Grocery Store Woes: The Lifelong Commitment Face

It's a safe bet to make that every single employee of a grocery store hates this question: "So, what do you do for a living?" Not only do you have to confess to being a slave in that abysmal place you've heard so many people complain about, but you have to watch as they try to cover up the look of horror that crosses their features.

You've all seen it, that slight nod and pause and then comes the: "Oh, well that's...good. How's that working out for you? Are the hours good?". You know they don't actually care but for some reason they keep asking questions and prolonging the torture as you explain to them that you're just trying to make ends meet or that you're a student or that it was the only job you could latch onto for the moment. I've had this happen to me more times than anyone could imagine, and it gets worse every time.

I don't need to be reminded that the place I work at is a lesser-than-average kind of job to hold; I don't need people to look at me as though I'm making a lifelong commitment to this place and that there's something wrong with me for it. True, there are people who work entry-level grocery jobs for many, many years - these people will typically make you feel like you never left high school, if I might add - but I am not one of them, and neither are a lot of people.

So hey, Mr. I've Got a Real Job, why don't you take your judgement to someone who's on your own level and leave me to deal with the people on mine. At this point, I'm used to dealing with their dramatic school-age gossip anyway.

Oh the Wealthy!

I've held a few unsavory jobs in my employment history, unluckily for me they've included a couple grocery stores. Grocery stores are a weird place to work at. I'm sure there are more than a few of you out there who have shared this thought, while standing idly at a till, waiting for that one customer who will come and comment on how you "look like you were waiting!" for them. Or, how about when the store is about to close and there are about twenty-five people standing in your line, as you are now the last cashier, and they all have way too many items; I'm sure the thought, "Who shops this late at night!?" has gone whipping around your mind faster than you can even blink.

Yeah. We know all about it.

I had initially thought, when starting a new job as a cashier at a grocery in a more affluent area of the city, that maybe this store would be different. Of all the grocery stores that I could possibly work at, this one would be better. The customers would not demand the delicate handling of their mock chicken; the employees would be able to suppress their childish need to gossip on others they work with; the managers would not be overweight, middle-aged men who felt a need to assert their "power" over women.

I now see that I am a very naive individual.

In addition to the mock chicken eaters, employees reliving high school, and that manager who's always pulling up his pants over his stretched abdomen....there is money. Wealthy people. Doing Groceries.

Welcome to my world of grown adults throwing temper tantrums, questions and comments that are worrying in regards to the fate of common sense, rude insults thrown at the most unsuspecting, and the laughable sense of superiority that these same people hold over all those around them.

This is your average grocery store; these are NOT your average customers.