You may not understand what you might all learn working in a small town grocery store; I will try my best to fill you in. First, grocery store delivery trucks do not run on normal people time. I mean, really, who wants to be up at 4:30 a.m. to unload boxes of cans? And is it really even safe? I don't know about you, but I'd rather not be hanging out before dawn with sleepy eyed high schoolers armed with box cutters.
You will quickly learn everything needs to be priced according to the sale add. You might realize it has to be done quickly and completely accurately because someone wiLL examine their receipt and find that your advertised $.19 per pound bananas are ringing up at a whopping $.20 per pound instead. After a few weeks you will most likely shudder in fear of "dime" ladies who go over their receipts with highlighters looking for every cent you "stole" from them. You might begin to understand that if our government is serious about cutting spending they really need to hire these ladies, soon.
Because you are an employee, you might be given the privilege of entering The Back Room. On any random day you might find a plethora of goods back there. You might see an ice sculpture, a deer, (skinned and hanging upside down, of course) lots of damaged stuff, bakery goods, and piles and piles of boxes. You might also have to use The Back Room to hide from the really cute public school boy with a cut off T-shirt and dimples that you absolutely canNot say hi to because you'll totally do something embarrassing like smile weird or talk in shaky voice.
You will most definitely learn to love getting an oasis from the insanity of baggin and checking each day at a retreat called break. You might see boxes become lazy boys and produce carts become couches for 15 minutes around 10 a.m. and 15 minutes around 3 p.m. Breaks could involve some donuts or cookies, caffeine, gossip, and bickering about who has to interrupt their mini vacation to check out costumers who aren't aware or don't care that no one in the world should be at the grocery store at these magical times of day.
Working at a small town grocery store also might help you fall in love with the variety and excitement of life. You might get to sell milk to the town mayor, see your best friend wrap up meat and wear a hair net, wash windows with a squeegee, witness a seven cart pile up, go to war with a "dime" lady, and have a credit card machine melt down all before noon. You might get to be a spectator in Back Room flirting that develops into dating that ends up in an oh-my-we-still-have-2-years-of-high school-left-and-working-together awkward break up. You might get to Moonshine clean everything with a crazy blond friend or get to know a family that has made a small town business a success. You might even get to hear "A Boy Named Sue" karaoked at the company Christmas party.
Since you are employed by the main supplier of food to your community, you will most likely get to meet lots of people and hear lots of stories. These stories might help you fall in love with a community and people that helped shape who you are and who you will become. You might need a job like this to give you building blocks for jobs coming in your future where the stories you hear are little less light and the faces aren't as familiar...but you might have learned to be delighted that people are letting you in on their journey :)
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