Retail

After six months of working at a grocery store, I believe I’ll always respect the people who work there. The job is thankless. The job is endless. There is never enough time to handle every problem, every customer, every mess left behind by somebody.

I can confidently say that I’m glad to took this job. Not that I had a choice, but glad I didn’t choose something worse… like unemployment. Or a job that didn’t pay the bills.

But good grief, retail makes you pay for it.

The first five months working in the produce section were the most exhausting, most miserable I’ve been at a job. I don’t know how I managed for so long. But there’s always a breaking point.

My breaking point was getting walked to the back, where the massive walk-in refrigerator was. My supervisor absolutely yelling at me for not helping, despite my questions about “why”, “how”, “where”. There was no solution. There was no right question. I had apparently not done enough, and they were intent on yelling until they felt better about it.

I applied to a different position in the store that day. It took nearly a month to get transferred over to the bakery, but in time, it happened.

I got to bake cookies. I got to bake bread. It was peaceful.

It’s not perfect. It’s not easy. It’s not without its frustrations and bad days. I still look forward to finding a job in the tech world again.

I miss working in an office. I know, I’m weird like that.