The Salad Days

I spend 50 hours a week there. I expend vast amounts of physical and mental energy in that time.

I also never said to my folks when I was a kid, "Mommy, daddy, when I grow up, I wanna work in a grocery store."

But here's why I still love working at TJ's, in spite of it all.

I was coming home from TJU (a training program for TJ's full timers) in Chicago last night. At TJU, we are expected to wear our uniforms, and I had forgotten to remove my name tag before arriving at O'Hare. As I made my way through airport security, I had never given a thought to the fact that I still had my name tag on. I was also wearing a belt with a large, metallic buckle. As I went through the metal detector, the belt set it off. The TSA gentleman asked me, "What did you forget?" As I remembered my belt, I took it off. In that process, I had brushed back my sweater just enough to reveal my name tag. The TSA gentleman (hardly a group known for effusive behavior) then said to me, "You work for Trader Joe's?....I love Trader Joe's."

How many workplaces could bring out the warm fuzzies from the airport metal detector guy?