From our conversations with Mollie last month, we’ve been looking forward to the chance to finally meet another new Cape Beverage team member, Warehouse Associate Chris Vicchiarelli. We’ve spoken with him a few times before virtually, and in person, he was just as kind and personable.

Chris has a quiet confidence that shines through as soon as you meet him, and we have a feeling that this feature only just scratches the surface of what to know about him. 

He’s also a rockstar employee who’s balancing a work and school schedule, but don’t just take our word for it!

“Chris is a model employee with a willingness to learn and grow,” shares Fulfillment Manager Chris Martin. “Mollie refers to him as the ‘Silent Killer,’ because when you turn your head away for a moment, he’s already knocked out any task you throw his way. He’s the reserved type, so he often listens before speaking, which I feel aids his ability to quickly grasp any new challenge I throw at him. He’s a great addition to the team and has plenty of room for growth.”

Meet Chris Vicchiarelli!

Chris is fairly local to our Cape Beverage operations in Egg Harbor Township: he’s from Somers Point.

“Usually, I stay at my sister’s in Absecon, so I’m still pretty local,” he says.

“I started staying there for the summer because it’s a lot closer to here. It’s like five minutes down the street,” he says.

Chris and his older sister are close, often traveling together and hanging out in their time off. 

“She’s actually friends with Chris Martin; that’s how I found out about this job,” Chris shares. “They went to high school together.”

(Ed. note: Small world!)

Before joining our crew, Chris worked at an ice cream shop in Ocean City in the summers when he wasn’t focusing on school. 

“That was fun; it was a good experience to learn from,” he says.

“Due to COVID, I was focusing on school for a while, and I was looking for work, but I hadn’t really found anything until this job,” he says.

Chris was hesitant while searching for jobs, as, like many of us, he wasn’t sure how things would go as COVID progressed. 

Luckily, he joined our team, and it was a big adjustment from working part-time to balancing a full-time schedule in a busy warehouse.

“My first week I had to adjust to it. I didn’t think about how much of a commitment it is, but I definitely like it now that I’m into the swing of things,” he says.

Like Mike Jacoby, Chris went to Mainland Regional High School, after initially spending his freshman year at ACIT, the Atlantic County Institute of Technology. 

“It has different academies and subject focuses. I was studying engineering there, but ACIT wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. When my sister went, it was a much smaller school. I was also trying to play sports for Mainland, too, so I was going back and forth anyway,” he shares.

After transferring to Mainland, Chris continued to play ice hockey. During his senior year, he also joined lacrosse. 

“I played ice hockey throughout high school,” he says. “With lacrosse, a random opportunity came up. The goalie for the varsity team was out for the season, and they didn’t have anyone who would play. I’d never played before, but I signed up, and I started every varsity game that year.”

“We went pretty far in the playoffs, it was a really cool experience,” he says.

(Ed. note: No big deal, just casually joining a varsity team of a sport you hadn’t played before! Pretty badass if you ask us.)

“I’ve always wanted to play and I was always interested in it, so it worked out perfectly,” he says. “It was awesome.”

Chris also really enjoyed his time with ice hockey, which he played as a defenseman. 

“It was awesome being out there and playing. It was a great learning experience, especially for a sport like ice hockey, where everyone on the team is involved. My coach would always compare it to football, saying ‘In football, there’s 53 guys on the sideline, and half of them don’t play most of the time. In ice hockey, every single person is involved,’” he shares.

Currently, Chris is also attending Stockton and studying psychology. 

“I’ve always noticed that I people watch a lot, and I’m constantly sitting in a room and watching. I’m usually not one to start a conversation, so I just like to take in what everyone’s doing around me,” he shares. “I’m interested in why people are thinking the way that they are, and what they’re going to think next.”

“Psychology classes always intrigued me for that reason,” he says. 

One of his favorite classes so far has been Cognitive Psychology, and he’s looking forward to his Educational Psychology class this semester as well.  

This fall, Chris will be balancing four classes with his full-time work schedule.

Those four happen to be online, and he shares that his girlfriend, who also attends Stockton, recently had two classes switch from in-person to online due to COVID concerns.

“When the pandemic first started, I was living on campus,” he says. “We left for spring break, and they told us, ‘don’t come back for a little bit until we figure out what to do,’ and then they said, ‘don’t come back at all.’”

So far this summer, work has kept him busy, but he’s enjoyed being a part of the 2nd shift team.

“Everything has been going really good so far,” he says. “We’re all getting into a better swing of things because we all know exactly what we’re doing now. We have a system that’s working out well.” 

At first, everyone was still newer to their roles and learning more about each other, and now they operate seamlessly. 

“My sister works for Merrill Lynch, and she has a team of people, but there’s eight teams in her office, so there’s people that you might never even meet,” he says.

“Here, you eventually meet every single person,” he says. “It’s really cool.” 

For each day’s delivery, Chris and team help build up the pallets of beer, dividing up everything that needs to go on each truck and wrapping them up. 

“It’s insane how much we move out in a day,” he shares.

“When I first started, I was surprised by how big we built the pallets. The transit vans that we have in the back can only hold two pallets, so we build those higher,” he says.

Although some opt for shorts while working inside the cooler, Chris makes sure to wear long pants and bring a sweatshirt, as he’s typically working in that fully refrigerated space most of the night!

“Especially now in the summer, walking out of the fridge is drastically different,” he says. “Then again, working inside the fridge has been fun.”

Despite having to adapt to the cooler temps, Chris has certainly appreciated being able to escape a bit of the heat and humidity!

Chris enjoys cooler weather, as colder temps usually signal the return of snowboarding season.

“My sister started teaching me when I was 11,” he says. “It was cool to finally hit that point of getting on the mountain and just going for it.”

“We have all of our own gear. We actually take day trips upto the Poconos sometimes; we’ll go up early in the morning and come back late at night,” he says.

“Anything that’s over four hours away, we usually try to stay there overnight,” he says. “We try to hit as many different mountains as we can.”

“I do the trail rides where you go up into the trees and glades,” he says. “That’s really fun.” 

While snowboarding, Chris keeps an eye out for uneven clumps of snow, which can knock a board out of balance, and any icy parts, which don’t provide any traction.

Although Chris has a couple good falls under his belt, he brushes them off, as they come with the territory.

“My sister and I go up to Vermont a lot, and upstate New York,” he shares. “Hunter Mountain is a cool one to check out, and there’s a ton in Vermont. Killington might be my favorite.”

Although Chris has visited most places in the New England area due to snowboarding, he also loves traveling when he can. He’s been to Virginia, Florida, California, and Delaware as well.

“I really want to start traveling more,” he says. “I want to see as many places as I can.”

Alaska and Hawaii are a few states on his bucket list.

“It would be cool to say that you’ve traveled to all the states,” he says.

When visiting a new place, Chris usually tries to find a few things to do in the area, but mostly prefers to go and then figure out what to check out from there.

“Sometimes the best thing to do is while you’re there, figure out what people in the area are doing for fun,” he says.

(Ed. note: We’re pretty inspired to try this out the next time we travel!)

The next time you see Chris around at one of our two Cape Beverage locations, make sure to say hi!