WEBVTT - Minding The Store 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:10.959 Welcome to on the Job. This season, we're focusing on 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:14.440 how people and businesses are getting back to work. Let's 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.200 call it a great transformation, a change in the way 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.239 workers are thinking. Employers need people to work more than ever, 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.680 putting laborers in a sort of position of power. We'll 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:27.680 be hearing from people navigating this new normal for themselves 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:32.960 as they find their life's work. Across the US, small 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:36.720 business owners are facing a huge hiring crisis. COVID put 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:39.840 a lot of people out of work and displaced even more. Now, 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.280 businesses need people back and just can't find them. In 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.720 rural Vermont, Karen Banks faces this issue if she manages 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.480 a general store, which is the lifeblood of little towns 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:52.400 like hers. Well, today we talked to Karen about her 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.520 fight to keep the store open as the number of 0:00:54.520 --> 0:01:02.080 her employees dwindles and the population of her town skyrockets. Um. Okay, 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.480 so we're just gonna get started here. Um. On a 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.400 rainy winter evening, I drove over to Bondville, Vermont to 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:12.520 meet Karen. Karen Banks, and I am the manager of 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:17.080 a large boutique style country grocery store in Bombville, Vermont, 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.760 the wind Hall Market. We have the fortune of doing 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:22.440 an in person interview in her cozy apartment, which is 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.040 very conveniently located above the market she manages. I should 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.520 should mention for the tape that we're joined by Crispy. 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:32.839 Crispy is a big, fat white cat. She's twenty years 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:38.800 old and very needy. Okay, So the Windhall market that 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.960 Karen manages, it looks like a typical country store in 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.600 the center of town. If you walk into a smallest 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:47.160 room with a delhi a cash register, but you take 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.360 a right right around the cash register counter and there 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:51.800 is a lot more to it. We have a produced section, 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.080 we have a wine room, we have a big grocery section, 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.880 and everybody that comes in says, wow, this place is 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.880 way bigger than it looks like. Karen is the face 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.240 you see on any given day you walk into the market, 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.080 and her job basically is to run the entire show 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.440 from the time it opens until the time it closes, 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:14.080 take care of customers, put out fires. Literal fires are 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.080 like metaphorical metaphorical fires. You know, if there are any 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:19.200 problems in the day, I take care of it. I 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:22.120 receive I order, I make a lot of phone calls, 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:26.040 I sell a lot of groceries. Karen is a creature 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:29.240 of habit and statistics. She pours over her sales history, 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.480 constantly reads about new and trending products you can bring 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:35.480 into the store. She knows good business, but at the 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.200 end of the day, her job is to know people 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:43.560 do and have relationships with them. I can know a 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.280 customer and know when they come in what they're going 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:48.440 to pick up and put in there in their basket. 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:54.400 I order everything, every box of cereal, every Cannabians it 0:02:54.480 --> 0:03:01.480 comes to me. I just know what they like. The 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.360 Windhall Market is at the base of Stratton Mountain, which 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.000 means it's a busy, rural ski town. We have a 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:12.239 very broad base of customers. Uh we have a lot 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:17.200 of visitors. We have some international traffic here, high income millionaires, 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.880 regular people, just the working class like me. Uh So 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:26.000 we cater to all of those people. Besides being where 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.240 you get your stuff, a general store is also the 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.720 social hub a little towns like Bondville. If you want 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.280 to know any gossip, if you want to know anything 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:36.000 that's happened, you come down to the store and you 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:40.200 can find out. So one of the roles I guess 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:45.000 for us is to communicate with the community, meaning they're 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.480 heavily involved in all community events, everything that's happening. If 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:50.800 there's a fire somewhere in town during the night, they'll 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.720 open up and deliver coffee to the fireman. They're involved 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.760 in the summer concert series in town. The post office 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:58.960 is right next door. Just if you live in a 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.480 town like this, the store is a central part of 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.040 your life. Oh it is. Everybody that lives in this 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.160 town comes in the store at one point or another. 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:09.680 The thing about general stores that makes them unique is 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.040 that each one needs to be so specifically catered to 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.880 the area that they're in to be successful simultaneously. It's 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.880 usually the only shop for miles, so its purpose is 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.719 right in the name general store, meaning you generally have 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.120 everything we try. There are very few times I've had 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:27.960 to look at somebody and say, no, we don't have that. 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:33.039 I'm very competitive, so I'm very competitive about not being 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.279 out of anything. She says. She sees it as a game, 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.120 and it's the game she likes. There's about six thousand 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.200 products in the store, and it's her job to meticulously 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.880 look at all her reports or buying history, seasonal trends, 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:47.920 just to keep the right things on the shelves at 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:51.920 the right times. It's a thoughtful process ordering for the market. 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.839 It's a competition with myself. I guess I like to 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.719 stay right on it, make sure I have everything that 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:03.320 everybody needs. Probably one of the biggest overachievers you'll ever meet. 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.159 Running a place like this is hard in any environment, 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.680 but with COVID and complications like short staffing, supply chain issues, 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.520 and keeping the store COVID free, Karen's competitive attitude has 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.240 really been put to the test, and she is constantly 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.640 in a battle to keep the store from closing. But 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.440 I can't imagine what would happen. I mean, you'd be 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.039 driving fifteen miles one way or another to go to 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:30.520 a grocery, which, in a place like this is a 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:32.880 really big impact on your day. It is. It is 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.120 a big impact on your day. It's gas, it's your time. 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:39.880 Are the roads good or are the roads bad? It 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:42.680 just would be unbelievable for us not to be here. 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.320 You might have picked up on Karen's accent. She's not 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:52.360 from Vermont. Young Karen is from the South, and she's 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:54.760 an army brat and grew up all over the country. 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:59.880 I was born in Virginia, lived in Alaska, Missouri, Georgia, Alabama, 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:02.599 just grew up all over the place. She had a 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.359 loving family, says that they were huggers. She was the 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.120 only girl. She grew up with three brothers. Big tom boy, 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.760 I can fight. I could give you a black eye. 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.800 Pretty great childhood, do you. Went to University of Kentucky 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.839 where she came out a highly trained dentist assistant. And 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:23.560 we were trained to be the dentist's right hand. We 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.800 could do anything that wasn't permanent. The dentist would come 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.279 in and he would prep the tooth. I'd come in 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:33.040 and finish it. Very unusual to see that in any state, 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.440 which made it a great career. She got paid well. 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.240 She did that for about twenty five years. She had 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.400 a son named Kelly. They moved to Vermont, and the 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.240 laws were different here. So she was making less as 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.040 a dentist assistant because she was allowed to do less, 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.280 not what I was used to making. And so my 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:53.600 son and I we like to do some expensive stuff 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:58.040 that ski. We love Nascar, We like to travel to races, 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:02.640 and that's not cheap. So um I decided to segue. 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:04.919 Someone in town said that she might be perfect for 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:09.039 a job organizing banquets at a nearby resort, and I 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.520 was really good at it. From there, she got hired 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.120 at Stratton, the big ski mountain in town, where I 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.160 met the former owner of this market. I was a 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.000 middle manager at the private ski club where she and 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:23.160 her family were members. This woman's name was Lorraine. Then 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.640 they hit it off. Immediately after Karen's son graduated high school, 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.080 she wanted to move closer to work and moved to 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.280 this apartment above the store which Lorraine owned. When Lorraine's 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.360 GM left the store, she asked Karen if she'd take 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:42.840 the job, and I did. The rest is history. What 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:47.760 were your first impressions? I knew nothing about grocery she 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.720 she brought me in here knowing that I knew absolutely 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.680 nothing about running a grocery store. But what I am 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:59.720 is very detail oriented, great memory, great customer service skills, 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:05.840 and knew a lot of her customers. Unsurprisingly, Karen was 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.280 really good at it. She jumped right in and has 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:10.360 been the face of the wind home market ever since. 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:13.920 I know Karen makes it sound easy, but to give 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.920 an example of how hard a business this is. In 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:20.120 my little town of Belmont, Vermont, I've seen the general 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.240 store passed through five different owners in twenty five years. 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.520 The burnout ray is high. And anyone going into this 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:30.920 business knows that what did you have any like reservations 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.400 when you first came in and like thinking if I 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.160 don't know if I could do this? Now I'm full 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.240 speed ahead. I'm that kind of girl that that just 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.880 jumps in with both feet. I don't I don't think 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.080 there's anything you can't learn to do. I raised a 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.640 child with a rare genetic syndrome, less than a hundred 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:51.960 cases in the world, Karen's son, Kelly. He has ours COG, 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:54.960 which is a rare disorder that can prevent physical growth 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.800 and messes with your short and long term memory. So 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:01.720 on any given day, he may or may not be 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.720 able to tell you what his birthday is. He almost 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.880 stopped growing when he was a little over two years old, 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:09.160 but they got him on the right medication and he's 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.880 five ten now. Don't feel sorry for him. He's got 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:15.800 two degrees. He graduated Magna and Simicum wild from his colleges. 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:20.200 He's a smart kid. I didn't raise him to think 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.120 that he had a disability. I raised him to believe 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.960 that he can do anything he wants to do, and 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:31.079 he does anything he wants to do. He never whined 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:35.520 about it. No whining in our family and absolutely not 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:41.360 allowed because look around, there are so many people in 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:45.360 the world that are disadvantaged and not able to work, 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.600 not able to provide for themselves with their family. If 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:50.520 you can get up and walk on your two legs 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.800 every day and go to work and earn money and 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:58.800 and make a decent living, you're incredibly blessed. You seem 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:03.120 like a very stubborn, class half full person. Oh my glass, 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:09.480 my glass is running over. Let me get back from 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.600 the break. The unstoppable force that is Karen Banks meets 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:17.640 the immovable object that is COVID. A strong work ethic 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:23.160 takes pride in a job well done, sweats over the details. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.679 This is you. But to get an honest day's work, 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.360 you need a response, You need a call back, You 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:36.240 need a job. Express Employment professionals can help because we 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.439 understand what it takes to get a job. It takes 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.440 more than just online searches to land a job. It 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:46.480 takes someone who will identify your talents, a person invested 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:50.000 in your success. At Express, we can even complete your 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.080 application with you over the phone, will prepare you for 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.199 interviews and will connect you to the right company. Plus 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:58.640 we'll never charge a fee to find you a job 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:01.680 at Express. We could put you to work with companies 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:04.920 of all sizes and industries from the production floor to 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:08.960 the front office. Express Nose Jobs get to No Express, 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.760 find your location at Express pros dot com or on 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:17.760 the Express Jobs out. The winner of twenty nineteen was 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.120 a busy one in bond Bill, Vermont. There was a 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:22.880 lot of snow, a lot of terrorists, and when COVID 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:27.480 hit that march, everything changed. It just was. It was crazy. 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:33.040 It was unreal how difficult it was and how fast 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.360 we had to react in the food chain business too, 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:40.040 to get the things that our customers needed. The store 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.360 actually didn't close right away. It was chaotic. They hustled 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.640 to get their website streamlined for online ordering, and then 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.719 they locked the doors and they went curbside. We went 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:53.840 tremendous curbside we had and we had a lot of 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.400 employees here at the time. I bet we had fourteen employees. 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.040 We worked eight hours, nine hours a day. All we 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:05.440 did was shop, shop, shop, shop, shop, no talking, no 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:10.200 no lunch, no brakes, sometimes eighty orders a day, eight 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:15.680 orders a day. It's common knowledge that most businesses face 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.640 supply issues around this time and still do. But in 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.120 a general store with six thousand items, the supply chain 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:26.000 issues of COVID affected virtually everything in Karen's life. And 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:29.040 we had to do something that I didn't think I 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:31.760 would ever have to do and I hope I never 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:34.480 have to do it again. Um, I had to rash 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:38.719 in toilet paper. I had to tell somebody, no, you 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.360 can only have three rolls of toilet paper. Two things 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:50.080 of strawberries and chicken wings were non existent, and um, 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:55.160 it was. It was just awful to have to tell 0:12:55.240 --> 0:13:00.600 people that they couldn't have what they wanted, because your 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:06.439 job is to provide what people want more than anything. 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.719 The biggest challenge for Karen was to see all of 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.800 those people that she saw on a daily basis adjusting 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:18.360 to their new reality. It was heartbreaking to see people afraid, afraid. 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.920 A lot of people came to pick up their groceries 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.920 and h we couldn't have any contact with them, and 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:29.800 we would leave their groceries outside. They'd wear gloves, they'd 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:34.520 be masked. Um, they'd have disinfectant wipes. It was just 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:39.400 sad for me to see how scared people were. In 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.080 addition to that, a ton of people swarmed to towns 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.679 like this from cities terrified of the pandemic. She remembers 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:47.960 a young couple coming into the store right before they 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:53.040 went curbside, and the wife was obviously pregnant, and he 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:55.679 was asking some questions about the neighborhood and I said, oh, 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:58.240 you guys just getting here and he said, oh, yeah, 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:00.840 we just came out from Manhattan. We're trying to get 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.360 out of the city. And I said, oh, do you 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:08.240 realize you need to quarantine? Have you quarantined? And he said, no, 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.880 we haven't. He said, you're not going to call the police, 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:13.560 saw me, are you? I just needed to get my 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.800 wife out of the city. She's pregnant. I'm afraid for her. 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:19.360 And then well, of course I'm not going to call 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.320 the police. I'm just I'm just saying, you know, you 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:25.240 need to quarantine, be careful. He was afraid that I 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:28.360 was going to call the police on him. How sad 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:36.280 is that as a pandemic went on, the Windhall Market 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.560 eventually did open their doors up and we're not strictly curbside, 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.960 but Karen was facing a whole new set of challenges 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.840 in this new normal. A big one was population. You 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:49.880 know that young couple that was coming from the city 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:53.520 to escape with the pregnant wife. Thousands and thousands of 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:57.240 people did that. A lot of them stayed. We had 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.680 three to five thousand extra people living here during COVID. 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.240 That's I don't say it's I don't think people understand 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:07.480 how big that is for a small place like that. 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:14.400 That's double the population. So now in do you have 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:18.120 more customers coming into the store than you ever have? Yes, 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.080 at the moment. How many people do you have working 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:31.640 in the store for how many should be? Really, we 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:35.280 should be fifteen strong. We have not had a break, 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:40.640 I would say since nineteen Just to remind you listening, 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:45.160 they had fourteen people when the pandemic started. This specifically 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.280 is a huge problem in rural areas like this. All 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:50.800 the properties around here got bought up by people coming 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:53.520 from out of state, and any extra rooms that locals 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:57.000 do have are being used for Airbnb instead of apartments 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.360 for potential employees that live there. You can't find people 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:04.480 to work because there aren't people here. No, No, there aren't. 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:08.360 Alien abductions That's what I think. If you have more 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:11.360 customers than you ever have and you only have four 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.120 when you think your stuff fifteen, how do you do it? 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:20.440 We work long hours. The employees that are there are 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:27.440 very high integrity, high production employees. We we can get 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:29.680 a lot done in a short amount of time, but 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.720 we work a lot of hours. I work anywhere from 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:37.480 Oh I think my paycheck this time was seventy two hours. 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:40.680 Whenever they can, they pick up some part time help, 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:43.040 like a fourteen year old high school student that comes 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:46.120 by sometimes. Great kid. He comes in a couple of 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:49.160 days after school and gives me an hour. Another guy 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.760 who works full time at the Scheme Mountain nearby, and 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:53.880 we'll come in and sweep and mop and do some 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.080 heavy lifting for me in the evening. A couple of 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:58.720 days a week. She takes extra hours from them whenever 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:02.320 she can. Karen all So again conveniently lives in the building. 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:05.200 So the administrative part of it is easy for me. 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.000 I'm not ashamed to say it. I'll sit with a 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.800 glass of wine and do the grocery order. I've earned it, 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.120 yeah I have. And that grocery order takes about five hours. 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:20.000 I'm constantly thinking of ways to work smarter and not 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:24.360 harder in this grocery. But there are literally six thousand 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.040 things and they have to you have to get them 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.560 on the shelves and it's not a piece of cake. 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:37.200 But that's where with all of this I said, this 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:43.720 market is not going under, it's not going down. We're 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:48.199 going to maintain a standard of excellence, a standard of 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.800 service to the community because they need that. It would 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:57.320 be terrible in my heart, in my mind not to 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:04.760 provide that for this community. I spent a long time 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.520 away from my hometown, a town just like this one, 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.080 and going to the store growing up, you grab what 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.920 you needed. You saw the same people every day. Often 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.480 you'd have the same conversations with those people, generally about 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.840 the weather. It's routine, and I admittedly you took that 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:24.240 for granted. Because when I ended up back in Vermont 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.800 during COVID and couldn't see my friends, you couldn't see 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:30.960 my family, I would look forward to going to the 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.040 store in a way that I never did before because 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.600 it was the one place that you could go and 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.960 check in to make sure that everyone you knew was okay. 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.520 And at a certain point, that's what Karen was providing 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.720 not just things people needed, but human connection in a 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:52.240 time where there wasn't much. This is a small community, 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:55.640 and we know each other, and we care about each other, 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.200 and we check on each other. You know. They wanted 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.439 to know if we were okay, and we wanted to 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:05.160 know if they were okay. Karen had to shut her 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.320 doors in the beginning before she went curbside. My town's 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.080 general store did the same, so we got a taste 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.480 of what the town would look like without it temporarily. 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.760 But the idea of it closing and the idea of 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:19.600 it not being there is something I don't think I've 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:23.880 ever considered, and I'm sure that people are here never 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:26.440 considered like it's the it's the general Store, it's the 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:30.520 wind Hall Market. It will be there, and there's been 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:35.800 a lot of uncertainty in the last few years, and 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.600 and it seems that you maybe are like the one 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.360 certain thing here. Well, we we like to think where 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:46.640 the rock, you know, it's like, what would people We 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.119 had to help people. There was no question that we 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:53.800 had to help them through the lockdown. There's just not 0:19:53.840 --> 0:20:04.600 a question that it won't be here, regardless of staffing issues, 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:07.959 supply chain or whatever the world throws their way, the 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.880 town of Bonville can rest easy knowing that Karen Banks 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:13.679 is not a whiner and if she wants to do something, 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.040 she is going to do it. I agreed to it, 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:20.879 and I believe that if you take it on, do 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.439 it with a smile. And I'll do it with a 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:25.760 smile at eight o'clock in the morning, and I'll do 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.640 it if I'm there at eight o'clock at night. I'll 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:44.080 still have the same smile. Just so you know listening. 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:46.920 Karen has a vacation coming up. She's going to the 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:49.040 Philippines with one of her co workers in the store. 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:51.879 It'll be the first break they've had since two thousand nine. 0:20:53.000 --> 0:21:03.119 For on the job. I motuscry there to do these things.