The Pantry Market

The Pantry Market is a wonderful place to shop for groceries here in Longmont. It is a local store that has managed to survive against the bigger chain stores and I'm a proud customer. Working there however was quite possibly one of the worst jobs I've ever had.

I took the job right around the same time as I started at the library since both were part time and I was trying to fill my summer hours with something worthwhile. I think my official position was called "Caddy" which basically meant doing all the grunt work around the store. The hours were 4pm-10pm five days a week which meant my social life took a hit, but it didn't bother me too much. The first thing I would have to do when I got to work was clean out the chicken rotisserie. This required taking out the drip pan which usually had about an inch of pure disgusting grease and taking it out back behind the store to dump in the big container full of grease. The word nasty doesn't quite seem to describe it. Other tasks throughout the night included sweeping, mopping (the whole store), breaking down cardboard boxes, throwing away the unsold hot dogs and bagging groceries on occasion. I honestly didn't mind the job itself. That kind of stuff builds character, right?

The part about the job that I didn't like was the management. The enjoyment level of my shift would greatly depend on which manager was working that night. One manager was great and she was always in a good mood. The other two...not so much. One of them got mad at me one night (for no apparent reason) and told me to go clean the bathroom which I'm pretty sure had never been cleaned since the store opened decades ago. There was pee all over the walls and a thick layer of nastiness on the toilet. The other manager pretty much didn't care what I did during my shift and just wanted me to stay out of her way. Towards the end of the summer I was walking by the meat department and heard something in the back room (the meat counter closed at 5pm so it was odd for there to be noise in there). I was called to the front to help bag groceries so I couldn't check it out right away, but five minutes later I went back and immediately regretted the choice to check it out. The manager and her boyfriend were in the back, um, er, having a quickie. This initiated years of jokes with my friends who all avoided the "dirty meat department" at the Pantry.

I quit the next day.