Working Mom

Well, I have ventured out of my home for a job at Save On Foods. I landed a cashier position at my local grocery store. The interview there was an interesting one. It seemed like it was there primarily as a test to see if I would show up and could sign my name. I asked more questions than my interviewer. It took a while for my criminal record check to clear (maybe they couldn't find me...), so it took nearly a month for me to get started there.

We had a "First Day" where they make you watch videos about the company and vague ideals that no one actually seems to believe in real life. Then I had about 10 hours of training before they let me loose on customers. I was supposed to have a buddy, but it was pretty busy and people kept getting pulled away, so most of the time, it was me and another trainee, with the trainee bagging for me. Then I took a shift the next day (yesterday) even though I wasn't originally scheduled that day. I'm trying to get the manager in charge of the schedule on my side. Always a good idea. I was also supposed to have a buddy for that shift, bagging for me and feeding me codes (all the produce has codes; check your next store-bought apple), but he/she ended up calling in sick, so I was pretty much by myself again. There was a more experienced cashier on with me, so that was pretty good and he helped me through a couple of difficulties. He kept feeding me bad codes, though, so I'm not sure whether to trust him. It's a good thing I'm so calm, cool and collected. And also that I don't pay any attention to how long the lines are.

So, here are some tips for you Save On More shoppers.

1. Have your Save On More card ready before your order is rung through. There's a box that comes up on my screen at the beginning of your order all ready for it. I have to make it disappear to start your order and then I have to hit another button in order to enter it in again.
2. Give me your coupons at the beginning. Some of the coupons get scanned in instead of the item, so you're really going to speed things up if I know when I have to scan in a coupon instead of your item.

I'd add things like "Be patient" and "Be kind" and all that, but you should do that to everyone anyways. People seem to be much kinder to you when you've got "Cashier in training" on your badge, so I think I might keep my training badge forever.