MOM AND POP SHOP

Thank you Ron for saving this.
I read an editorial the other day in which the author expressed sadness at the closing of her local convenience store. That is how she expressed it, 'her' convenience store. The employees, many of whom had been there for years, were like family to her and to many of her neighbors. I was touched by this article because I have worked at a local convenience store for several years. I enjoy my job. It is at the store that I meet and get to know the people in the neighborhood. They all have their own routines and idiosyncrasies. I take pride in becoming familiar with their needs.
The store is located in a large college town and is surrounded by fraternities. Although I don't feel that old myself, I find I take a maternal outlook on the pledges. I truly enjoy having them come in and am frequently amused by their dedication. A common occurrence with pledges is the timed convenience store run. This means that they have to run through the house and gather orders from all the members. Then they run into the store, list in hand, and begin searching for all of the requested items. I've learned that I can assist them by saving a box or two to make carrying 12 large fountain sodas, 5 bags of chips, 8 candy bars, 3 packs of cigarettes and two gallons of water possible.
Then there is the inevitable treasure hunt. This could include anything from my signature to a purple lighter. The more obscure the item, the more pleasure I get from finding it for them. After one or two requests I frequently have that item by the counter ready when they come in. This often leads them to believe that I am psychic.
Very often I allow them to maintain that belief. I hand them a lighter in the favorite color before they decide which they want. I tell them where to locate items before they ask. I know their names before they reach the counter. I have reminded them to pick up what their roommate asked them to bring back.
How do I do it? The lighter is a simple guess. I'm often wrong but people remember the times I guessed right. Showing them where to locate things is usually because I can see what they already have. Someone carrying marshmallows and Hershey bars is probably looking for graham crackers. Knowing names and reminding them of forgotten items comes from listening. I overhear them talking to each other.
******************************************************************************
The customers are my favorite part of my job. We encourage people to bring their pets in. We give out dog biscuits and our animal guests remember us. One week we were out of biscuits. The look of expectancy followed by disappointment was heartrendingly. I've become familiar with many dogs and often wish that our human customers would behave as well. I have a theory that people who spend that kind of time with their pet raise well socialized animals.
We had a Sunday morning customer with three golden retrievers. He liked being able to stop for coffee on his way back from walking the dogs. They made quite a picture sitting in a semicircle as he poured his coffee, glancing over their shoulders looking at me. When he came to the counter, they would sit in a line and wait for their treats, their reward for behaving so well.
Another customer also used the reward idea. His was a friendly lab mix with gray hair on his chin. He would sit across the street and watch as his master came to the store. He'd get "a soda and a dog biscuit please." He was training it to stay home and not cross the street.
One of my very favorite animal guests was Rita. She was an old yellow lab of the country variety. What I mean is that she had the most relaxed attitude of any dog I ever met. She was never on a leash as far as I can tell. Her owner and she simply went everywhere together. It was as natural to them as breathing. Rita loved dog biscuits and bounded for me as soon as she came in the door. She would shake from head to tail in exuberance. Even if I told her to sit her whole body still shook. Her sheer happiness at life was contagious. Then the day came that her owner came in without her. He had had to put her to sleep. I cried for both of them.
***************************************************************************
In a business where the average term of employment is three and a half months, my coworkers and I are longtimers. Our most recent addition has six months now. Most of us have years. We have a strong sense of loyalty to our boss and to each other. More important, we have a sense of loyalty to our customers.
There is a lot more to working in a convenience store than you might expect. When I shop I probably notice different things that you do. I notice dusty shelves, or worse, dusty products. I notice if takeout cup dispensers are empty. I notice burning coffee pots or meat sauce that hasn't been stirred in awhile. I notice when displays are noticeably empty or floors aren't swept. I also notice how rare it is to be noticed. I've met clerks that not only cannot offer a simple hello, they act annoyed that you had the gall to interrupt a very important phone call from her boyfriend. Even the 'professional' types are coldly efficient and play it by the rules. Our customers are real people with real wants, needs, attitudes, habits, and desires. No matter what I am doing, I greet each customer as they enter. Valued customers enjoy being noticed and would be thieves know that you are aware of them.
Most of the customers are honest, decent people. Occasionally someone will come to the counter and find themselves a dollar or so short. If I have it, I offer to contribute it for them. By my estimate, 96% of them come back with the money within a few hours.
One time a gentleman bought a fairly large money order. He returned a few minutes later. He was looking for it. Unfortunately, it was lost outside. An hour later it was turned in, found by a passerby. I tried to pass the word on that a lost money order had been found but he didn't return. For three weeks that money order sat in a drawer waiting to be claimed. In case you didn't know, a money order is the equivalent of cash. It can be deposited by anyone. None of is rich and we all have our own financial pressures. Still, after three weeks, when he again returned to buy another money order, this time asking for a pen so he could fill it out immediately, he left the store with both of his money orders and a renewed sense of well-being toward his fellow man.
***************************************************************************
From the Commentary page of the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday, February 2, 1997:
Convenience-store Light is a Sign of Community Life by Peter Landry
In this season short on light, we cherish brightness where we find it and mourn the lights we lose. Maybe that's why I like to drive or walk the neighborhood after dark, celebrating the souls who leave the Christmas lights up late into the new year. Or why I mark the homes whose porches are always lit in welcome or expression. Or patronize the businesses that stay open late, inviting outsiders with interiors: illuminated shelves, browsing patrons and, perhaps, the random friendly face.Which brings me to the fate of my Wawa. I like to think of it as mine, though it serves my whole neighborhood, college kids and adults alike, and countless transients everyday. I really have no more claim than the others, though I like to think I do. My Wawa is right across the street from my office and has served me morning coffee nearly everyday for a year and a half. It serves me lunch of soup or hoagie, too, and has saved the day on countless evenings when the milk or cat food or orange juice ran out. Soon it will be no more. It is closing, victim of consolidation and a small space. There are two others within a mile, and this one, after years and years and years, will be passing into local history. It seems silly to mourn a convenience store, and a chain one at that. But in suburbia there are few enough places where people gather, share a bit of social commerce, and go their routine ways. The customers, like me, are creatures of habit, and over the weeks and months, we have gotten to know each other's faces, if not our names. The landscape crews and day laborers who meet there early, the bank workers and oil employees breaking from office time, the students snacking after school. The staff, remarkably, has been a steady presence in a changeable field, family almost, quirky, friendly, easy, cool, as familiar as a shortcut home. Mark and Nekola, Donald and Mary, Christian, Jesse and Ryan -- I've never known last names. But I know enough to wonder: In a matter of weeks, where will they be? And what will become of the building -- the third in three blocks to change hands in just the last couple months? Will this change the neighborhood we live and work in and how we relate to it? Wherever we live, we thrive on connection. It's not enough to co-exist. We need to join, reach out, share. Little towns and old city blocks tie us by sheer geography: close quarters breed close relationships, good or bad. In suburbs, space is everything, the coveted commodity. But with space comes distance. It takes work to bridge that gap, to make connection, to make a community. A little Wawa on a business street is such a bridge. And at night it is a kind of beacon, as well. Night is not when I use it most, but it is when I will miss the store the most. The light again. On a dark street, the night convenience store is an Edward Hopper vision, home for nighthawks and ice-cream cravers. It is an arresting vision, one to make you stop and think. It is a reminder that not everyone is locked up tight at home, cocooned against the world. It is a reminder that we share our space, suburban or no, with neighbors, colleagues and visitors passing through. It is a reminder that service, even for money, is memorable if done well. It is a reminder no one is wholly alone. The light is a sign of life. Soon sadly, to be dark, in this place.
Peter Landry is a writer and editor in Bryn Mawr.
****************************************************************************
I opted for a working title of Mom and Pop Shop to differentiate the store that I work for from those that are corporately owned. Our store is a franchise of a large chain. This means that we have an individual owner. There are fewer and fewer of these stores around. The parent corporation is slowly closing them and opening larger stores. You've seen them. They often have other stores attached to them, such as a Burger King, McDonalds, Subway etc. This is a practice
called cobranding.
Another common practice of corporate stores is to offer related services such as quick oil change shops or car washes. To be profitable, these stores must be located in high traffic areas. They are rarely found around the corner from your home. Convenience is a catchword for these stores. True, you may get or do more at one stop than you could at a small store. Often the prices are a little lower as well. Even so, I prefer to shop at smaller stores like our own. It is here that you can find service at its best.
There is something comforting about seeing familiar faces and clerks that call you by name, knowing what you usually smoke or drink. I have served three or four customers in a row without ever asking what they would like or telling them what it costs. I see them coming in and set down their cigarettes or newspaper by the time they reach the counter. They have the exact change in their hands. We exchange greetings, perhaps some local gossip and they are on their way in a matter of moments.
Going to a corporate store can take much longer. Convenience stores are experimenting with automation. To get a plain hotdog and pay for gas you need to go to two separate clerks. The 'food service' clerk then requests your order slip for the hotdog. This is to be sure that it will be prepared properly! If you have other purchases as well, your items will be scanned or looked up for pricing. Most corporate employees are shared among the stores. If a store has a shortage of employees, some will be transferred from another store. This means that they do not get to learn the prices which vary from location to location. They do not get to learn the customers. Most large stores purchase their inventory from one selected supplier. The home office decides on what products its stores will carry. The corporation also makes a profit from arrangements with soda and cigarette vendors to carry seasonal displays and by making bulk purchases. The result is occasionally lower prices for the customer but more often in dead inventory in the stores as the deep discounts are usually to promote a product that does not sell well. These products are forced on to the stores.
We have the flexibility to purchase items that are often requested by our customers through outside vendors. We control our inventory and can provide a wide variety of goods to our clientele. Another major advantage of this is that the goods we provide are often fresher than in our larger counterparts. I have many customers who go out of their way to come to our store for dairy products, tobacco products, and bread goods.
Our employees know what we stock and the prices. We've all been at the same store for a long time. We share information with one another. If a customer changes his buying habits, the word is soon spread and that customer can maintain the true convenience of having his needs met without much hassle. Our customers are our number one priority. They sense it and keep coming back. That is how we have maintained our profitability and continually show increased sales.
Our parent company holds regular contests and recognition programs for employees who distinguish themselves in regard to customer service. As an employee of a franchised store, we are not eligible for these programs. At times this annoys me. Other times, I realize that what they are attempting to achieve by design, we have achieved naturally. It is in customer relations that the job becomes rewarding and enjoyable. The corporation has replaced the joy of people with material incentives while virtually removing the means to achieve that goal.
As employees, we have all become efficient at our jobs through sheer repetition. The customers make our job interesting. This means we can provide fast service with a personal touch. I have made it my goal to see that no-one leaves the store without a smile.
I have been in many convenience stores as a shopper. I am sure that you have as well. There are few things as aggravating to me as being treated as a mere number, or worse yet, as an interruption. I enter a store where the clerk is lounging on the counter, on the phone with his girlfriend, the radio blaring heavy metal music. If he deigns to notice me at all he might set aside the magazine he has been reading over the phone. Otherwise, I stand at the counter getting more and more annoyed waiting to be served. He comes over and rings up my purchases. One has no price tag. He asks me to go over and find one with a tag! After totalling my bill he uses the register to calculate my change. If I find the penny to pay my $5.26 with he becomes flustered. I give up and take the change he offers me. He quickly returns to his phone call and magazine and I have to get his attention again to request a bag and plead for matches to light my just purchased cigarettes. His look and attitude let me know that he resents the added intrusion on his time.I would find these situations bothersome at any time but because I spend eight hours of my day performing the same job, I find it very difficult not to want to retrain him. Such attitudes and behaviors would not be accepted at our store, period. He would have been fired.
The saddest part of all, to me, is that according to the corporate world, our employees are misfits. We do not meet corporate hiring standards. Not only is it mandatory to pass a urine test prior to employment, no visible tattoos are allowed. Nor are beards. You don't have to be a people-oriented person, you just have to have the right look. Our customers don't care much about whether or not we have the right appearance. It is our attitude which sets us apart.
Unfortunately, the days of single ownership and discretion are ending. Fewer and fewer franchises exist in the convenience store world. Most stores are corporately owned and operated. There are fewer and fewer positions available for those of us that don't meet their standards for employment. Being an individual has lost its value to the corporate world. I refuse to believe that unique personalities have lost their value to the customer as well.