8198388
On January 25th, 2022, I clocked into Kroger for a final time. I bagged, did carts, the whole time anticipation was building for 9:53. Finally, 9:53 came and I walked to clock out. As I stood at the time clock, I thought back on my time at Kroger:
While I thought back on everything, it would take too long for me to tell you it all… So I'm only going to tell you three stories. The first one takes place about two weeks after I got the job. I was bagging and a customer asked me if I knew where the gift cards were. I did, and I got super excited because this was the first customer I could actually help. As I was leading him to the gift cards, a woman was coming towards us with a cart. I keep my keys on a carabiner, on the first belt-loop of my pants on my right side. I stepped to the left to avoid the cart, but my right hip rubbed against it and I heard my carabiner clip onto the cart. The woman didn't realize what had happened and continued pushing the cart dragging me along with it.
The second story takes place in December 2018, nearly a year after I got the job. One of my bosses told me to do “go-backs” which is when you take items that were either forgotten or were not wanted and put them back on the shelves. Now, I was never good at this. In fact, when I first started working at the store I called Mom a few times to ask her where some items were. In any case, I noticed that the basket for the baking needs aisle was full so I put it in a cart and took it back. When I got to the baking aisle before I had even looked in the basket, I saw a woman with her son. The woman said, “I have a holiday party and I need gingerbread house kits, but there are none on the shelf. Do you know where any are?” I told her that if it wasn't on the shelf we didn't have any as it was the Christmas season and a lot of people were buying gingerbread kits. She in response asked for a manager.
We were really busy that night and when I told my front-end bosses, they didn't really want to deal with her so they called the store manager and he and I return to the baking aisle. The store manager and I search for 20 minutes all around the store trying to find any gingerbread house kits. Eventually, the woman took her son and left the store in a huff. The store manager left and I walked to my cart. When I looked in the basket I realized that every single item in it was a gingerbread house kit!
The last story takes place in June of 2019. I walked out into the parking lot to start my cart shift. As I walked towards a cart corral I noticed a woman in her late 80s or early 90s, riding in an electric cart. When she saw me, she asked me if I could help her unload her groceries into her car. I said yes and after we had finished, I took the electric cart back into the store.
When I walked back out into the parking lot, I looked over and saw that the woman was clutching her steering wheel and shaking. I ran back to the car ready to call 911. “Ma'am, ma'am, are you okay?” I asked frantically.
“Mitchell,” She said, “I need you to go back into the store and get the electric cart.”
“Sure… but why?” I asked confused.
“This is the wrong car!” She exclaimed.
I grabbed the electric cart and we quickly unpacked the car. The entire time the lady and I were laughing hysterically because of how hard it would be to explain why we were in the car If the owner came out.
After this, I thought back on when about meeting Noah for the first time. I thought about the time my former coworker Lily and I broke the glass front door. I thought about when August came home for a surprise visit in the middle of a Kroger shift and about the “Rubber Ducky Incident.” I thought about all the people I have met and all the memories I've made and I smiled because if given the chance I wouldn't change a thing. With my reflection done, I entered my Kroger ID number one last time: 8198388.
Have a Greattastic day and be safe!
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
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