After weeks of talking about it, Rich has decided that his tenure as manager of Bellport Cold Beer & Soda will soon come to an end. While Rich has thoroughly enjoyed being in the "Beer Guru" role, he has decided that as much as he enjoys the sales/information/advisor/friend of beer, role that he has here, the "retail management" aspect of the business is not for him. It's definitely more complicated & aggravating than he thought it would be. He does hope however, that whatever new job he gets, he will be able to be around on Friday & Saturday evenings as a "floor salesperson". This will allow him to continue the part of the job that he so enjoys, and of course, I'll be happy to have him in on those night to take care of people!
  Rich has enjoyed the friends he has made here, and will be continuing those relationships both here, and at our cumulative beer groups and events. Rich is hoping to remain in the Beer field, so if anyone knows of any openings, let us know. Rich sees himself in the information, brewery rep, tasting rep, or craft beer inside-sales part of the field. I have been inquiring for him, and as we know, his beer knowledge is top-notch, so I'm sure someone would like to have a person with his wealth of knowledge on their team!
  I will miss having Rich around on a daily basis, but look forward to many years (hopefully) of having as a part time sales/guru/consultant guy!
 
So now to the "who's next" part.

I am going to need to have a replacement ready to go before Memorial Day weekend gets here. That is when the unofficial "beer season" begins. There are a couple of folks who are already in consideration, as they have been privy to the talks between Rich & I. I am leaning in the direction of one who lives here in Bellport, but I am still listening to whoever is interested. The one part people seem to forget about this job when talking to me about it is this....BEER IS HEAVY!!.... bad backs and sciatica are not good things to have in this business. The physical aspect of the job is important, as is the ability to handle large waves of people that come and go. Being able to diffuse a situation with an unhappy customer (we don't have many, thankfully) or even an unruly "empties" person is important as well.
Let me know if anyone is interested. I'm all ears!