It takes three ice cubes to water an orchid, or you can soak them for 15 minutes and then drain the water for an even better job. You know you are set when the stems look just like green beans, or 4066 as I have come to think of them. Bananas are no longer bananas, but better known as 4011. Not to mention the customer favorite 47627, or commonly known as doughnuts. These are things I never thought that would become so engraved in my head.

Last summer was the start to my job as a florist and cashier at Cub Foods. Day one of cub was filled with training videos, a tour, and a new friend and soon to be co-worker who was as nervous and excited as I was to be starting at this store. In just a few short days I began to realize what customer service truly is. Not only is it serving the customer and making them happy, but the experience together. It becomes second nature and common courtesy. I cannot satisfy every customer, but I give it my all to make them happy. Because when it comes down to it, that is why I am there, isn’t it? Even though sometimes… you have to bite your tongue.

I shortly figured out I liked punching in those PLU codes, creating floral arrangements and making small talk with customers. In two minutes you can learn a lot about a person. My job is to scan their groceries, blow up a happy birthday balloon or help locate the gluten free aisle. Customers have no obligation to tell me about their lives, though when I say, “Hello, how are you doing today,” most customers respond wholeheartedly, while many just give a nod. But either way they make the time go by faster, it is surprising, the things a complete stranger will tell you when you take a few moments out of your day to listen.

I started working at Cub the summer before Senior year of High School, I never expected I would be writing about Cub Foods, but look at us now one year later. Some of my best days at here are made by the people that shop there, and the faces of my co-workers I see everyday. One day in particular stands out to me. It was a quiet day at cub, and a bus from an assisted living home was dropping people off to shop. I was introduced to an older man, his name tag reading “Roy”. My boss asked me if I wouldn't mind helping him grocery shop because he could no longer see well enough to read. Of course I said yes and we got right to it. He shook my hand, and gave me the grocery list he had written out, he told me he hoped I could read it—because he had no idea what it said anymore. We laughed, and made our way to the coffee aisle.

I guided the cart as he leaned on it to walk, and as we walked, he told me all about his “special lady friend” back home. He wanted to purchase an orchid for her. So we walked over to floral where I began to box up the orchid with tissue paper and a pink butterfly decoration. As if he had not already melted my heart, he began telling me how thankful he was for my kind soul, and for taking the time out of my day to help him shop. Little did he know he had done something even greater for me that day, he made me realize how important people are. That it really is the little things in life, doing a small task to make someone else happy, that can also be the change in your life. In my case, it was helping this man grocery shop. A simple task that most people take for granted so easily running in and out of the store not taking a second to slow down. It is a task that doesn’t seem too memorable, or life changing. For me, that day, and many other days spent in floral or next to a register at Cub Foods have been life changing. Cub showed me the values of hard work, integrity and the importance of a genuine, “Hello, how are you today?”.

So, Cub Foods I’d like to thank you for the experience of working in retail, it has been very interesting to say the least. More importantly I would like to say thank you to all of the people who make Cub the welcoming place it is and those who have helped me along the way. No one is that excited to get up and go to work but it is the people who make it better.