Shine On

Right after college, before nursing school, I briefly worked at Bath and Body Works for a holiday season. It was a fun place to work, great manager, nice co-workers. Lotion Emergencies were extremely rare. But retail ain't my thang.

I've always hated selling things. Girl Scout cookie time used to be tortuous. I would come up with any excuse not to go door-to-door. Like, "Oh, my ankle hurts too much to walk," or "I have to do my math homework," or "It's getting dark out soon, and that's dangerous." (In a neighborhood where it was totally normal to go next door and ask for a cup of sugar.)

Mostly, I just wanted to work the register, not the floor. One night, we had a little lull and I started to restock the shelves in the gift basket section. A man came in, walked over and said, "I want to get some gift baskets for the ladies that work in my office. How much do those big ones cost?"

"They're thirty dollars."

"Alright, I need fifteen of them. Any scent. A variety."

I shrink-wrapped and ribbon-ed those suckers up all pretty. It ended up totaling around $500 dollars, and my manager and manager-in-training were very pleased that I had made such a great sale. In reality, all I had done was happen to be standing by the gift baskets.

My manager asked her trainee, "Mary! Do you think we should keep Lauren on the registers, or let her continue to shine in Zone One?!"

With great pep in her step, Mary turned to me and nodded, "Ok, Lauren! Continue to shine in Zone One!"

Let me tell you, it was a great effort not to laugh in her face.