It took nine weeks, but I was officially back in employment this morning at 9am. (Full stats over on Twitter) No the ideal workplace but it was a job and in the current climate I am happy to be earning something. At 9am, I was assigned to a till to shadow a checkout girl. Within a few transactions, I was thrown into at the deep end with a customer completing his full Christmas shopping, to a total value of around £160. I got there, just about but it was hard work. I did not take the option to sit down, preferring to stay mobile on my feet. (I would suffer for this at the end of the day). I was on the checkout until 1pm when I had a thirty-minute lunch break. I do not recall exactly how many customers I served but my trainer was getting bored sitting behind me, so would take over from time to time, particularly when a queue built up. However, the position of the till was a key factor in how many customers came to our checkout (16). As we have our back-to-customers, they are more likely to go to till 14, as the checkout person there (I should really start using the word colleague) faces in the direction of the oncoming customers with their trolley loaded with food shopping. There was a great deal to learn, I thought I had left this all behind in my last retail position, over seven years ago. Back then, the World Cup was in coming to a close and I worked at my local Jackson store on Narborough Road. Since then the family chain has been bought out by Sainsbury’s. Fast forward back to 2009 and I was having to learn how to operate the checkout (which was not that difficult). The only thing that was difficult was the PLU codes for the fruit which need to be entered before the item is weighed. My colleagues knew them off the top of their heads, so would just give me the code to tap into the checkout. (There was an A4 lamented card with all the codes and photographs if I got stuck). Around 11am, I headed over to Music & Video to see if I could see my line manager but he was not around, so I headed back to the customer service desk, to find out if my training would end now or if I would have to continue for the rest of the morning. It was the second option, even though we had been told at our induction the previous day that it would only be a few hours till training before I would be thrown onto my department. It was another two hours on the checkout to go then and I did more observation than actual till training. However, when I was serving, I did get some positive comments. One lady with her son said I was doing a good job and an American chap said he should have spotted the “trainee” badge from a distance but was happy with the service he received and wished me a good day. At 1pm exactly we were relived and I headed upstairs to the canteen to get some lunch, it was quite busy and there was an award ceremony taking place for the Mystery Shopping Results. One thing quite apparently, quite quickly is the family atmosphere, among many colleagues. They also have been working at the store (or the company) for a great deal of time. Numerous colleagues have 15+ years service on their name badges. After lunch, I was walking through the office and spotted my manager and he took me down to my department. I was introduced to my colleagues, and ‘buddy’ got working. My buddy is called Fuzzy. No, that is no joke or crazy nickname to cover up her true identity. I was given a quick tour of the section, which has reduced in size since the re-fit in September. I was told to familiarise myself with the layout and where items were before being given a guided tour of the store rooms. Then it was down to some work, I took out a cage of DVDs from the most recent delivery and went through a process of security tagging before putting stock out onto the shop floor. Nothing too taxing but every so often I would be asked about titles and have to check with a colleague to see if we had some in stock or not. (My pass for the warehouse had not yet been enabled). It was a long afternoon and I spent zero time on the till. The time does go by quite quickly, particularly when you are isolated from the outside world as I am. At the end of my shift, I had a substantial number of DVDs to put back into the warehouse. These would then be put out by the night staff. You may not know but the High Wycombe store is a 24-hour operation, so employs staff to work through the night, replenishing the shelves.

It was dark as I got outside and headed home, I had only just switched on my phone and had a text from my sister, Julie to get some bread and washing up liquid, for a split second I considered ignoring the SMS and just heading home, but my better judgement told me to turn around and I did. I kept my MP3 player on, as I walked through the store, and must have looked like a very anti-social customer. I rushed through to the checkout, even though perhaps this would have been the ideal opportunity to use the Self Service Checkout, I decided to queue up and be served by a human being. As I walked back home, listening to If I Knew Then by The Backstreet Boys, I felt content with a satisfactory day in the office. Sure, it is far from perfect but a job is better than no job. My thoughts turned to the early 1990s when I would watch a game show on ITV after GMTV, during half terms and the summer holidays. The reality is anything but…