Quoted Text

On the Clock
One sweet job
Handling orders for chocolate is a treat at Uncle Sam’s
BY JEFF WILKIN Gazette Reporter

    The candy line was busy at Uncle Sam’s Homemade Chocolates. So was Deb Butler. “How many people do you have on your staff?” asked Butler, as she talked to a customer at 1:03 p.m. on a cold and sunny December Tuesday. “A $50 tray is going to feed quite a few people, that’s giving them a few pieces each.”
    There was a pause. Then a sale.
    “A 3-pound box is $41.97, there’s a $10 shipping fee and we have to add tax,” Butler added. “I think that will be plenty. It’s not like somebody’s going to sit down and eat the whole box.”
    They might. Uncle Sam’s assortments of milk, dark and white chocolates have earned good reputations, and that’s one reason customers call and visit Butler. As floor supervisor of the sweets shop on Albany Street in Schenectady, the girl from Uncle also manages personnel.
HANDLING THE HELP
    “We have six or seven,” said Butler, 44, who lives in Schenectady and has worked at the store for the past three years. “Then I have to supervise Joe. That’s the big one.”
    That’s owner Joe Suhrada, who opened Uncle Sam’s in 1993. Suhrada was on cash register duty at the front of the store during the early afternoon. Butler spent time on the phone, showed customers the licorice stocks, boxed candy and carried boxes full of cocoa products to cars and vans.
    “They want to know how fresh it is. They want to know what the best seller is, which is, of course, our butter crunch,” Butler said. “They ask, ‘What’s the smallest amount I can buy?’ I guess with the economy, that’s an OK question today.”
    Uncle Sam’s looks and smells like Christmas. Oversized snowfl akes have been hung from the ceiling, and glitter-covered red and gold Christmas ornaments are in the windows. Green garlands with white lights have been tacked to tops of walls, near the ceilings, and Christmas carols and other songs of the season sound through the store. The smell of chocolate is everywhere.
    At 1:10, Butler received a phone call from Mary Shea of Saratoga Springs. Shea would arrive within the hour to pick up a large order of almond butter crunch, and she wanted an extra 10 pounds. She runs a small business and gives away boxes of the nutty, crunchy chocolate to clients around the holidays.
    Butler hung up the phone. “We’re going to try to get it done in an hour,” she said.
    Clerk Courtney Buchalski received the assignment and began to box crunch from Sam’s existing stock. Butler looked for customers to assist, and stayed behind the counter and its compartments of fruit slices, caramel nut top hats, rum cordials and dozens of other sweets.
    “Christmastime is our busiest,” she said. “There are a lot less parking spaces available. A normal day for me is 12 hours, if not a little bit longer.”
RIGHT ON THE MONEY
    At 1:15, Elizabeth Nicols of Galway placed a small order with Butler — just a quarter-pound of milk chocolate butter crunch. Butler, with latex gloves on her hands, put a bunch of crunch into the box and put the box on the scale. The weight was exact, just a quarter-pound. “Boy, you have that down to a science,” Nicols said.
    “Now if I can just get it to fit in the box,” answered Butler, who then began collecting a half-pound of raspberry hard candy for Nicols. Right after, Buchalski had bad news about the extra pounds for the Shea order. “There’s not going to be enough?” Butler asked.
    That was the case. With Shea en route, Butler and Suhrada decided to take some butter crunch from an order promised for Wednesday. Butter crunch made Tuesday night would be ready for the Wednesday customer.
    “Can’t get any fresher than that,” Suhrada said.
    Dan Schettine walked into the store at 1:23 and asked Butler about possible peanut contamination in products. Because peanut products are used in the store, she said, there’s a chance for peanut particles in the manufacturing process. Schettine decided to order 3 pounds of chocolate-covered strawberries for a holiday party he’ll attend this weekend.
    A few minutes later, Butler saw Helen Savoie of Schenectady standing in front of the counter. She had a shopping basket at her feet packed with 18 red-wrapped boxes of chocolate; Butler offered to place the boxes into a large cardboard container before Savoie hit the check-out.
    Savoie took the offer. She said she won’t have the chance for extensive shopping this December.
    “It’s going to be Uncle Sam’s, gift certificates and whatever I can do on the Internet,” she said. “I’ve got a large family, 22 people. I also do this at Easter time; they ask for their Easter bunnies.”
    At 1:45, Butler was back on the telephone. A caller from Georgia ordered goods that will be shipped to Georgia, North Carolina and Vermont. Then it was back behind the counter.
DOUBLE ORDER
    At 1:50, Shea showed up for her double order — she also was picking up boxes of crunch for her brother John Shea, who depends on Uncle Sam’s for holiday good will. There was good news and bad news. “It’s not done yet,” Butler said of the rush job. But she added that brother John’s allocation was ready to go. “Do you want me to carry it out? I can carry it out,” Butler said. Once John’s goods were in back of Mary’s van, Butler said her staff would need another 15 minutes to fi nish the other order. That was OK with Mary, who said her clients appreciate butter crunch around Christmas. Suhrada took a telephone call just before 2 p.m. A customer was wondering if she could pick up her order a little earlier. “She wants it a day earlier? Sure,” Butler said. “Nobody’s called yet to see if they can pick it up a day late,” Suhrada joked. It had been a busy hour — so busy that Butler hadn’t had the chance to sample any
chocolate around the store. She’ll always make time for a bite. “I eat chocolate every day,” she said. “There’s always something different. My new vice is peppermint bark. The girls are making it perfectly.”