CVS/Pharmacy vs. Burger King

                               

1)  Blinded By the Light by Manfred Mann's Earth Band
2)  Couldn't Get It Right by Climax Blues Band
3)  Don't Give Up On Us by David Soul
4)  Dreams by Fleetwood Mac
5)  Easy by Commodores
6)  I Like Dreamin' by Kenny Nolan
7)  Lonely Boy by Andrew Gold
8)  So Into You by Atlanta Rhythm Section
9)  Walk This Way by Aerosmith
10) Baby Come Back by Player
11) Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty
12) Da Ya Think I'm Sexy by Rod Stewart
13) I Go Crazy by Paul Davis
14) It's A Heartache by Bonnie Tyler
15) Three Times A Lady by Commodores
16) Y.M.C. A. by Village People

Really?  Dedicate a blog to your place of employment?  As nutty as it sounds, my job at CVS was the first time I realized a life outside of my parents' home.  I'd had little jobs here and there, cleaning, tending, and the family band on some weekends but this was the first "real" job I had and it was the best!

Just before my 16th birthday they started building a Burger King on Pennsylvania Avenue.  It caused quite a stir as it was the first major fast food chain store to come to Warren.  We had had a Red Barn (anybody out there remember them?) and there was a Dairy Queen on the way to Corry but this was a big deal.  I was extremely eager to get a job when I turned 16 so I could afford to get myself some clothes and maybe a class ring.  I wanted some spending cash - pretty normal for a teen, I'd say.  When the trailer on the construction site of the Burger King hung out a banner announcing that they were taking applications for employment I walked straight down from high school after school one day to get in line to fill one out.  Come to find out, they were interviewing as well.  I figured that with the number of people who came out for the jobs, my chances were slim to none.

Finally, it was my turn to fill out my application and hand it in.  The person read it over and, instead of saying, thank you and me leaving, they asked if I could step down to talk to the other person.  I did so, and, of all things, they were intrigued with my family band experience.  I never thought that the one thing I usually tried to keep quiet would be the one thing that led them to hire me on the spot!  In their mind it showed someone who would be able to relate well to the public.  It set me apart from the sea of other teens.  I happily skipped (as close to skipping as you get when you're a teen) down to where my Dad was going to pick me up after work and informed him I had a job!!  He was happy for me and just chuckled when I told him how it was the family band mention that kinda did it for me.  He had been the one to tell me that I should definitely include it in my work experience when we had discussed how to fill out an application the night before.  He loved being right.  Don't we all?

Well, word spread quick at church about my future career at Burger King with congratulations from all.  But one lady, Debbie Parr, came up to me and asked if I was sure I wanted to work at a burger joint.  She told me that they were hiring at her work - CVS/Pharmacy - and she could get me in for an interview if I was interested.  Wow!  I was certainly interested but it really tested my confidence!  She told me about her job - how she was cashier but also stocked shelves, did inventory, put up end caps and followed something called a planogram.  I was pretty sure I could sling burgers and make paper crowns for kids' heads, but all of this stuff Debbie was telling me about sounded too complicated.  The other problem was, they needed someone right away whereas Burger King wouldn't be opening for another month or two.  I wouldn't be 16 for another month and CVS couldn't hire me before turning 16.  So what to do?

I talked to Dad, of course.  He told me to really consider what Debbie was offering to do for me.  He said that he had the confidence in me to be able to learn the tasks at CVS and he also felt that I would be learning skills that I could use later in life.  Did I really want to be serving burgers and in an atmosphere that would put me constantly around greasy food?  (I had just lost quite a bit of weight and he knew it was a concern of mine.)  And, appealing to my vanity perhaps, which uniform did I want to wear - the Burger King one, complete with stupid hat, or the simple red zip-up jacket worn at CVS. (I looked good in red ;-))

Debbie talked to her boss about me and even though I wouldn't be 16 he said for me to come in and he'd interview me.  I went and immediately liked the place.  Everyone was friendly and they all seemed to act like I had already been hired!  It was confusing to me.  I went in back and talked with Chuck, the manager, and he seemed nice enough.  He showed me around and explained what my duties would be.  I filled out the paper work and he said that by the time everything was approved by their headquarters, etc, it would be close enough to my 16th birthday, so why didn't I just go ahead and start.  There was a 3 month trial period.  That made me nervous.  What if I turned down the offer from Burger King, took the CVS job, then it didn't work out at CVS.  What would I do then?

Between Debbie and Dad talking to me, I decided to scare myself spitless and take the job at CVS.

It was a rough start, to be honest.  I started work right before their big quarterly sale.  I was REALLY struggling with the cash register.  Machines scared me.  Math scared me.  This was before the days when the register told you the change - you had to count it out and then back to the customer.  There were strict procedures dictating the order of a sale and the clerk's comments.  The company had secret shoppers and you never knew when one of these were in your line, ready to write you up for not stapling the receipt to the bag or asking if the customer found what they needed.

But the cash register mental block was the worst.  I was dreadfully slow at ringing up customers.  First you had to separate the non-taxable from the taxable items.  You'd ring up the taxable, subtotal, find the correct amount of tax on the  tax table taped to the register, then continue to ring up the rest of the items for the total. If you had an overring, it had to be corrected by a manager or 3rd key(a sort of assistant assistant manager).  Your overages and shortages were attached to your employment record.  Too many and you were gone.  All of these consequences just about paralyzed me.  I don't think my future at CVS looked too bright right then.  My friend, Debbie, was a whiz at the register and she could see I was frustrated.  One Sunday at church she came up to me and told me to report to work earlier than scheduled and she would take me up front and help me with the register.

I don't know just how she did it but it worked!  She had me ring some things up and immediately saw all my hesitancy.  She asked what I was afraid of.  I told her.  She then looked me right in the eye and said, "It's a machine!!  You are a human with a brain!  You are much smarter than it!  It's going to do what you tell it to!  It should be afraid of you!"  So with that whole "you're the boss of the machine" mentality in place, I was able to kick my hesitations to the curb and get down to business!

My confidence in being able to run that register soared.  I became one of the fastest cashiers there and learned to love that part of my job.  During the quarterly sales they always ran a competition among the cashiers - who could ring up the most sales with the least amount of errors AND have an even till at the end of their shift.  Among the part-timers, I usually won!  We would get the paper ads before they were sent out to the public ads and I'd use my study hall time at school and memorize those sale prices.  Looking up prices with a line of people took too much time and cut in to my total sales amount.  People came out in droves to the CVS quarterly sales to take advantage of the great prices.  I loved taking the next customer's basket, sorting out their taxables lickety split, ringing them up, then heading down the finish line to the total.  Bagged, receipt stapled, good day wishes and out the door!  My drawer was almost always even, and if off, only by a few cents.  I loved that cash register by the time I left that job!

Other duties at the store were unloading the truck and stocking the shelves.  The truck driver, Cowboy, was a fun guy and there was always alot of joking around when it was truck day.  We'd run handcart after handcart of bins in to the store, deposit them in the correct aisle, then, when the truck was unloaded, we started emptying the bins, pricing the merchandise and shelving the items, placing the new to the back of the shelf and rotating the older items up front.  We all had our favorite aisles.  I loved the shampoo aisles (loved smelling the new scents) and the tobacco aisle - cherry tobacco is a sublime aroma!

I also learned how to do the planograms.  Basically, they were diagrams of how products should be placed on a shelf.  This was needed when a new product was being introduced or an old one was being discontinued.  I learned later from another job that companies actually purchase shelf locations for their products with the shelves at eye-level costing the most.  As these shelf locations were bought and sold, product placement changed and a new planogram was sent out to the stores.

I also managed the greeting card department.  To this day I find myself straightening cards and resorting envelopes if they've been messed up when I go to Target or some other store.

The people I worked with were great.  I hit it off great with one of the pharmacists, Tom, who recognized that I didn't use foul language and didn't "party."  Sometimes the jokes and language at the store would get raunchy.  They couldn't believe that I didn't drink or smoke or try to sneak out of the house (not Debbie, of course).  But Tom would always look out for me and let me know that if it got too much I could escape back by him.  But it was all good.  Employees didn't change much.  Pete, a kid who was the stock boy when I started, was the sweetest kid ever!  Debbie didn't work there much longer after I started.  My friend, Kathie, came to work there for awhile towards the end of high school.  When Pete quit they hired Mark Campbell, a guy from school.  I didn't really know Mark well at school. He was Class President, on the football team, and your all-around popular guy.  I was nervous at first when he came to work but I soon came to know him as a very funny guy who did great Steve Martin impersonations.  He was a sincerely nice guy and treated me very well.  I'm glad I got to know him before I left.

I worked at CVS for two years, earning my little raise through every scheduled interview along the way.  I loved having spending money and being able to buy some clothes.  But I was frugal and I saved like nobody's business.  I had a system.  I would pocket the dollars in the singles column and the change and put the rest in the bank.  For instance - if my paycheck came out to $68.56 I would pocket $8.56 and deposit the $60.00 in my savings.  If I had a major purchase coming up I would keep enough out for that or withdraw what I needed.  But, for the most part, I budgeted my meals, etc from that little amount. School lunches, which I paid for myself, were, I think .50 or .75.  I would get a plate of fries for dinner or, if I had enough, a sub as well.  I loved being able to buy Christmas and birthday gifts for my family with my very own money.  All in all, I had a nice little nest egg saved up when I graduated from high school and moved west.  I still have very fond memories of my CVS days.  Very fond, indeed.

I love this playlist - even though it includes a song I don't particularly like.  It is a small sampling of what went out over the airwaves during my wonder years at CVS.  I absolutely adore the fact that I was a teen in the 70s and was blessed to be influenced by the diversity of the music of that era.  Far out!!