are happy to try it but some people look at you like you're handing out Anthrax and run away, a very funny reaction when you're trying to hand out free stuff!

Then there's the checkouts. Its normal to have your bags packed for you, rather than doing your own like at home. I think doing your own is better because people are so fussy about how they are packed sometimes. People often want meat in one bag, fish in another than everything else together which makes no sense because its a waste of plastic if you only have a few things and its better to keep all cold things together anyway, keeps the temperature down on the journey home. And it took a while to get used to having to use a keyboard, at John Lewis we had touch screens. We also have name badges and it freaks me out when I greet a customer and they say 'hello Gwyneth' or 'that's an unusual name, are you Welsh?' The other day a women did say tell me that was her name as well and an old woman said there were a few Gwyneth's in school with her, with various spellings and variations.

So that's the crazy world of Moore Wilson's, you can come in for milk and leave having spent $100 on not a lot really. But its all top quality stuff made with some of New Zealands finest ingredients.