Reminiscing About Retail: Confessions of a Cashier

About the book:

Do you remember the dime stores of the '60s? Did you ever shop at G.C. Murphy's, Woolworths, or Newberry's? Discount department stores became very popular in the '70s and dime stores began to close. Stores like Kmart, Grant City, Murphy's Mart, Hills, and Ames provided a great shopping experience for American families. Most of these chains closed their doors in the '80s and '90s. The glory days of department store shopping has faded away and we now live in a big box world.

I always loved shopping in downtown Defiance, Ohio when I was growing up in the '60s. My favorite store was G.C. Murphy's. The day I celebrated my 16th birthday, I applied for a job at Murphy's. I was hired a few weeks later.

After living in North Dakota for four years as a young Air Force wife, I moved back to Ohio. Retail was still in my blood. I always thought I would go back to work at Murphy's someday. By this time, most of the Murphy's stores had closed and new Murphy's Marts were built to replace the smaller dime stores.

We lived very close to Kmart in Bryan. The store was just a short walk across the field near our house. I applied for a job at Kmart and was soon hired, since I had previous retail experience at Murphy's. I worked at Kmart for a total of 17 years.

Did you ever wonder what it was like to work in one of these stores? How difficult was it to operate a manual cash register before bar codes and scanners made the task much easier?

Read about Halloween costume contests, shoplifting stories, and bluelight specials. Follow the adventures of six family members who all worked at the same store.

If you have ever worked in retail, or dreamed of a career in retail, then this is the book for you!