Here is a sample from the short story ‘Shelving’.

Shelving

Trevor Richardson owned a large electrical storage warehouse in a suburb just outside the CBD. It supplied electrical goods to retailers and also had its own shop at the side of the warehouse. The shop was nothing fancy but it was convenient for those in the locality. The bulk of the goods were delivered to 50 small shops and this number was growing. The warehouse had a large carpark both for employees, customers, retailers and others doing business with Trevor.

He was well known in the suburb and had a reputation for working hard and probably taking on more work than he could handle. However this kept him and his employees very busy and the business very much in the black. The goods were small in size from toasters, to those larger items such as fridges, freezers and cookers. The warehouse had at least 10 aisles which were large enough to allow forklifts to be driven down and allow items to be stacked and unstacked from the highest of shelves. Trevor aimed to achieve efficiency and if space could be used for storage it was. Shelving was also on the side walls, mainly for the smaller items.

The deliveries for the warehouse came straight from the manufacturers. Delivery trucks would arrive at the rear of the building. The driver would book in at reception and report on the delivery, types and number of items. The items would normally be on pallets in the truck. A fork lift operator from the warehouse would unload the item and transport it to a designated shelf in the warehouse. This was mainly for the heavy items. This was routine work and the operator would be fairly experienced. Shelves could also be stacked and unstacked using ladders and movable platforms.

On a typical day 4 delivery trucks would arrive from manufacturers at various times of the day and would be immediately unloaded. Goods would be moved from the warehouse into the small shop and also when requested delivered from the small shop to customers who did not have their own means of getting the goods home. Trucks or vans would also take goods from the warehouse to the retailers at least several times a day. It was all go for management, the warehouse staff, the shop workers and the drivers. Trevor Richardson had a busy warehouse to contend with, he had a lot on his plate with running a warehouse, managing contracts, managing staff, coping with bookwork, debtors and creditors. Most days he would say he was running around like a headless chicken. Because of this some things tended to get missed, such as maintenance and health and safety issues. But the warehouse was productive and profitable and staff were paid and hopefully happy………………

 

 

‘Shelving’ is one of the stories in ‘Mixed Bag: 10 Short Stories’ by Alan Barr which is available in eBook and paperback formats from Amazon.

Kind Regards

Alan

Email: alanrove@hotmail.com

Twitter: @AlanAlanrove