Working At Stater Brothers
A never-ending cycle
It Was A Whole New World At First
When you start your first job, you are excited, willing to do anything and not thinking about the hours you are about to spend there.
This was me 100%
I had just turned 19 years old, realized for the first time that I have to be responsible for myself, and ready to earn weekly pay of 200–300 dollars.
Your First Day is the Most Confusing Day
I remember the store manager walking us around the store, showing us all the entry points and then leaving us to find our flow.
I knew nothing, but being a courtesy clerk at a grocery store is not that hard.
The job entitles you to:
- Gathering Carts (Every 2 hours)
- Sweeps of the entire store (Every 30 mins)
- Bagging (When not assigned a task)
- Customer Service (At all times)
- Restocking (When not assigned to a task)
- Clocking Everything
This is a job anyone could do if you need one.
Becoming The Hardest Worker
After 2 months of the listed duties, I felt I had become their best courtesy clerk.
I walked around the store with confidence because I knew I did my job right, but I also started to realize something I didn’t see on my first day.
I was walking so damn fast through that store that my hips, calves and right wrist started to become a pain.
It was from all the lifting, bagging, gathering of carts, and speed walking I was doing.
You also start to realize that you get pretty hungry from doing all this work, and it gets expensive to eat out every day as I was doing.
Working 9 Hour Shifts
I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know how I did this for months on end.
I walked an average of 25,000 steps a day and lost 15 pounds of fat, just from walking. When you get a badge from your Fitbit that you have walked the entire length of Japan in 2 months, you know you hauling.
Hauling for that promotion, but this is when work started to take a toll on me.
You wake up, and you think to yourself, “Do I have to go to work today”.
It’s that feeling/thought that makes me want to write a million posts on Medium to add up to the same pay I was getting at Stater Brothers.
Your whole day was gone before your eyes and it was spent doing something that was the same every time.
These 9-hour shifts drain you emotionally, and physically and I just remember watching my managers do this every day.
I couldn’t believe that they were working 30–40–50 hour weeks and the most I could work was 24.
Being Told I Was Going To Be Promoted
It was about 3 and a half months into the job and my store manager finally asked if I wanted to be promoted.
Of course I said yes.
He gave me 2 sheets to study with 60 different produce items that have 4 digit codes. I ended up taking the test the next month(November) and never heard a word from him again, unless I asked if the promotion was going to follow through.
I learned in this situation that I cannot depend on another company to make the money or to move me where I want. I ended up never getting promoted and I worked there for a total of 7 months.
You can’t be surprised that this happened because there were barely any promotions, to begin with, only different departments to work in.
I Learned To Develop a Positive Attitude no Matter What
Yes, I could have been mad and caused a whole problem over me not being promoted but I just didn’t see it worth my time to gather energy to complain.
I continued to do my job as best I could every day.
After so long though, you start to forget your purpose for working towards a goal and find yourself only working for money.
You do not want to be in a situation like that.
Only there to make money, and nothing else. Every day becomes longer and longer and your check doesn’t satisfy you even the slightest.
Yet, I continued to express myself whenever someone asked me how I was doing by saying, “I Am Amazing”.
If it were not for those 3 words I would have lost all respect for myself. Those three words changed my perspective and allowed me to be different.
You Never Know What Can Happen
Sometimes you’ll turn the corner and a customer may need some assistance, but while I worked there for a total of 7 months, I had seen multiple customers raise their voice to the max, had been cussed at by a 10-year-old, had a middle-age woman ask me if I wanted her while rubbing her breast on the cart I was pushing, saw a man with no pants on clean himself in the janitors closet, and my last day at Staters Bros’ was March 16, 2020. The busiest day in grocery store history.
It wasn’t that bad, but it was an experience.
So this brings me to one last thing.
Pro’s and Con’s of A Courtesy Clerk
Pro’s:
- Weekly pay
- Easy money
- Amazing system
Con’s:
- Long hours
- Different schedule every week
- Taxing on the body
- Barely any promotions
- Same days
This job taught me many life lessons, and it’s easy to forget how amazing it is that there are stores with whatever you want in them, but doing the same job every day is bound to burn out your flame, so stay positive and keep pushing.
“Earn Nicely, spend wisely and you will live happily.”
― Auliq Ice
Thank you for your time, and Create An Amazing Day 🌞
I would love your comments, so send them my way.
Brandon Rouzan loves to meditate, read, and write first thing in the morning. It’s through this daily habit that he will become a successful young man, who wants nothing more than to know he left his mark on this world for all who are living and to come.
