I wanted to work here in the worst way, so I kept bugging Ann Webster to give me a job. I had closed down my daycare. My son was going to school, so I had decided it was time for me to stop staying home with little kids and go out in the real world.

So one day I came in, and every time I came in, Ann would say, no, I don't have anything, don't have anything. So I kept bugging her, bugging her. I thought if I'm as much of a nuisance as I can be, she'll give me a job someday. And one day I went in, and she said, well, I do have something, but I don't think you're going to want it. I'm like, what is it?

She says, full-time cashier. We've decided we need to hire a cashier. It's full-time. You'll be on your feet all day. And that's the job. And I'm like, I'm your girl. I'm in. And so that's where I started. And the first night I went home after standing there for eight hours on the hard floor with no mats. I could hardly walk the next morning. My feet—it hurts so bad. I thought, uh-oh, my career is over at the co-op.

I can't move.

I managed to hobble in that day and do another shift, and it got better and better and better. It got to the point where I couldn't stand to sit down anymore. I would go to shows and conferences and events, and I had to stand in the back of the room because I couldn't sit for very long because I was so used to standing all the time. So I started as cashier, and little by little, I just started making over different departments that Ann, the general manager, was doing the buying for the whole store, which at that point she could do.

But as we started growing, it was clear to me that, yeah, somebody could be helping her out. I'd like to try and do that. The first thing she gave me was coffee. She let me order the coffee. So that was my little side area. And then I did all the books and then all the gifts. And after a year, I went to her and said, Ann, I really think that you could fill your time with things other than ordering groceries.

I think you should hire a full-time grocery manager. We're big enough now. And I think you should hire me. And she said, okay.

Okay, you're it. It was so, oh, God, that was just a different time and age when we were pretty lax about the hiring system. We didn't even have any hiring system. So I was very grateful that she let me do that.