I don’t get bored.
How can u get bored when u can pick up a novel and travel to Tahiti, to return home at no cost by closing the book.
Or u can read the Bible and be thankful for the abundance of God and man, be shocked by history of war and corruption, be moved by Proverbs, or all of the above.
That said, and except for a flash thunderstorm on Friday, it was a perfectly lovely work-week. No drama, no chaos, no ugliness at all, just peace and pajamas.
Enjoy it while it lasts!
I drive. A LOT..!
I check my vending route at least once a week,
I drive to stores for merchandising assignments, for errands, on shopping assignments for customers, and for courier and delivery gigs.
Whenever I come across extraordinary experiences, positive or negative, I write reviews on Yelp.com.
Being that I’m sometimes sent to stores that I’d never seen or heard of before to pickup items for delivery, I’ve learned of really cool places, especially a few restaurants that have been around for decades but I’d never heard of that I found to have exquisite menus. So look for my store reviews soon!
An experience at a tiny bar left me so flummoxed that I had to write a review of it in Yelp when I realized that my understanding of it might be the only recent one in the life of that location. In other words, did others see the same things I did?
Even if they did or didn’t, why can’t I write about any unusual experiences I've come across?
And so I think I might do just that.
Why not add a page to my blog that reviews my restaurant visits, or even store visits?
Purely subjective, but sometimes I got a lot to say!
Look for it soon!
By the way, google is discontinuing automated email updates from blogs so I think it’s up to bloggers to manually send out updates.
I’ll try my best to send some sort of work-around.
Pandemic Almost Over
Greetings,
My routes and I are still recovering from the pandemic, and I just wanted to let u know that I’m able to focus back onto the route.
This means that the few machines I have left will be tended to properly now.
An update means recovering from my supply lines coming back up so that I can get fresh candies, my current supply sat too long with too many machines that no longer exist so my supply is a toss and a loss.
With businesses back up and running, I’m working with new personnel and their preferences so it’s a lot like starting over from the very beginning with only a few machines again.
The Honor Boxes are holding up fine, I didn’t stock up on their candies as much since I wanted to get to know the new line first.
I’ve been taste testing the gumballs and as hoped, they always hold up and I’ll tell u why.
When gumballs issue straight from the factory, they are so fresh, they melt in the mouth, no ability to chew on them at all. After a few weeks, they firm up but only a little bit. It takes a good 3-6 months to get a good solid gumball with fresh flavor that doesn’t melt away. After this, they gradually firm up more and more, but never have I ever seen nor experienced a gumball that won’t soften up after a bit, and flavor diminishes but doesn’t disappear ever.
I honestly believe, and there’s no way to test it, but I believe the better made gumballs, usually by Double Bubble, stored in an unchangeable environment, no heat, no cold nor moisture, just a constant room temperature in medium light, would be able to last with flavor and effectiveness for a few generations.
The only problem I have seen so far is that the Jelly Bellies took on flavor from the machines themselves.
Jelly Bellies are of exceptional quality and are known for their accurate flavors, which lasted protected in the machines thru the last several months but had taken on a plastic aftertaste from the machines, so I’ve changed them out for gumballs, which never take on any stray flavors or tastes. It’s really too bad, too, because Jelly Bellies are very popular but difficult to vend and maintain.
So I’m back on it, I haven’t forgotten the machines or customers, and thanku for your patiences!
Altho I work mostly with bubble gum and hard candies, let’s not forget the chocolatiers and the history of chocolate in all its variations.
I realized I was moving away from my candy route simply because it had been downsized so much from the pandemic, and especially since opportunities have opened up for my books business, I’ve been focusing on that, but let’s not forget the chocolate!
Returning to M&Ms for some of my machines, I noticed that they do not have the metal spirals in them that the gumball turnstile machines sometimes have. Was that some sort of design flaw? I don’t think so because M&Ms vend naturally quite well and the metal springs that rotate in their canisters might break up the small candies. Gumballs are much hardier and are able to aerate easier. That’s why I fill gumball canisters to the top while keeping M&M canisters, both peanut and plain, half empty (or half full if you’re an optimist :-)
So those of us working hard to survive the pandemic, or working hard to survive, let’s not forget the temporary pleasures of chocolate for the body and the permanent joy of God for the soul.
