The first week of summer going into senior year and I already found myself with too much freetime. Beforehand I anticipated my summer to mainly consist of early morning football practices at school, spending time with friends, attending a couple of my friends’ graduation parties, and if I had time… maybe walk my dog. But, I also had bigger plans for my future, like my older sister; I also anticipated moving into a college dorm after graduation and I realized I needed to start saving money if I was going to make it happen. After applying to several different job opportunities, like retail, fast food, and lifeguard, I finally heard back from one of them. I ended up landing a job at Wetzel’s Pretzels in Victoria Gardens after I got hired on the spot after my interview. My manager was a bit skeptical at hiring because of my busy schedule, but nonetheless she gave me an opportunity.
My first day on the job was in the middle of June and it was memorable just like any first day on the job should be. I showed up about 15 minutes early making sure I was prepared, and as I walked in I was greeted kindly by my other two managers who assisted me and brought my apron and all the other necessary gear. The apron felt a little stiff as I tied it around my waist, but I knew it symbolized the job I had worked hard to get.
Once my shift started my manager made sure to familiarize me with lots of the basic tasks and where to find things if they needed to be restocked. After that was finished she gave me the most simple task any new person gets which is sampling, which is something you’ll end up doing 70% of the time when you first get hired. My first shift consisted of sampling and expediting, helping the person on register by grabbing things for them. During my first shift I was able to familiarize myself with lots of my coworkers and soon found out they were all in similar positions as me. Possibly first or second job working here and just looking to make some extra cash for high school and college. It took me about a month to get to know all my coworkers but for the most part it seemed to be all college students with about 5 high schoolers like me looking to save money. During the summer I essentially maxed out my availability and I started to know my way around the store. I started to realize there was more to this job than just flipping dough and throwing it into the oven, it taught me how to interact with people and provide good customer service. Once school started I essentially wanted to only work weekends with my busy schedule during the week. From about the start of the school year till late November I kept hearing this buzz about how chaotic it gets around the holiday time especially Black Friday.
By the time Black Friday rolled around, I had already worked at Wetzel’s for about a few months. I had gotten pretty comfortable with the job from register, to ovens, and even gotten okay at flipping and twisting the dough which is primarily what managers do. But nothing could have prepared me for what was about to happen. I had heard stories from coworkers about how crazy the mall gets not only that weekend, but the entire holiday season. Before we faced this madness of Black Friday, our main manager called for a team meeting the Sunday before black Friday. The mall had not yet opened but essentially the meeting called for us to show extra positive attitudes towards customers, and to go over procedures/expectations for the weekend. However, the most important thing she noted was that we needed to be upselling more than usual to maximize the store’s profit. As an extra motivation my manager told us that the employee who upsells the most and has the highest average ticket sale listed on the register earns an extra $200 for the next pay period . When the schedule got released it was revealed that it was going to be an all hands on deck situation because my manager had scheduled all 20 employees along with 7 of our managers to try and manage the crowd. One thing that had caught me off guard on the schedule however was that I was scheduled to work my first 8 hour day. I felt nervous and sick to my stomach the night before because I was already stressed about meeting college application deadlines and now I had to deal with this immense pressure of working Black Friday at an overpopulated mall. So much for a joyful and stressless thanksgiving break I thought to myself.
My scheduled shift was 1-9, so I decided to leave 30 minutes before my shift to account for the overload parking. I greatly underestimated how packed it was actually going to be. It ended up taking over 40+ minutes to find parking and just driving around over and over it midsts of finding a parking spot. Already 10 minutes late to shift I ran to the store across the mall all while tying my apron around my back and fixing my bandana on my head. The mall was buzzing and it truly felt like a movie scene where everyone was shopping in Times Square. It was so packed that they had actually shut down the street in front of the store in order for people to walk across and get around. The pressure grew as the day went by with countless orders of people, and lines stretching 4 stores down. It was getting out of hand, and it became especially nerve racking when customers would come to order and would be upset about their food because they had to wait 3-5 minutes for it to come out of the oven. As the sun began to set, the crowds did not, more people kept piling in and we began to get backed up on online orders. For the first half of the shift I was mainly just transferring pretzel bits to bags and stocking supplies.
But then my manager had let me know after I took my break about halfway through the shift I would be going on the register. I feel an uneasy pain go through my body after this, but I also knew it was a chance to represent myself in a way that I wanted to. I took a deep breath and slipped behind the counter and began to take orders. The first few customers were easy to handle, and I quickly got into a rhythm, quickly taking their orders and upselling when I could. "Would you like to add a drink to that?” or “Would you like to upgrade to a large one for only 50 cents more?” became second nature for me. But soon the line grew longer, and the pace picked up quicker. I had to think fast and keep track of multiple orders at once, and make sure I was entering everything correctly on the register. The sound of the register was constant and the counter filled with bags, pretzels, and drinks. I could feel my pulse quicken. There was a moment when a customer came up, frustrated that we were out of a lemonade because we had just refilled it. I quickly apologized and offered a substitute, all while processing the next order. The customer calmed down, and within seconds, I had them laughing with a joke about how busy we were. It was moments like that being able to handle tough situations with positivity showed how much I grew since my first day. Before I knew it my shift had ended, and my legs ache from standing so long and my throat sore from talking to so many customers.
After this week I had gone back to my usual weekend shifts and had been relieved Black Friday Weekend was over at the mall. One day during school I had been sitting in class and checked my email only to see that I had been the employee with the highest average ticket sale for not only that weekend but the entire month as well. My performance that weekend was unheard of and my managers granted me “Team Member of the Month” and gave me an additional bonus for my next paycheck. With the performance that I upheld during that stretch of November it granted me a $300 bonus for the next pay period which I was super excited about. However, what mattered to me most was the journey and social skills I developed throughout this job that I still hold. I think it’s an important part of everyone's life to experience some kind of discouragement from a complete stranger, and a first job is a perfect place for that. It teaches you to be more confident in yourself and to communicate effectively. I became more comfortable talking to people, whether it was helping a classmate or speaking up in group projects. This fast-paced environment teaches me to be poised under pressure and to stay positive when things feel overwhelming.
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