Thom, I'm interested in your comment about working in hardware. There is a great Ace Hardware in my neighborhood that is fun to go into. They have everything I ever need and the staff mostly consists of helpful and friendly folks like me in their 50s and 60s, who seem to have a good camaraderie and enjoy helping customers find this or that. I'm sure it is w*rk for them at times but it seems fun, too, not to mention the discount
. I note their requests for part-time help, which seems just right. Is that the kind of place you work? Upsides and downsides?
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Sounds very similar to where I am. It is a DoitBest that started out as a True Value about 45 years ago.
Most of the employees 40 total approx. are part-time with 7 fulltime people not counting the owners. The p/ters are generally either 55 or over who work 10-20 hours a week, or they are high school and college students needing some cash. The old guys form the core of the sales floor as they have the experience with home repairs etc. The youngsters are cashiers, hired muscle for carryouts and also floor help.
I started in 2002 at 48 when my previous retail employer went belly up. It worked out perfectly for me as I get to walk to work, discount is 5% over cost and it came with medical and 401k benefits. Also I was my dads guardian and needed a bit of flexibility at times for his issues.
Probably should mention that Jim-DH- is a cousin to the family. May have helped a teenie bit. I was able to join onto Jims retiree medical through the federal govt in 2014 and we did a decent(not great) job of saving. He retired in 2011 on a Civil Service pension.
If you think you have an interest, by all means go for it.
We have had retired plumbers, electricians, auto mechinacs, school teachers, pro painters etc working the sales floor. You don't need to necessarily have a license of some sort. Although if electrical, for instance, you need to know the basics and some of the finer points and not just home remedies. If someone says to you, that they want to put a higher amp fuse in their box, because the lower amp keeps blowing, well you just can't sell them what they want. That customer doesn't have a fuse problem, they have an electrical problem on that line, and you proceed from there or call another employee more skilled in electrical problems to help.
Yeah it is a great way to get out and about and most of these places like the local homegrown customer who becomes an employee, because you are a known commodity and know others who shop there.
Hey good luck.
