“Half -drunk lay on us on our shelves. I had my hands full of that alcoholic, who was even taken away five times by the ambulance. When I didn’t want to sell her alcohol, she hit me, so she was banned from a shopping ban.” It is one of the stories about the daily chaos in the supermarket, with which Monique Maton (38) from Geertruidenberg has been dealing with for 23 years. She has now written a book about it. “Behind the automatic doors is set more than you think.”
“We should write a book about it.” That said supermarket employee Monique jokingly on a staff drink, when one of her colleagues was employed for 25 years. What started as a joke has now become reality. The book is now ‘Stories from the supermarket’ In the shelves.
Monique has been filling those shelves since she was fourteen. That started at the C1000 in the Zuiderhout shopping center in Oosterhout. “I wanted a part -time job,” says Monique. She remembers that she went into her job interview with nodding knees and sweaty hands. “But luckily I was allowed to start as a course filler.”
The first working day was exciting, she remembers. She started with the dry groceries. “It was really stamping and razing. Customers asked me where the ginger balls were. As a 14-year-old I didn’t even know what they were!” Fortunately, she quickly mastered her work.
“Unfortunately, supermarket work is still underestimated.”
At the age of 16, when she had followed the MBO Training Training Training for a year and a half, her supervisor asked her to come and work full-time in the supermarket. Monique decided to stop her studies. As a result, at the start of her career she was sometimes put away as Dom.
“Unfortunately, supermarket work is still underestimated,” notes Monique, who ended up after a move from Oosterhout at a branch on Boterpolderlaan in Raamsdonksveer. There she has been the manager of the cash register team for six years. Some customers see her work as inferior. “They think that we only scan subjects and groceries.”
But her work is much more than that, says Monique, who has received an elephant skin for those comments. “I am not only a cashier or course filler. I am now a police officer, cleaning lady, social care provider, detective, first aid person, DIY woman, comédienne, traffic controller, party planner, pest control and much more,” she laughs.
“I’ve never thought: I’m going to do something else.”
“The work is very extensive and the possibilities are endless,” continues the all -rounder. She gets a lot of satisfaction to make the shopping experience of customers ‘better’ every day, as the slogan of the bright yellow supermarket reads. “I’ve never thought: I’m going to do something else.”
That the work can sometimes be less fun, she also remembers from the coronation time. “We were allowed to open as one of the few stores. Families really came here as an outing and, without keeping a distance, went to chat with the neighbors. I thought that was disrespectful.”
Fortunately, Monique now goes to work with great pleasure every day. “The challenge is still there. I will continue to work in the supermarket until my retirement.”
