I may have stolen the format, but the experiences are all (regrettably, amusingly) my own.
McKinnon's Meat Market
Position: Bagger, promoted to Cashier
Age: 15-16
Loaded 5lb leaking sacks of uncooked chicken wings into plastic bags for minimum wage. But the management really believed in me. On the first day, I helped my supervisor carry some groceries to his car. He told me I seemed like a smart girl and if I played my cards right I "might marry someone who owns a McKinnon's someday." Horrified by the possibility that I might posses the makings of a butcher's wife, I rushed to the mirror to see if I had broken out in a ruddy complexion.
Stop&Shop
Position: Cashier
Age: 16?
Not much to note. Would have been promoted to Customer Service but I was late that day because I wanted to try on the sequins platform flip flops I ordered from the Delias catalog. This will not be the first time I let punctuality issues keep me from achieving my dreams...I really need to move to one of those cultures where you can be three hours late for an appointment and nobody cares, they just take a nap.
T.G.I. Friday's
Position: Hostess
Age: 1 day of my 16th year
Did you know you have to wait for the customers to stop eating before you can leave? Well, you do. And I had to go see the Harry Potter movie with my family. Them's quittin' terms. I only took the job because I bombed the interview at the neighboring Babies R Us. I guess you're supposed to agree when they ask if you like children. I learned a lot of things that month.
American Eagle
Position: Sales Associate
Age: 16-17
Do you ever come out of a drunken haze, look around and begin to realize just what you've done/said/eaten/destroyed? Well, after four months at the American Eagle in Quincy Market, I became painfully aware of my regrettable (but discounted!) clothing purchases. There might have been shortalls. My best friend Kristin also worked there that summer and managed to put together a girl version of Steve's uniform on Blue's Clues.. We all oohed and ahhed over it due to what can only be described as Retail Stockholm Syndrome. Rough.
Krispy Kreme
Position: Sales Associate, Beverage Specialist
Age: 18, 19
I was pretty stellar at this job. Two of my friends had positions in Production, actually making the donuts. Carlos, a creepy Brazilian man who also made the donuts, apparently said some very sexual things about me. This is worrisome not only for the being-raped-amongst-stacks-of-Original-Glazed factor but because the uniform made me look like Pat from SNL. I worked here for 40 hours a week, so I guess it was my first full-time job. After a shift, my family would hover around me to inhale my sugary scent. I took a lot of showers that summer. (Down, Carlos!)
Abercrombie & Fitch
Position: Manager-In-Training
Age: The two weeks before my 22nd birthday
After enduring more interviews and form rejection letters than any of my college roommates, the acceptance into the MIT program at Abercrombie was like a valentine from your gay best friend. It isn't what you want, you won't get anywhere with it, but it still technically counts. I spent two weeks spritzing mannequins with cologne and trolling the Boston area for people good-looking enough to fold tee shirts. Everyone there used to be (or currently was) the popular kid in high school. I did marching band and had a little boy's haircut. I did not belong. I'm pretty sure they all thought I was overweight, but I still fit in the clothes so I was allowed to stay. On the morning of my 22nd birthday, I woke up and decided I would never come in again. It was my birthday present to myself that year. They mailed me my one and only paycheck and I used it on industrial cleaner to get the stench out of my clothes.
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