When I started working at Sheetz in late 2003, I found myself having to learn all kinds of new cleaning procedures for being around food (and I had worked at Papa John’s for two years before that). These people were really crazy about cleanliness and I do mean crazy. One day a manager from another state who had worked for the company for many years came down to work in our store and that’s when everything went straight to hell.
Cleanliness
Sheetz keeps their kitchen area spick and span. We had to sweep, mop, and sanitize constantly. When getting anywhere near the food, MTO workers are required to wear plastic gloves and wash their hands constantly. The food in the top cooler is transferred into a clean container every 12 hours and there is a chart that lets you know when food was replaced and when it needs to be replaced again. Sheetz is crazy about cleanliness, with the exception of an occasional bad seed that refuse to follow the rules.
Other Parts of the Store
Sheetz is a chain of gas stations on the east coast that are open 24 hours a day. Outside you can get gas, inside you can get regular gas station pre-packaged foods, freshly made food from their MTO (made to order) section, and fresh bakery items. The bathrooms are always clean (every 12 hours unless they are understaffed) and the gas is some of the lowest priced around. The coffee is always fresh (we were supposed to make a new pot at least every 45 minutes) unless you get it out of the cappuccino machine, that’s just powder and water, but it tastes great.
Menu
The menu is very diverse. For the most part you build your own sandwiches using a touch screen computer, after placing your order a slip prints out with a number and you wait on it. The bread choices are bagels (low-carb, blueberry*, onion, sesame, cinnamon raison, plain, everything), English muffins, white/wheat flat bread, white/wheat sub rolls, biscuit, or pretzel. The topping choices are almost endless black olives, salsa, sour cream, tomatoes, lettuce, romaine lettuce, green peppers, onions, just to name a few, but no mushrooms. Be careful if you are ordering a sandwich that is already named, there is no way to edit what they automatically put on the sandwich, use the build your own option if you are a picky eater. Other available menu items include: fajitas (chicken and steak), salads, nachos, hot dogs, and Angus burgers. Meat options for sandwiches include turkey, roast beef, cold cut combo (bologna, cooked ham, salami), club combo (roast beef, cooked ham, turkey), Italian (capicollo, peppered ham, salami), ham, chicken salad, tuna salad, and egg salad.
Problem
Our new store manager was strict and evil so I thought the cleanliness would go up, but I was wrong. Employees were dropping left and right so finally I was forced to work the dreaded MTO with the evil manager. I checked the times that different foods should be replaced before I took a 15 minute break, but when I came back, the new manager had went through and changed all the times to later that afternoon after her shift would be over which in some cases was twice as long as the food should have been left out. That night I went home and called the Sheetz headquarters to let them know what our new manager had done. They assured me that I imagined it. A week or so later the district manager was sent out to have a little heart to heart chat with me, he told me that he did not believe me and that even if she did he didn’t “see what the big deal is”. I called the headquarters again to report the district manager’s disregard for what seemed to me like a big problem. The next day I was fired and told that if I came on the property again they would call the police. I assume that this was them trying to keep me quiet, but I don’t have to be in the store to fill people in on this “what’s the big deal” attitude on expired meat products being used by managers.
Verdict
I do not eat meat items at Sheetz anymore and I always warn others to do the same. I still eat at Sheetz, they never called the police, I was one of their best customers, they wouldn’t call the police. I just stick to nachos and prepackaged gas-station food now. To get a coupon (about one a month) for Sheetz food, check out their website http://www.sheetz.com and sign up for their mailing list.
