It's the staff that make the store

My favorite grocery store is actually a Food Basics in St James Town, also known as "The Hood". The clientele is mostly a combination of East and West Indian, and as a result the store has a great "International" section where I can find everything from three kinds of jerk seasoning, to easily reheatable Punjabi curries, to tinned Turkish vine leaves, and dips. And even though in a poorer district of the city, the produce is consistently better than many other supermarkets I have been to. There is always lots of selection, and stock is replaced regularly. And when there is an advertised special, regardless of whether it is the last day of the sale or not, there is always stock to be found, which cannot be said for many other stores (one of my big bones to pick with Shoppers Drug Mart who consistently runs out of advertised product specials on the first day)

Being located in a poorer part of town, there have been times that I have run into an assortment of questionable characters, either street people who are wandering about the aisles looking for warmth in the winter, people with questionable personal hygiene, or mental health issues, or even families who have no control over their children and scream relentlessly at them as they chase them through the aisles. But the reason why I love this store the best is because of the staff, most notably the produce guy. Every time I go to the store he is the first person to great me with his friendly crooked smile. He asks how my week has been, and lately whether I have been able to find another job yet. If I am shopping on a Tuesday, as opposed to my regular Friday, he will note my change in schedule. He is always quick to tell me about the store specials, and has on numerous occasions gone to the back in search of fresher produce for me. If I can't find a particular product he has even stopped what he was doing, and not only taken me to the aisle, but also to the actual product on the shelf. He is not a conventionally good looking guy, or a smart guy, or would even be considered articulate by any stretch of the imagination. To most people he would appear shy, and maybe even a bit strange, and I can’t remember the exact moment when we went from being strangers to being familiar. But I would have to say that he is a big reason why I look forward to shopping there since he makes each visit memorable. Don't get me wrong, I also love the sterility of the upscale mega marts found throughout the city. I just don't get the same level of interraction from the pony-tail girls with the impeccable french manicures who honestly don't care if I find the antipasto in aisle 3.

Today I also had the pleasure of spending about five minutes with our check out gal, who, with great animation, told us a story of the lady who tried to steal a huge box of tide by placing it in the bottom of her grocery cart and swiftly pushing it through the cash, hoping the cashier wouldn't notice. She also told us the story of a guy who tried to steal over $ 200.00 worth of meat by pretending it wasn't in his enviro bag. Her head bobbing side to side with a noticeable Jamaican accent she decreed: "I'm not gonna risk my life for some guy who wants to steal meat. How much do you think they pay me here?!?!" I am sure that the line-up behind us wasn’t impressed since she actually stopped scanning the items to enthusiastically tell us the story. But my guess was that no one was going to mess with a big Jamaican woman waiving her arm about in the grocery store in the hood. And it SO made my night, and once again confirmed for me that it is in fact the staff that makes the store!