h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

No, not me.

The teenager who served me at the supermarket. He had the word hangover dropping out of his black-ringed eyes. I slipped him a couple of quid just to try and lighten his day, but I'm glad I worked in a 1980s supermarket, not a 2014 one. It's so soulless it's unbelievable.

I could learn to accept a soulless supermarket. It's the supermarket where things are in a different location every time I visit that drives me mad. And I shop every day, so that's a *lot* of change going on.

Occasionally, when I need something where the quality is the same regardless of brand or store like baking soda, I'll shop at a local Family Dollar store. There is a Dollar General that's closer but those places are so "lowest common denominator" they probably sell defective baking soda. Anyway, this Family Dollar store has an obvious method of keeping overhead low. They don't spend money on pesky employees. As far as I can tell there are exactly two workers in the entire store at any time. One nominally works the register and the other has to try to keep up with all the restocking and straightening, but obviously can't. And they've packed the store with absolutley as much merchandise as they can with just barely enough room to get a shopping trolly through the aisles.

It must be quite a soulless and oppressive job indeed. I'd rank it up there with Waffle House waitress in the Most Depressing employment category.

It is a bit like working on one of Henry Ford's assembly lines, with the the added disincentive that you make nothing. You just shuffle goods that someone else made, someone else transported, someone else buys, and someone else will eat.

I'd rather build a Model T, I think.

Oh, you surely would. Despite being an antisemite, Henry Ford did believe in paying his employees well enough to afford the product they built.

It's not always about the money.

I've bought lots of stuff at Family Dollar Store lately, mostly because I had to organize a Halloween party, and didn't have much money to spend.

Waffle House

I wonder sometimes if working in a Red Lobster or an Olive Garden might not be worse in some ways. You probably make better tips in those two places, but they're all run by big corporations whose only intent is cutting costs to make more profits and satisfy the shareholders. In places like Red Lobster and Olive Garden you might have nicer surroundings but you're essentially doing what the Waffle House waitress does. At least with Waffle House, they're honest about their shabbiness. I'd rather go there (or a Luby's, or even Golden Corral) than RL or OG, and I never go to any of them.

Except for Luby's

And IHOP

IHOP has a pretty good selection of comfort food, but it also has suitable dishes for who have to watch their calories and pennies.

Ah... but have you ever been to the Awful Waffle at 2:30 in the morning? The last one I was in at that time of night (in East Dallas) was full of drunks and prostitutes. (Yes, I suppose I was a member of one of those groups.) Regardless, Waffle House staff always seem like sad and desperate people who have been chewed up and spit out in life. When I do find myself at a WH, I tip well.

I used to work in a supermarket, hated every second of it