‘If This Was What “Real Jobs” Were Like, I Had It Made!’

Tim Reflects on His Time at Publix...

They always ask, “If you won the lottery, what would you do?” To me, the more interesting question is this: “If you won the lottery, what would you do to stay busy?” After paying off debt and doing whatever you want for a year, I bet most people would start to get bored. I know that I would. (I’m assuming we’d all invest smartly and never have to work again, which actually doesn’t happen often with lottery winners.) But for me, that’s an easy question to answer. I’d go back to Publix and be a bag boy — just like I did during high school.

My “career” at Publix started back in my junior year of high school. My buddy, Travis Smith, and I found out they were building a new one near where we lived, and we figured we’d apply for jobs and see what we got.

A few weeks later, I started work as a Publix Super Market bag boy.

Now, you have to remember, I grew up working hard as a kid, mostly outside. My family kept cows and my granddaddy had two gardens going, so there was always work to be done. And of course, it was family, so the pay was … well, let’s just say I was rewarded with a good work ethic more than anything else. So you can imagine my first day bagging groceries at work. If this was what “real jobs” were like, I had it made! I was working mostly indoors, and I got to talk to people — and anybody who knows me knows that I love getting to meet new folks. And they were paying me, too (at the time, I think the wage was about $4.25 an hour), which meant I had spending money for the weekends.

It beat working with livestock in the mud and the rain, and it didn’t take long for my bosses to notice me. Pretty soon, I was promoted to stockboy, which was a whole different ballgame. There were perks, too, like inspecting the ice cream freezer for damaged goods that I got to “dispose” of. (Yeah, you can guess where those went!) All in all, it was a great job for a high schooler to have, and I kept at it until my graduation a year and a half later. Along the way, I met a ton of people, many of whom I know to this day.

If you’d known me back then, you’d know that college was not in my cards. After high school ended, I moved to a full-time schedule at Publix with different hours, since I no longer had classes to attend. I can still remember thinking, “Graveyard shift? That sounds neat.” Needless to say, that attitude didn’t last long. Another thing I remember was pretty soon thereafter, one of the companies we carried came into the store to do inventory. For a stocker like me, that meant working 21 hours straight in one shift.

After that incident, you can bet I asked for a raise — but I also kind of knew that Publix wasn’t going to be my forever job. I wanted to do other things, and opportunities were already starting to present themselves. Soon enough, my path led me elsewhere, including an awesome job selling wine — which is a story for the next newsletter!

But there was a lot I enjoyed about my days at the grocery store. I got to work with good people, and I got to meet and talk with all kinds of folks in my community. Stocking shelves was kind of fun once I got into a flow, and there was a pride that came with having the display look perfect once I was done. It was mindless, kind of Zen in a way, and I never took my job home with me after I clocked out.

What did you learn from your old jobs? Thinking about them is a good way to start the new year, and I’m going to keep this trend up in next month’s newsletter as well. It’s one way to see how far we’ve come. For what it’s worth, I think 2021 is going to be a good year. Full of challenges, yes, but also full of opportunity.

And if one of those opportunities hands me a winning lottery ticket, now you know where to find me!