We asked two students to describe their jobs. As it happens, both work at grocery stores, a time-honored way to keep your wheels on the road with a few dollars to spare. Here’s what they had to say about their work.

Joey Morneault, Junior

I was recently hired at a local grocery store in Lewiston. Originally I applied to become a cashier but the only position available was service clerk. Basically it was the runt’s job. A typical day for a service clerk consists of bagging, price checks, cleaning the registers, and running damaged items back to the specific department they came from for inventory.

Some perks to the job are as follows: you are constantly doing something (so you are never bored), the associates are always friendly, and it pays well. However, there are some aspects of the job that aren’t so great. For instance, they only schedule you when they need you (which is most of the time), and there is a mandatory 30 minute meal break, which no-one ever uses because nobody takes 30 minutes to eat a sandwich, and the occasional unhappy customer. All-in-all, working at a grocery store is pretty good except for those few instances.

Chris Ellis, Senior

I’ve been working at a grocery store in Gardiner for about two months now. Upon first being accepted it looked as though I was going to be stationed in the produce department (fruits and vegetables). That notion was discarded, however, after a position opened up in the seafood department.

I am now a seafood sales associate. My job consists of many activities. I serve fish, take temperatures, refill and restock the cases and coolers, close the department down at night and sometimes even cook some of the fish for samples. Each of these activities entails several smaller activities, which serve to make working in seafood an interesting and fairly enjoyable job. Upsides are that there is always something to do and thus I never find myself bored. The people I work with are very nice and lenient with my schedule. I also get paid fairly decently for having just started.

I would say there is only one downside to working in the seafood department….The smell…. It infects every piece of clothing or material I wear or bring with me to work. If am forced to wash my clothes after every work session, or the smell becomes so overbearing that I cannot be within a 200 foot radius of the clothes. No joke.

Overall though, its a great job and I would recommend it for anyone looking to explore a part-time career at a local grocery store. You can learn a lot, too.

Valencia Buteau, Junior

I have been working at restaurant in Sabattus for about two years. I am a busgirl who clears, washes, and resets the tables. I really enjoy my work, because I meet so many new people, both customers and co-workers. It feels as though all of the workers are our own little family, and I feel very lucky to be part of it.

I have also become very good friends with the family that owns the restaurant, and I enjoy baby-sitting for them on occasion as well as busing tables at the restaurant. The food is always good, too, and by cleaning the tables, it gives me ideas of what I would want to eat for dinner while I work.

One of my favorite parts about the job is that when the waitresses are busy, and I’m not doing anything, I bring coffee and take drink orders. I like to test my memory to remember what they want. I also enjoy seeing the children come in, and I offer the kids a pack of crayons and their faces glow with happiness. I really like the feeling that comes with the job, and the being with the people.