I was in charge of the cheese section at a major gourmet grocery store that you know the name of. When I say in charge, it was more the product curation, ordering and in-store “marketing” than the scheduling, conflict management and the more tedious stuff. But I’d do things like set the demo program throughout the store, “design” the cheese case and be the person that was called over as the “expert” when folks with too much money and too little knowledge wanted to feel like they knew what they were talking about.
There was a pleasant, young woman who was a regular customer, none of the negatives of above, but definitely seemed to have enough money to buy anything and everything I’d recommend without even a feigned concern or a cursory glance at the prices. I didn’t know it myself, but I was eventually told by others that woman was Mandy Moore (a very well known pop star and actress, but in maybe a slower point in her career).
I guess one day, my day off, someone noticed her waiting in the section, offered to help her and she politely refused and stayed where she was. They’d send other employees after a bit and she’d again politely decline help, but just stayed in the section “like she was waiting for something” and just line of half-browsing for a noticeably longer time. Eventually she went back up to the original person that tried to help her and asked if a specific employee was available to help her (with her giving a more generous description of me, as I’m told). She was told I wasn’t working that day and I guess she left without buying anything from the section.
So maybe that was a day that could have lead to a much different life had I been working? I resigned from the store pretty soon after as it was actually my 2nd job and I couldn’t sustain the hours of both anymore. But the funniest part is that other employee that Ms. Moore was asking about me would eventually become my wife years later :)
I was in charge of the cheese section at a major gourmet grocery store that you know the name of. When I say in charge, it was more the product curation, ordering and in-store “marketing” than the scheduling, conflict management and the more tedious stuff. But I’d do things like set the demo program throughout the store, “design” the cheese case and be the person that was called over as the “expert” when folks with too much money and too little knowledge wanted to feel like they knew what they were talking about.
There was a pleasant, young woman who was a regular customer, none of the negatives of above, but definitely seemed to have enough money to buy anything and everything I’d recommend without even a feigned concern or a cursory glance at the prices. I didn’t know it myself, but I was eventually told by others that woman was Mandy Moore (a very well known pop star and actress, but in maybe a slower point in her career).
I guess one day, my day off, someone noticed her waiting in the section, offered to help her and she politely refused and stayed where she was. They’d send other employees after a bit and she’d again politely decline help, but just stayed in the section “like she was waiting for something” and just line of half-browsing for a noticeably longer time. Eventually she went back up to the original person that tried to help her and asked if a specific employee was available to help her (with her giving a more generous description of me, as I’m told). She was told I wasn’t working that day and I guess she left without buying anything from the section.
So maybe that was a day that could have lead to a much different life had I been working? I resigned from the store pretty soon after as it was actually my 2nd job and I couldn’t sustain the hours of both anymore. But the funniest part is that other employee that Ms. Moore was asking about me would eventually become my wife years later :)