The meeting to hash out their loyalty card program kicks off at 10am on a Wednesday. Gathered around the conference table at Central HQ are all three store managers, assistant managers, anyone else who is considered to be a “key” front end figure — such as Shelly up in Palmyra…

The first time Edgar ever meets Todd Cashner, he’s working in the frozen section at Palmyra. Edgar, that is, during an otherwise normal, even unusually bland afternoon. So yeah, in HSM parlance what this means is: doing his part retagging a long string of doors, in the wake of yet…

“Hey, thanks for Fitzgerald!” Will cackles from afar, the next time Edgar is in Central. “You shouldn’t have dropped him the first week of the season!” “Did I really?” Edgar says, with a rueful grin, as he closes the gap between them, “I don’t even remember that.” “Yep, and I’m…

In the end, it probably didn’t matter a whole hell of a lot regardless. These interviews were just formalities. Unless knocking it out of the park with wave after wave of mind-blowing revelations, then they have surely just about made up their mind already anyway. So there are basically two…

Yet there are matters like those, which are somewhat important…and there are others of major importance, like the upcoming NFL season. …

The return trip southwest, to their hometown of Jenson, NC, takes right at an hour. This region one of those odd pits devoid of interstates, between the two points, a drive involving state routes and country roads between countless towns only slightly larger than Stokely. Jenson is the most sizable…

“What if we started havin, like, an Employee of the Month?” Shad suggests, from his chair in the last row, “then we could give them an incentive, maybe an incentive for the month, somethin like a parkin space by the front door…” “Yeah, I think we’re gonna park that, for…

A boss who does absolutely nothing is better than one who is actively bad. This is an early takeaway from the Vince Brancatto era, surprising only because it’s something most have probably never thought about it. Of course it makes sense, though, if forced to confront such, if one finds…

Or so they believe it to be. But before anyone can make a significant dent into this inquiry, they find themselves blindsided by another major twist. This chapter of the saga arrives on a Friday, two weeks to the day after Duane announced his resignation. This memorable morning began with…