HWI Cape Girardeau, MO Part 2

            Hardware Wholesalers Inc. staff work to stock the building as the construction people tried to finish it.

 

               Having no main office or lunch room meant the staff member would eat where ever they could find a comfortable place in the center.

               There were holes in the walls for overhead doors and at each of the door opening there was a pit. The pit would eventually be filled with cement and then a dock plate would be installed.  It was not uncommon for staff members to sit at the door opening around the pits to eat lunch. Unfortunately some staff members thought it was ok to toss their watermelon rind and other trash into the pits.

               Dick Satorieous worked for the architect and was in charge of the entire worksite. He happened to see Lonnie and Dawson toss some let over food items into one of the pits. He then explained how that garbage would affect the cement when it was poured and suggested that the garbage be removed. (These two employees were later promoted to lead Person, Supervisor and Manager. They also moved multiple times for the company.)

               There was a period of time when we were working nights.              The offices were still not completed so we placed our lunch boxes on an empty rack near the center of the building.

Being in the center of the building, this location was a good place for our breaks and lunch. We had 30 minutes for lunch/supper. One particular evening we all gather as usual to eat and talk. During this lunch break Lonnie lay down in the rack and went to sleep. This was not unusual since we ate in about 10 minutes and had 20 minutes more to BS.

               The building still had no PA system and no bells or buzzers to tell us when to start and stop work. As time drew near for us to return to work the group decided it would be funny to leave Lonnie sleeping. Everyone quietly moved away from the rack and went back to work while Lonnie continued his nap. It was about 10 minutes before Lonnie woke up and then only because a fork lift went past his location and honked his horn.

               This building had a tow line installed. The tow line is basically a large chain placed in a groove in the floor. This chain is connected to a very large electric motor which propelled the chain on its way around the building. The original Cape center was 200,000 square feet and the tow line went through receiving then through several order filling areas on to shipping and returning to receiving. The tow line took 22 minutes to make one trip around the building.

               On the tow line chain there were links that would allow a tow line cart to be hooked in and the cart would be pulled around the building. Initially the tow line had spurs (shipping, receiving, trash compactor and order filling areas) and the carts could be set to divert off at certain spurs/areas of the building. As an example, if you had an order for shipping and you were in the back of the building you could put it on a tow line cart and set it to divert at a specific door where a truck was being loaded in shipping.

               For a short period of time after the tow line had been installed and before it was used to transport freight some of the staff would get on a cart to eat lunch.  As you ate you had a tour of the center and 22 minutes later you were back where you started.

               It didn’t take management long to decide that riding the tow line was an “unsafe act”.

               As the construction of the building progressed, some of us were working nights and we were still not allowed to operate the fork lifts due to union construction workers.  These union people did not want us non-union employees to do what they considered “their work”. Fortunately the overhead doors had been installed and all the walls were in place.

Pete, the warehouse supervisor would have us shut and lock all the doors then he would take the wires off the hour meter on the lift and he would mark the floor where the wheels were so we could park the lift in the exact spot that the union people had left it. 

               We were able to get more work completed having a fork lift and although they thought we were using the lift they could not prove it.

               As I had stated earlier the union operators would sit on a lift and watch us work then they would haul the pallets from one place to another. The tow line was being installed but was not complete. There was a pit about 4 feet deep, 6 foot wide and 10 foot long in the floor near the receiving office. This pit is where the electric motor would be installed that would propel the tow line. They had temporarily covered this pit with plywood. As luck would have it the union forklift driver backed onto the plywood and into the pit. Only his pride was hurt.

                

Don Ford

 

All rights reserved; any reproduction or distribution without written permission is strictly prohibited.

 

 

                  

 

HWI Cape Girardeau, MO Part 1

I want to talk about the center and the management team in this chapter of “HWI Cape”.

 

It is important that we understand the center was not complete. The front wall was missing and the front office was not built. More importantly there were no restrooms for the employees to use. I don’t know if there was such a thing as port-a-potties in those days but if there were we didn’t have any on site.

The male employees went out behind the building when the urge hit and the female employees were allowed to go to the truck stop which was about a mile from the center.

Our small team of staff were unloading and checking merchandise into a building that was not secured. That same security person that gave me to tour was all that protected the building. 

The Cape warehouse (we called it a warehouse in those days; they are now known as Retail Service Centers) was more than a warehouse, it was also a manufacturing facility. The city of Cape Girardeau passed a bond to help construct the building and HWI Cape had to be a manufacture to get the bond. What did we manufacture, doors. 

As time passed I was put in charge of the manufacturing and recording the inventory. I would take a blank wood door using a router cut the appreciate size opening in the door then I would insert a window into the opening. I would subtract the blank door from inventory and add the door with the window into inventory. That was our manufacturing company. This process was continued for a few years until HWI paid the bond back to the city. 

HWI Cape was the first expansion for the company and the management team consisted of a warehouse manager (Jim) a warehouse supervisor (Pete) and an office manager (Ann). The office manager was married to the supervisor. Ann, the office manager was needed in this first start up because no one had any idea what to do or what problems to expect.

After Ann left the center, the position of office manager no longer existed at any of the centers. We now knew what to expect in a startup and we could train the office staff prior to the actual startup.

Pete was a people person and could get staff to do just about anything but the manager was not a people person. Ann was a friendly person and took care of many problems.

Of the initial employees hire to work in the Cape warehouse, three became Center managers; Don Ford, Lonnie Carter and Dawson Young in that order.

Mike Whitson (the fellow I helped on my first day) was a person that liked to snoop. As I have stated, we were working from the receiving office and the only file cabinet they had was there. Mike while snooping through the files found a note that said they were going to promote me to the receiving lead person position, which they did.

As the building was nearing completion and we were getting ready to start shipping Lonnie Carter was promoted to shipping lead person.

One last comment about staffing; the manager hired a lady to work in the receiving office. She was going to work in the front office when it was completed. This lady was an older person. There was no PA system in the building so the office lady was given an air horn (a horn attached to a can of air) and if she needed to have the manager come to the office she would step out of the office and one blast was for the manager. Others had a different number of blasts.

This office person would answer the phone and take notes. The problem was these notes were then taped on the desk. Some would be in the middle and others were near the phone. I used that desk as much as the office person did so I suggested that she could stop taping notes on the desk and simply put them in a folder for that person.

For some reason my suggestion seemed to upset her so she went to the manager to protest telling him, “I know what I am doing and I am not going to listen to what that young man is telling me to do, I will quit before I listen to him”.

The manager told her he was sorry she felt that way and she could leave, she didn’t need to stay the rest of the day. She left the building.

 

 

Don Ford

 

All rights reserved; any reproduction or distribution without written permission is strictly prohibited.

 

 

                  

 

Before HWI Cape part 2

            After the test and interviews I returned to work at GE. The manager asked how applying for work at HWI had gone. I had not told him why I needed off that morning, so I was a little surprised that he knew.

               He said he had also seen the ad in the paper. I told him I was sure they would call me and I would get the job. He laughed in a manner of disbelief.

               I can’t remember the amount of time between the application process and the call asking me to come to work at HWI. I do know the call was received in late May 1971 asking me to start work on June 1^st. I had to tell them I could not start on June 1^st, I was in the Missouri National Guard and we had a two week training program and I could not get out of that training.

               I was then asked if I could start on June 14^th. I told them I would be happy to start on the 14^th. I remember that when I returned from the 2 week training I decided to drive to the HWI building to actually see where I would be working. The building was not complete. The roof was only covering about ¾ of the floor; the front office did not exist.  I pulled into the front drive and a security guard came out to meet me.

I explained that I was coming to work here on Monday and he gave me a tour of the building. I was glad he gave me a tour but I am sure he should not have done that.

Since the front office did not exist he showed me where the receiving office was. The receiving office was used by everyone and that was where the only phone in the building was located. No one had cell phones in those days so the receiving office was a busy location.

Monday morning I arrived at work and did some paper work. When I had finished with paper work they took me to Jim Murphy, the manager, and he said, “You know how to check merchandise, don’t you”?  I told him I did and then he asked if I knew Mike Whitson. I indicated that I knew Mike so Jim said, “Mike has a shipment of U Brand pipe fittings in the center back of the building. He has been working on it for 2 days, will you see if you can help him”.

As I remember it, I walked to the back of the building and found an open area where Mike had a shipment of approx. 50 pallets of U Brand spread through the area. I explained to mike that Murphy had asked me to help him. He was at a point of almost giving up. I asked Mike to show me what I had done; the paper work was a big mess.

In those days product was checked in using the paper purchase orders and a hash mark would indicate a carton.  After about 10 minutes of review and discussion I explained to Mike that we would need to erase all the pencil marks.

He almost panicked saying he had worked on this for two days.  I assured him we could fix this but we needed to start over.

With all the pencil marks removed I showed Mike how to check in this shipment. Together we checked in the first pallet, recorded the cartons on the PO and then we moved the pallet away from the others. I believe Mike had checked many of the cartons twice.

By separating the checked product from the unchecked we would be accurate. We completed checking the U Brand in about 3 hours. From this point on, I was one of the go to people for unloading and checking.

There was a situation in the Cape building and it was “the union”. Since all the companies building the center were unionized, HWI employees being nonunion were not allowed to operate the fork lifts. That meant union workers would sit on a lift at the back of the trailer and watch the HWI staff member working with the truck driver. We would load product onto pallets. When the pallet was loaded the union forklift driver would move the pallet out of the trailer to a checking area.

HWI staff could use pallet jacks to move product in the center but not power equipment. Speaking of pallet jacks these were push and pull pallet jacks and it was not unusual for an employee to move 1500 pounds many times in a day.

Also I feel it is necessary to say we would deliver a pallet full of product to a drop area and on the return trip we would ride the pallet jack like a scooter. We would stand with one foot on the pallet jack and push with the other foot. This was a time saving way to get back to the checking area. In today’s more, “safety conscious world”, the employee would be terminated for this “unsafe action”. 

 

The initial Cape management team will be discussed in the next posting.

 

Don Ford

 

All rights reserved; any reproduction or distribution without written permission is strictly prohibited.

 

 

               

                                                                                                                  

                  

 

Before HWI Cape part 1

            I worked for GESCO (General Electric Supply Company) prior to being employed by HWI (Hardware Wholesalers Inc.)

               I had worked for a plumber just out of High School. When that work slowed down I went to work at the Southeast Missourian News Paper.

               I was in the Missouri National Guard and when I went on active duty I was told that I would not have a job when I returned. I didn’t know that legally they had to take me back so I accepted the idea that I would not have a job when I returned.

               I now know the newspaper did me a favor, as I went to work at GE Supply Co after returning from active duty.

               I did all the manual labor at GE since it was a 3 person operation. There was a manager Paul Propst and an outside sales person Bill Casey. I did the front counter sales, unloading trucks, filling orders, adding and deleting inventory (we did not have computers in those days it was all on a card file system) and cleaning.

GE was located on a heavily traveled corner (Sprigg Street and Morgan Oak) and I hated washing the windows. I thought it was beneath me; a friend might see me washing those windows and I would no longer be cool. I worked at GE for about three years and as time passed I learned to enjoy getting outside and washing the windows.

I didn’t know it at the time but I was learning everything I would need to get a better paying job at HWI.

One of the local electricians was awarded the electrical contract for the new HWI building. I was able to stay informed of how the job was progressing since I had planned to apply when the time was right.

Finally the newspaper ran the ad; they were taking applications for employment at HWI. I was probably 50^th in line and worried that they would fill all the spots before I could apply. I didn’t know how picky they would be.

I took the 10 minute test which basically verified that we could read and do general math. I remember there was a math problem where I had to divide. I could not remember how to divide!

Panic sits in; I decided to skip the problem and do the others. When I finished I had time to go back to the division problem and I remembered how to divide. I looked around the room and others were not finished, when the person call time. I felt good that I was finished.

Those who passed the test went on to talk to Jim Murphy. We later learned that he would be the manager at the Cape Center. He asked some general questions about my work back ground and those of us who got pass Murphy went on the talk to a man in one of the back offices.

There were a few of us applicants standing in line to talk to the next person. Ernie Collier was in front of me and we were assuming that we were among the top candidates. Later Ernie was hired as the maintenance person.

I don’t know this person’s name in the back office but I could tell he was important. He had more in depth questions about work history and he was very interested in what I owed. I explained that my car was paid for and I had no debt other than a house payment. I remember he asked several questions about what debt I had and he seemed impressed with the fact that I only had a house payment (we lived in a mobile home that we had purchased).

 

            Don Ford

 

All rights reserved; any reproduction or distribution without written permission is strictly prohibited.