"Lou Strauss, Grocer"

As part of a family, it was almost a duty to help one another by one means or another. One of the ways I was able to contribute to the family was to help out at my Uncle Lou's grocery store. This was before the supermarkets made their debut. "Lou Strauss, Grocer" was the proud name that was emblazoned on the sign over the store's entrance. One might consider the store a neighborhood store, although it was located on a main street (away from downtown). There were other stores on the block: grocery stores, tailors, dry cleaners, pharmacies, a restaurant/bar, a hardware store....

Some of my duties included waiting on customers, cleaning the dust off the top of cans on the shelf, replenishing stock, helping deliver groceries, cleaning the toilet bowl, taking grocery orders over the phone for later delivery, and sweeping out the store and the sidewalk in front.

Waiting on customers was an art. My Uncle Lou did not like to wait on some customers -- that kind of taxed his patience. I would have the "honor" of waiting on those customers. I guess I was more tolerant. One of the customers was an elderly Jewish lady who spoke little or no English. My Uncle Lou said, "All you have to know is the phrase, 'Voss nacht vilter?' which was supposed to mean, "What comes next?" This little old lady (with her auburn wig) would look at me like I didn't know what I was talking about when I uttered that statement. Anyway, she would point towards different objects that she needed and we fumbled our way through the situation somewhat successfully.

Adding up the cost of the items that were purchased was not done on an adding machine or a cash register; it was done by pencil on a paper bag. The addition was done by the person waiting on the customer -- in this case, me. Each item was carefully put aside on the counter after the price was recorded on the paper bag. The sum was then calculated and recorded on the paper bag. Then the amount was punched into the round keys of the cash register. The handle on the side of the cash register was then turned until the cash drawer opened. There was no indication, on the register, how much change was to be given back -- all that was done in my head.

One of the things I liked to do was grind coffee in the coffee grinder and smell the aroma. Another aroma I found tantalizing was the smell of the dill pickles my uncle used to make. I could lift the cover of the container and smell the spices combined in the mix. My salivary glands reacted to this pleasure and I could hardly wait to bite into a succulent kosher dill.

Delivery of the groceries: when people phoned in their order I would write the items on an order pad. Then, the order would be assembled on the back counter. The items were then put into a cardboard box. (These boxes were from canned goods that had been emptied out and put on shelves.) The ordered items were carefully loaded into the box so that the softer items were always put on top. The boxes for all the orders were then loaded onto a panel truck and delivered to the customer. My Uncle Milton (Uncle Lou's brother, as well as my father's brother -- one more brother was Uncle Aaron) also worked in the store, until he went into the Navy in WWII. Uncle Milton drove the panel truck and I would hoist the box of groceries on my shoulder and deliver the box to the customer. Usually, I would get a tip. A 25-cent tip was considered generous. My salary, by the way, was $10/week. I once got a raise to $12/week.

One of the chores I really did not like to perform was bringing cases of soft drinks from the storage basement up the stairs to the main store. The cases were made of wood and were heavy. Today, most of the storage is at ground level -- and hand dollies can be used more efficiently.

Being a family-run store, my Aunt Lil (Milton's wife) and sometimes her sister Jeanette would help out in the store. When my Uncle Lou married my Aunt Sally and went on a honeymoon, I was put in charge of the store -- still a teenager. My Aunt Lil was also in the store with me. By this time we had hired another teenager to help out. His name was Howie. Howie could now go down to the basement and carry up the stairs those dreaded soda pop wooden containers.

My uncle always had a cat in the store to keep the mice away. One time, the cat had kittens and was very protective of the kittens. A lady came in the store with her snippy, snappy dachshund. The cat took one look at the dog and leapt on the dog's back, digging in her claws. The dog was yelping and yipping so I thought I'd better disengage the two. I grabbed the cat to pull it off the dog's back -- and what did I get for my effort -- a cat's fang through my thumbnail into the flesh of my thumb. Very painful -- but the dog survived -- and so did I. From then on we made sure the cat was behind closed doors whenever the dog came in sight.

One of the more distasteful tasks was delivering the trash to the landfill (the dump). All vegetable cut-offs were stored outside in crates -- probably the crates the oranges and grapefruits came in. Once a week I would load the crates into the pick up truck and off to the dump we would go. The dump was the smelliest, most fly-infested place you would ever not want to be near. However, we unloaded the garbage as quickly as possible and got out of there in a hurry.

There were a lot of lessons to be learned while I was working at the grocery store. Salesmanship was one of them. One day a salesman came in with a new product similar to Bab-o or Comet or one of the cleaners. He used the cleaner on the top of the coffee grinder and it shined it right up. We kept a display of the cleaner on the counter -- so when a customer came in we would do the same pitch and actually sold some of this new product.

Sign painting on the store's front window was an art form. My Uncle Lou would mix up some Bon Ami and water and with a paint brush use the mixture to paint on the window the latest specials of the day.

The most important lesson to be learned in the store environment was the fact that personal attention was given to every customer. The store really wasn't large enough to allow customers to roam the aisles, so each customer received personal attention: rare nowadays in a supermarket. How times have changed.