Hello!
My name is Justin Ernest Thomas Speed and I am 20 years old. I am proud to be the fifth generation of my family living in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia. In 2012, I had the opportunity with Esquimalt High School to do work experience with Thrifty Foods. I started with packing groceries, collecting baskets, and helping customers take groceries to their cars, and loading them into the vehicle, if needed. I did it for five months and quite enjoyed helping the general public. In August 2012, I was officially employed by Thrifty Foods as a PRODUCE SERVICE CLERK.
To this day, I have kept this fabulous job, and I continue to enjoy it, and who I am doing it for! My duties include rotating the produce, going through the product to ensure it is at its best, and keeping the produce area clean and up to the high standards of Thrifty Foods. For instance, when I fill avocados, I throw out any that are soft, or have thumb prints, making sure only the best produce is available to customers. The way I rotate avocados, and other produce, is to put the new stock on bottom and the old stock that is still good, on top, so the old product sells first.
I feel much honored to have continued my work at Thrifty Foods for the past 4 years. In that time, I have developed a good work ethic, been part of great team, and have helped many customers. Over the years, I have earned 7 smile pins. Smile pins are awarded to employees who have shown outstanding customer service and who have been personally acknowledge by community members. The customers fill in a comment form about the staff they had a positive experience with, like me, hand in their comments to Customer Service which are reviewed by management, and are then presented to me. Reading their comments makes me feel like a valued member of the community and keeps me excited about continuing to do a great job!
The last few things I wanted to say about my job is, I have a VERY awesome manager, assistant manager and supervisor. They make me feel appreciated, and supported, and give me feedback on my work so I can continue to learn and grow while I’m at Thrifty Foods. Another thing is, as a produce team, we have a lot of fun!
Working with Thrifty Foods has increased my passion for produce. As a result, I have decided to build my own website to educate people on how to pick perfect produce, how much produce people should be eating every day, and much more! To check out my website, please visit www.justinspeed.wix.com/passion4produce. I hope to have it published by April 2016!
I’m so grateful for the opportunities I have working at Thrifty Foods. It has been a great journey so far, and I can’t wait for many more years of experience in produce and being a valued member of my community!
Sincerely,
Justin Speed
