The importance of staff training

We have always had the idea that when sales personnel are sent out to the selling area of a store or much more of a supermarket, such personnel who are tasked to help shoppers have been fully oriented/trained about the products that the stores carry. But oftentimes we would be disappointed because a young lady or young man would give us a blank stare whenever we would ask where to find a specific product. He or she would wave over some other staff, who would turn out to be equally ignorant of what we were asking for. This is a pity, because it is irritating and involves much more time and effort on the part of the shopper, which results in some delays. They may even lose the patronage of the shopper.

This incident sadly happens to us quite often, particularly last week in a big supermarket we frequent. We were asking where we could find parmesan cheese, and guess what? Three sales persons did not know what we were talking about. We finally got it when a supervisor came to the rescue of his co-employees. We would like to call the attention of store/supermarket management to make a serious effort in training their staff before letting them out to attend to customers.

Impact of TRAIN? The price per kilo of medium-sized squid rose to an incredible P568 a kilo at Robinsons in Solenad, Nuvali from the usual P300-plus! No matter that this is a family favorite, we could not in good conscience pay nearly P600 for a kilo. And since squid drastically decreases in size when cooked, a family of five would need at least one and a half kilos. That’s nearly P900 for just one dish!

Today, let’s cook pasta for lunch. Please allow us to share our recipe for spaghetti which has gained much approval from our family and friends.

Olive-laced spaghetti Ingredients:

1/2 kilo spaghetti – cooked al dente, drain and set aside 1/2 kilo ground beef One medium-sized onion, chopped 1/4 cup olive oil 1 can Hunt’s Spaghetti Sauce, Italian four cheese 10 pieces green olives, each cut into 3 2 tbsp brown sugar 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce Bacon bits (optional)

Procedure:

Saute chopped onion in olive oil then add ground beef, season with Worcestershire sauce, ground pepper, add sugar and more Worcestershire sauce to taste. Cover and simmer. When meat is nearly done, add spaghetti sauce, mix well. Serve separately with cooked spaghetti. Serve parmesan cheese separately to allow each diner to sprinkle as much as he/she wants over the spaghetti.

Have a happy pasta Sunday!