Everything I have learned from working in the customer service industry

September 27, 2010--Day 1

Welcome to my first blog entry whoever out there may be reading this! You may have a few questions. Like, first--what is all of this about? Well, I have a goal. For a full year I am going to blog about my experiences being a grocery store cashier. You may think to yourself..."hmmm that sounds pretty, umm, boring." Well, you would be sort of right. Being a grocery store cashier can be a mindless, boring, mundane job. So why write a blog about it? That's a very good question. See I have worked in the customer service industry starting with my first job at a fast food restaurant (which shall remain nameless). I didn't particularly like working in fast food--but hey it was a job and it paid for my first car when I was 16 so I had no major complaints (except for all the weight I gained from eating all of those french fries...but that's a whole different story).

My second job during high school was working at a grocery store. I graduated from high school, went to college, went to more school after college. And then years and years and years after graduating high school I needed a second job because I had student loans and other bills to pay so I began looking for a second job with flexible hours and I found myself right back where I had been in high school--working at a grocery store at nights. Since that first job I have continued working with customers in one way or another--I have worked as a bank teller, I have worked at a book store, and as a grocery store cashier. I generally really like working with people but I have to say there are times when it gets tiring and there are times when the people get annoying. So that leads back to the original question--why are you doing this?

First, there are the personal reasons. I really like writing and I thought writing a blog might be a good start. In fact, there have been a few really good books I have read recently (Julie and Julia and Waiter Rant in particular--both very good reads by the way) by authors that started out by writing daily blogs and I thought maybe I could do that too. I think the best writing starts with writing about what you know. So I thought to myself, 'well, what do you know?' and the answer was, 'you know very little' . And I was a little depressed, to be honest...but I thought I could start simply and just write about my experiences as a grocery store cashier. Also, let's be honest--being a grocery store cashier is by no means a dream job for most people (in fact I kind of hate it) so I thought writing would be a good way to vent my frustrations, find the humor in the situation by sharing a few funny stories and turn a negative situation into something positive.

Second, it seems to me that the whole idea of writing a blog a sort of egocentric. The writer is mostly writing about themselves...but I also wanted this blog to help people in some small way. Help customers by offering shopping tips and ways to save money and help cashiers by giving them a voice and a chance to air their grievances by talking about the things that drive them crazy about their job without having to worry about being fired.

And the final reason for writing this is to express how impressed I am by most of the people I work with and the many others who work in the customer service industry. The people who I work with are all different. Some are college students working to put themselves through school, others are high school student working to pay for their first cars or their car insurance (ahh that takes me back) some are single moms working to support their families and for many of them the grocery store is a second job. And while they are all pretty different what they have in common is they have personal goals and dreams that they are working toward and are working hard to make sure that they achieve those goals and to provide for their families.

So while I really dread walking into that grocery store for work I am having fun writing about my experiences! It helps me get through a shift to think about what I am going to write about. When I mention anyone by name keep in mind that the names have been changed to protect the innocent (or not so innocent). I hope it's (at least a little) entertaining and that you have as much fun reading this as I am having writing it. I don't promise it will always be edge-of-your-seat exciting but I do promise I will do my best to fair, honest and helpful.

Enjoy and happy shopping!