Today was my first day as a checker at A&J select, and now whenever I look at a tomato, I think “520”. (We have codes for the produce, that’s the large tomato code.) Other than that, the experience wasn’t all that bad. I goofed up one transaction really bad, but Lorraine was able to fix it in a few minutes. Luckily, most people are pretty nice about trainees.

The most intimidating part of the job is actually calling for more checkers/courtesies. I never feel like it is important enough to call a courtesy, but I guess it is faster with one. I just don’t want to irritate them too much. I remember how annoyed I got when I was called up for a sequence of small courtesies.

(To those unfamiliar with the lingo, a Courtesy Clerk is the one who bags groceries, among other tasks. When you get a call, it is like “Courtesy to 3 please”. Thus, the calls and the bagging jobs are collectively referred to as courtesies.)

Tomorrow, I learn the rest of the job, and Lorraine said she will be a little further away, so I get to see how much I still remember, and how much I have yet to learn.

More on this topic then
–Nathan