My first job was at a fruit supplier company.
- I was in the orange and citrus department and loaded massive barrels of fruit every single day at work.
It was an honest living, but I ended up hurting my back during a normal work procedure one afternoon and it put me in the hospital for a few weeks. This left me to wonder whether I really saw myself in the produce industry for the long term future. Not just that, but I wondered if I was really cut out for using my body daily to make a living. I had already demonstrated to myself and my employers that I wasn’t as physically capable of that manual labor as many of my coworkers. I decided to work in the administrative offices for a few years to get white collar job experience, and this led to me getting an even better job several years later at a contractor supply store. I not only work in the office, but I’m the supervisor in charge of all the inventory and stocking for this store and the other one we manage on the other side of town. Unfortunately, during the COVID-19 pandemic we faced a slew of supply chain issues like anyone else. There were two products though that not only went into temporary shortages, but also saw natural price increases—wood and metal rebar tie wire. The wood shortage affected the entire building industry, but the rebar supply chain problems were particularly tough for state, city, and county municipalities trying to complete large public projects on time like bridges and causeways. Rebar wire ties were scarce as well, particularly double loop ties and bar ties.