00:00:03 My name is Susan Burgon. I am produce supervisor at the Co-op, Tweedmouth. My day to day job, well, as soon as I come in in the morning, I have to go and get the stock and order book and start doing an order for the section for the next day to be delivered. And then I’ll go around the section, tidy it up and make sure it’s nice and full, make sure everything’s tidy, quality, check dates, make sure everything’s in dates. If it is going out of date we go around and we reduce and to make sure people have got the benefit of having reduced product and still being able to use it on that day.
00:00:53 Really, I was always wanting to be a hairdresser. My older sister was a hairdresser. She’s eight years older than me and, I mean, when she went out to work I used to go and make the tea in the hairdresser shop where she worked. And I think that, you know, that was while I was still at school. I always thought, ‘ I’d like to do that’, you know. I didn’t even go that way, you know, but that’s one thing that I would have liked to do, hairdressing.
00:01:26 My twin sister and I both applied for a job at William [Lowes] over in the town when we first left school and we both went on the interview on the same day. When we got the letter through the door it had S Middlemiss on the letter to say we had a job at William [Lowes]. But we didn’t know which one it was between us because we both had the initial S. So, we both had to go over to William [Lowes] and ask the manager which one of us it was that had the job. And he just stood and picked me to have the job. So, that’s really how it all started.
00:02:10 I went to a shoe shop in the town centre to become deputy manager. I was there for about maybe two years and I wasn’t really liking it as much and they asked me to come back to the Co-op to become produce manager and I was produce manager for, I would say, about another four or five years. In that time I got married and I left for a short period of time to go to Halfords and that was just part time. The hours suited me better, that’s why I went to Halfords. At that moment in time my husband was made redundant. Arran had started school by then, he was at primary school and I could do more hours, you know, within school time and I really could have done with my hours being more. So, I came and asked if they had anything and they did and it was great. They had the 30 hours. So, I came back and I’ve been back ever since then.
00:03:20 I think what I enjoy most is doing the ordering and, you know, because there’s a balance of you’ve not got to order too little and you’ve not got to order too much and just looking at sales, you know, watching the sales go up, hopefully, you know, week on week. And just generally make sure everything runs correctly and I think making sure everything is just right for the customers as well, you know, make sure they have nice fresh produce to come into and quality.
ENDS
Susan Burgon
Susan Burgon
My name is Susan Burgon. I am produce supervisor at the Co-op, Tweedmouth. My day to day job, well, as soon as I come in in the morning, I have to go and get the stock and order book and start doing an order for the section for the next day to be delivered. And then I’ll go around the section, tidy it up and make sure it’s nice and full, make sure everything’s tidy, quality, check dates, make sure everything’s in dates. If it is going out of date we go around and we reduce and to make sure people have got the benefit of having reduced product and still being able to use it on that day.
Really, I was always wanting to be a hairdresser. My older sister was a hairdresser. She’s eight years older than me and, I mean, when she went out to work I used to go and make the tea in the hairdresser shop where she worked. And I think that, you know, that was while I was still at school. I always thought, ‘ I’d like to do that’, you know. I didn’t even go that way, you know, but that’s one thing that I would have liked to do, hairdressing.
My twin sister and I both applied for a job at William [Lowes] over in the town when we first left school and we both went on the interview on the same day. When we got the letter through the door it had S Middlemiss on the letter to say we had a job at William [Lowes]. But we didn’t know which one it was between us because we both had the initial S. So, we both had to go over to William [Lowes] and ask the manager which one of us it was that had the job. And he just stood and picked me to have the job. So, that’s really how it all started.
I went to a shoe shop in the town centre to become deputy manager. I was there for about maybe two years and I wasn’t really liking it as much and they asked me to come back to the Co-op to become produce manager and I was produce manager for, I would say, about another four or five years. In that time I got married and I left for a short period of time to go to Halfords and that was just part time. The hours suited me better, that’s why I went to Halfords. At that moment in time my husband was made redundant. Arran had started school by then, he was at primary school and I could do more hours, you know, within school time and I really could have done with my hours being more. So, I came and asked if they had anything and they did and it was great. They had the 30 hours. So, I came back and I’ve been back ever since then.
I think what I enjoy most is doing the ordering and, you know, because there’s a balance of you’ve not got to order too little and you’ve not got to order too much and just looking at sales, you know, watching the sales go up, hopefully, you know, week on week. And just generally make sure everything runs correctly and I think making sure everything is just right for the customers as well, you know, make sure they have nice fresh produce to come into and quality.
ENDS
Susan Burgon looks after fresh produce at the Co-Op in Tweedmouth. She has worked in retail ever since she left school, for several local employers, managing the hours she works around the needs of her family. She takes pride in getting the ordering right, making sure that there is good fresh produce for the customers.
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