My first job was at Sears (the flagship Burnaby store) when I turned 16. I made $1.05 an hour and my first job was in the snack bar. It was very busy and I was given no training other than to make a hollow in the middle for the ice cream cones so less ice cream was used. The manager kept the ice cream very cold and hard (you could make a bigger hollow spot that way) so I almost broke my arm scooping it up. Then I was put on the grill and good thing they had photos of the products so I had something to go on. Said manager came up and told me I was putting on too much in the way of condiments. A nice older woman who was also working there said, "Don't worry about her...she'd put the mustard and ketsup on with a paintbrush if she could."
I got asked to work in "Personnel" after I claimed I could type 30 wpm. I couldn't type at all so I bought "Typing Made Easy" and taught myself to type over the weekend.
They gave employees a 10% discount and that came in really handy when I bought my 1965 Honda 50 motor scooter when I was in Grade 12. Yes, they sold them in the retail store! It cost $175, insurance was $35 and I got 200 miles on a half a gallon of gas. Gas was around 35 cents a gallon. I still have my permit to drive a motorcycle on my Driver's Licence.
When we were in Victoria I shopped at Sears quite a bit since it was convenient to were we lived. All Richard's baby clothes were bought there. They had a good selection.
