Cereal City

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Creek,_Michigan

You would think that a city that had large manufacturing companies such as Kellogg's, Post and Purina would be rather affluent or at least higher end working class. But after driving around the city, it looks like the east side of Oshkosh for the most part -- older houses that aren't kept up like they should or could be. It was rather sad actually when one knows the corporations that are located there and all you see are working class homes in disrepair. When I was auditing a Marathon gas station I asked the store manager why this was. How could a city with so much manufacturing that was for the most part in recession proof industries look so downtrodden? She said that Kellogg's had moved the bulk of their manufacturing out of Battle Creek during the 80s and it had been downhill from there. The city only has a median income of a little more than $35,000. I guess the saddest part of all this is that if a city such as Battle Creek which has more than enough businesses and therefore should have more than enough jobs really doesn't have said jobs, how is the rest of the country,including little towns up north such as Pickerel, ever going to recover enough and have enough work for the people who live there?

Sunday night Bill had a bit of a bad night with his crew. Seems like they liked to talk on their cell phones and sit on their rears a bit more than they should. They were able to start at 9pm as the stores close early on Sunday but Bill did not get home until almost 8am and he was pissed. He even went so far as to call Roger, his boss, and say they needed to shape up or they were gone. They must have gotten the message because on Monday night they were done 4 hours earlier than Sunday night. I'm not sure how these guys will make enough money to keep doing this as the group of three are paying for a rental care in addition to hotels and food on the road. Of course with a 6 day work week they will make over $1,000 but still......I'm sure they aren't looking for deals or bargains or using coupons either! Every store gets a scorecard so to speak to rate the set and the crew. Bill has so far gotten perfect 10s at every store and was told by one of the higher ups that it is the best for all the crews in the country. Hopefully this will translate to a raise and more opportunity in the future. If anyone knows of anyone out there who would like to do this kind of work, let us know as we have the opportunity now to put together our own crew.