I know there are other grocery stores; just not for me. I was a Kroger shopper before I became a Kroger employee; the latter experience just strengthened the former. I like the store layout, I like the store brands… and I especially like connecting with friends I find there.
One of my favorite parts of my job as a cashier there was the repeated contact with so many shoppers. They became more than mere customers; we gradually came to know details of each other’s’ lives beyond their shopping habits. I loved wondering at the start of each shift which of my shopping buddies might walk in the store that day.
Not surprisingly, that was the one aspect of the job I missed once I retired. I didn’t miss the schedule, the work, or even the paycheck nearly as much as I missed the people. Thankfully I have found that I run into them all over town in other places now, and we chat as happily as we did when groceries were the main concern.
The store I stopped in today was not the one I worked in; it was just one I was driving by after an appointment in another part of town. So I was surprised to see a former coworker hard at work in this location… when I was sure she had retired from the one we manned together. Glad to see each other, we hugged, and then I had to ask if I had been wrong about her retirement.
She said no; she had retired… but found that she wasn’t doing much in the abundance of time now available to her. Fearing that she would just sit around and become old and feeble, playing on her phone all day, she chose to go back to work part-time to keep herself up and active. I told her I would remember to come in and connect with her when I’m driving by, because I believe it’s the friend connections more than the work schedule that she needs most of all.
“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:”
(Ecclesiastes 4:9 NIV)
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