Checkout Girl My Life on the Supermarket Conveyor Belt

by Tazeen Ahmad

How much do you know about what really goes on at your local supermarket? We see them every week and they are privy to some of our most intimate secrets - those we wouldn't even share with our closest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0007327722
• ISBN13: 9780007327720
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Friday Project
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

This book is a like a mini time capsule

Tazeen Ahmad has captured the essence of working a public facing job and distilled it onto paper. Despite its publishing in 2009, this book, which chronicles her experiences, still has relevance today. Ahmad infiltrated a supermarket and worked as a check out girl just as the economic recession in 2008 was affecting the population. It was interesting to compare the scenarios and observations Ahamd described 16 years ago to what I observe today. She describes what it is like working in an entry-level job and the treatment by the public and management towards “unskilled” labor. I really, really enjoyed this book. Having worked public facing customer service jobs before and during covid, everything Ahmad describes rings true. She combines excellent storytelling with fact finding, as well as a firsthand account of the beginning of the 2008 recession. Her humor lightens her description of tense situations, and she is unabashed with sharing her blunders as she navigates this job. She observes how people tend to disassociate and leave their manners and decorum at the door exposing their bad and off the wall behavior to frontline staff. This book is a time capsule that illustrates the point, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Some readers may take issue with the formulaic approach to the entries; however, her record is accurate to how a day working a retail (or receptionist/barista/etc.) job goes. I highly recommend reading this book and I personally will be loaning it out to family and friends. *This Review has been cross posted with my good reads*