Two years ago, this would have been my first official day of starting work at the Esso Petrol Station. It does still feel like it was only yesterday (well, there abouts) and I can't quite believe that it has been two years already. I still vaguely remember my training shifts with Vicky, whom I still work with to this day at the now ASDA Petrol Station, and other training shifts working on my own where Ash, the manager would come into the store every now and then to check up on me. I had to be able to work alone because there was never anyone else working with me unless we had a special visit from Mr. Ronson who basically owned everything, bringing flash cars, many guys in suits/ body guards all the way up from London with him. He always took up a lot of space as he trotted around the forecourt, inspecting it and from what I heard about him and his ways I quickly took a disliking to him. I never got a chance to speak to him really, just be in his presence but he seemed to have these old sat ways where he would prefer one or two ladies working on the till to a guy. So, yeah a little sexist but that wasn't a problem for me and those days are over, for me at least.
I remember the the big announcement last year in the end of January that something big was about to happen and then having about an hour long meeting the next month with an ASDA lady. Before everything made sense, I remember a bunch of people walking around the site not quite like Mr. Ronson's but there was one that gave it all away. One of the men was wearing his hi-vis jacket the right way around and it quite clearly said 'ASDA' on the back of it. It wasn't long until one of the others told him and then he turned it inside out to cover it up. I didn't think much of it at the time, just that maybe that was the only hi-vis that he had but no, they we sizing up the place ready for the take over. Making plans and stuff.
It wasn't long from that point that we transferred over to the ASDA at Long Eaton so that they could host us while our store was in the process of being knocked down and then rebuilt. I spent most of my time there working on the produce section quite simply because it was the most fun and the most hard work, lugging vegetables around the place on what they called a 'Dolly'. It was like a trolley but, with a de-tactchable handle. I made some new friends over there, some who even joined us at the new petrol station. Of course, working at a store that just about qualifies as a 'Superstore' isn't the same as working at a tiny little petrol station so eventually we had to go train elsewhere. Woodville.
Woodville was rather nice, I really enjoyed my experiences there even though it was so far away and the tills were very easy to get used to. There was only a slight difference to what I was used to and they made a different kind of irritating noise when the pumps go off. A slight improvement to constant beeping, it was the sound of a males voice that said which number pump not so constantly. I made a few knew friends at Woodville too which I was a little surprised at with the short amount of time we was there. Did I mention that we got paid for travel too?
I had never prepared a brand new store for opening and I guess its one of those things that you just don't do every day! When opening week came, we had a lot of shelves to stick SELS on and then fill up once we had our very first delivery. I remember the first few days of that being literally just putting all the SELS out and then when we had our first Ambient delivery in the middle of the week, it was time to start filling. We got all of the fresh stuff last minute, I think it was the day before we opened so that the shop was all ready on time for its big day. We had photographers from the Ilkeston Advertiser and an adorable group of toddlers from a local nursery to be involved with the grande opening. Its not far off the store's 1st Birthday now (29th July) and I can't believe we've already been open nearly a year! Its been a crazy experience, yet alone with just the transformation of the site (I have still kept my other blog open with all of the photos, http://larklands.blogspot.co.uk ), how well customers have adapted to it. Some still come in through the exit but, we can let them off for that a few times.
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