There was a woman who shopped every week on Thursday evening, our open “retail night” in our village. Her weekly grocery excursion from a neighboring town had me shaking in my boots.
Another duty of a checker was to memorize the ad. The sale prices were published on Thursday, so I had about an hour between school and work to memorize the new sale prices before reporting for duty. Without fail, Mrs. H arrived after the supper hour.
This shopper was not a friendly sort and commanded a rather domineering presence. ”Those are 37 cents, not 38,” would be a typical comment. “Check the ad.” Well, if I made a mistake, I had to call the manager to come and correct it. It took me many months to realize this was her little game and she enjoyed humiliating me. My manager laughed and told me not to worry about her, she corrected him, too. However, I did eventually come to play my own game; get every price right and NOT have to rely on a managerial correction!
I guess I owe Mrs. H some gratitude. Learning to deal with curmudgeons early and striving for excellence were probably not what she was aiming to teach, but she did! Tomorrow – Thursday evening protocol.