"I joined Sainsbury’s in 1966, just out of school at the age of 15. I was put on the pricing table where you priced everything, tins, packets etc to go into the store. We called the pricing stampers plonkers (I think David Jason out of fools and horses stole this word from us. Ha ha) It was quite hard work, not the pricing but lifting the heavy boxes on to the table and back onto the combi’s as we called them then, I sure did have some muscles for a young girl of 15.
We closed early on a Saturday about 4.30 unless we had to stock take, which meant counting every single thing on the shelves and in the warehouse, until the Tuesday after. Monday was the day for refilling the shelves in the store and cleaning.
We had one Saturday off every month.
We had a smashing canteen, home baked food, hot dinners. We had a free cup of tea and toast for our morning tea break and never had to pay for our meals until we got our wages at the end of the week.
I left Sainsbury’s in 1969 to have my children and went back in 1978 part time, to go on the tills, we were called shop assistants. Things had changed a little bit, different uniforms, instead of plonkers they had ticket guns which were better.
Now 40 years on, its all computerised.The company's grown successfully. Although there have been good times and bad,I have loved every minute.
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Comments (1)
Lovely memory, thank you very much for sharing Valerie.
Marcela Bonthron, 18 October 2018