Well, its been a week and a half-ish since I started work at the supermarket, and I thought its about time I wrote a post about it. Don’t want another Uni post where it took me till the end of the first year to write about it, oops.

So, I went in on Friday 19th and was there 10-4, which was pretty good. I was given a short tour, told who most people were (I know maybe most of them now) and was sent straight to the kiosk for till training. They said sorry, but they really needed cashiers, and I was fine with that. I’d thought I’d be till trained on my first day anyways. The tills they use there are slightly old fashioned I think, so that if I went to work in another shop I’d have to be re-trained lol.

I got the gist of it, but did void quite a few receipts, which they said was to be expected since I was knew. A lot of the regulars would say things like “Don’t worry, you’ll be a whizz at it next week” to which I’d reply sarcastically in a nice way “How did you guess I was new?”. Everyone there was nice and friendly, both staff and customers.

I was kinda left on the tills on my own for a bit, while the person teaching me would ask if I’d be okay for a few minutes while she did something. I’d say yeah and then oh, what do you know, another void >.< But I am getting better! I think it was about 20-odd the first day, the second time maybe 3-4 and the last time 2, and one of which was NOT my fault. (The till added it up incorrectly I swear! Lol, the things were like £2 each and the till totalled it up to £12ish, but the till had just gone weird and been fixed).

Doing the lottery tickets was weird at first, think I have it now, but people are annoying. I’d confirm if they wanted the lotto, thunderball, euro etc, because I had got them wrong a few times and had to void them. So I’d ask people confirming what I thought they said, they’d say yes, I’d press some buttons and then hear “Oh wait no!” and then they would look at me like it was my fault

I depended on two people there during the day for help, a woman and a girl, and this guy from the back would buy stuff and ask how it was going, and the butcher guy helped me out with the lottery when I did something wrong. It was funny, well I think so.

I had a 45 min lunch break on my own so I went over to the cafe and found a newspaper which I read, I need to take a book or a magazine to read. A woman from the bakery also had a break and this other guy and we all sat in mostly silence, very, weird but okay.

So it was a pretty good first day, my friend who works there was on holiday at the time, and this other girl I know who works there, wasn’t there, but yeah I wasn’t nervous or worried or anything. Which is weird, as I thought I’d be worried going in and being there at the start but I was fine.

I was then told I would be working in the cafe on sunday. There’s a car boot sale on sundays round the back, and the cafe is super busy then. I worked in the cafe from 10-1, they really were easing me in at first, oh how thats changed

I turned up to take over from the girl I knew, who was needed at the shop, and was on the till. It was basically the same as the shop till, except less buttons to press, so I only made like one void. It flew by in no time and I was working with the girl who helped me out before.

My mums giving me lifts and picking me up, instead of me getting the bus, but I’ll be paying her petrol money, since its a 15 min walk to the bus stop. At first she was only going to give me lifts for the first week, but I’m in earlier now, and one day I’m in before there are any busses I think

Then I was in thursday and friday, for 8 hour shifts and omg, my new work shoes are killing my feet. I was in the kiosk again, and thats fine, except I’m standing in one place for 8 hours, so it makes my heels sore. I was also told to bag potatoes inbetween customers, which was actually okay since it give me something to do inbetween customers. Then I hurt my back, well the next day I’d realised I’d hurt my back whenever I moved it, since I leaned over to get potatoes stupidly, and yeah, will need to rethink that next time.

There was also another new girl working there, she was working on a section and they gave us 10 min break and lunch break at the same time, so I was talking to her throughout them and she’s nice, only a year older than me. The next day was pretty much the same except I didn’t have breaks the same time as the new girl, so ate on my own again, reading some magazines. The break was sooo good for my poor feet.

It’s been really hot this week, so have to get used to working in the heat The cafes a bit worse since I’m by the kitchen and right next to the tea and coffee maker. I saw my friend on thursday and thats when we get paid.

Its an old fashioned way of paying which is really cool. Its how I used to be paid during the paper round, where they give you the money and the info to go with it. I’ll be getting paid from thursday-friday, so I only got paid for doing two shifts. That was 9 hours in total on min wage so I had £41, yay monies! Which I had sort of already spent, shopping with my friend. (I bought jeans, a dress, red shoes and leggings).

The next sunday I was in, I saw the rota and my heart sank a bit. 7-1pm they wanted me in by. I never had to wake up that early for school or college, just if I needed to travel for hours maybe, or for a walk with cadets.

I went to bed at 11:30pm the night before (that was crazy early for me) and…..I did not fall asleep all night! I had cramps, was hot/cold all the time, couldn’t get comfortable, my mind was in over drive and you know when you really need to be asleep then it makes it worse? Well yeah, so no sleep at all, it kept getting lighter and lighter and birds were singing and then my alarm went off at 6am.

Had some hot chocolate (ha) to wake me up, maybe I should try coffee and tea again….but then I’d never sleep! My mum drove me in and I went through the bakery and there were already people waiting outside to come into the cafe (which didn’t open till another half hour) and there were already people leaving with things they’d bought. By 7am people! What was wrong with them? I wished I could be in bed haha.

I’d bought insoles for my feet. The ones on the balls of my feet worked, but my heels still killed, and fairly soon into the day. I’ll have to buy some black trainers or something, because I can’t handle it. Some people say my feet will get used to it, but my friends worked there for a year now and she hasn’t, scary.

Heard a bit of gossip from my co-workers, so uh, not everythings good there, but hey, I need the money and this is better that no pay! All the people selling stuff came in a few points during the day, some were rude and some were nice.

The one woman was really horrible and rude, I can’t exactly remember what she was saying, but she was complaining. There was a big queue and only two of us there, and I was new and she was mean, grrr! Also, these three woman came in, and for some reason all ordered at the same time, but they weren’t paying together, and were friends.

I don’t know what was wrong with them, do they do that in other places? I was trying to take the first woman’s orders, and then another one would chip in, then another etc. I tried telling them ONE AT A TIME nicely but it didn’t work. The girl I was working with was taking down the orders and then we finally got it sorted. Then the first woman came back complaining she’d been given the wrong food, she had asked for it but cancelled and wanted her money back (but to keep the food) and how the hell did she expect us to hear her cancel it when he friends were demanding our attention? Meh, I’ll be more firm next time and try to ignore them haha.

A cute guy came in a few times too, so that was nice, wonder if he’ll be there next week

Then I went home and slept, and slept and slept and went out for a pub quiz (we didn’t win). So that’s what works been like in a short/long? update, and I have work tomorrow and thursday. 9-5 each day. My friend should be picking me up after work and we’ll go half shopping/half to starbucks. I think I might not be able to walk much