The day before Thanksgiving 1989

I awoke on Wednesday morning at 6:30 like I did every morning. I went for a quick swim in my pool, showered and left for a fun filled day at the office. I was a route salesman for Coca Cola in Merced, Ca. It was the day before Thanksgiving so it was going to be a very busy day. I arrived at about 8 am and was met by Bob who was the plant office manager. He informed me that one of my merchandisers had called in sick so I be short handed and would need to make sure all my major grocery stores were covered. I assured him it would not be a problem. Once all the rought drivers were checked out and had all left the barn I had a short sales meeting with the other salesmen and the plant manager. In my opinion it was all crap because I was a great salesman and really didn't need any help doing my job. I was able to leave the barn by about 9:30 and made my way to my first stop. It was the largest chain store in Merced. Savemarket. It was a huge account for me. I was paid comission for every case of soda I sold so it was very important for me to get the most from this store. I was able to sell them a truck load of 12 ounce cans the day before so I was waiting for the semi truck to show up it. That's a total of twenty four pallets which is 2304 cases. that's almost $350.dollars in my pocket for ten minutes work. I had to be at the store to tell the semi driver where the cases were suppose to be stored. I waited for about twenty minutes and late as usual Bill showed up. He made all his norman excuses on the loader, the truck and traffic. I instructed him on where I wanted the cases stored and to also help Robert, the merchandiser I borrowed from Tommy, build a thousand case mega display in the front lobby of the store. Having full confidence that all the shelves and coolers would be stocked and the display built I left for my second stop.