The One About A Grocery Checker...

Last night, I planned every second until my trip to London tomorrow night: Up this morning at 6am. Caught the 6:40am bus to work. Hustled till 5:30pm. Hit the gym at 5:45pm. Picked up my dry cleaning at 7:15pm... What I hadn't planned on was a detour to Fresh Market - the local grocery store I've been shopping at since moving to Rose Park two and a half years ago. Technically, I should shop at Super Savers - only three blocks away but the store makes me nervous. It's slightly too ethnic (read: ghetto) for me... haha. I swear their merchandise is from the 90's...

Anyways, as I walk into Fresh Market I immediately notice how bare the store looks. After being welcomed to the store (by what seemed like the manager), I ask if the store is being renovated. The manger responds that Fresh Market is going out of business. Crazy! Except my cheap self realizes: LIQUIDATION SALE! So I literally snatch the closest basket and hustle through the store quickly checking out discounted price tags. And I was not disappointed! 5 frozen pizzas for $5? 6 boxes of cereal for $10? Large frozen pumpkin pie for $3? I don't even like pumpkin pie but in my basket it went!

As the cashier rang up my loot, I eyed the register to ensure all of the discounts applied correctly. During this intense moment of concentration, I managed to ask when the store was closing.

"Friday night at 8pm", she responded.

"Will there be more discounts on Friday?", I asked. Sometimes I even surprise myself with how smart/cheap I am. Because I was already trying to decide which of my two brothers would be here Friday morning... And how I would be able to monitor their shopping from London...

"No - this is it.", she said while scanning more frozen pizzas. My plan to talk to Toniu tonight suddenly fizzled...

"So, will they move you to another location?", I asked still sad that there wouldn't be another sale.

"No, we're out of a job after friday. That'll be $26.55.", she said looking directly at me.

I quickly swiped my credit card and wished her luck but I couldn't stop thinking about her situation on my way home. I can definitely empathize having lost two jobs last year. But what if she can't recover from this? I saw financial analysts discussing the recent upswing of our economy on CSPAN today, but they failed to determine when these increased profit margins would eventually trickle down to my soon-to-be-unemployed cashier. Of course, I should be grateful for the recent jobs I've found since. Yet I can't help but wonder how I can avoid being laid off in the future. What do I need to do to ensure that my particular skill set and developed expertise are not expendable in today's volatile market?

Great, something else to think about. But at least I have my frozen pizza and pumpkin pie to help me figure it out... haha. Lastly, G'luck Cashier 4! Neither of us planned on this happening and yet we are presented with an opportunity to create something bold and new.

Trip across the pond starts in 21 hours... Hopefully, I don't come back with a bri-ish accent... haha.