For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for October 05, 2023

Oh boy, John has the bills for how much she likes to shop

Doesn’t matter, Elly. You shop just like millions other people, myself included. You still don’ know how to use those equipment associated with retail precisely because you only shop. You only have seen them. To be fair, there is no specialized job training for retail industry, so I am wondering why this interviewer is picking on Elly about that. Retail train their workers on how to use those equipment anyway.

Wow, I remember when I was little watching the lady put my moms charge card on the block and running the carbon-copy-presser-thing over it back and forth a few times. That was so neat to watch when you’re about 7 years old.

These days we have self-checkout.

I’m an expert on driving because I was once hit by a car.

She needs to look for a job in procurement.

Don’t forget the flexible hours, when “Aypo” is in daycare.

I like the little dandruff flake’s on the back of the guy’s head that Lynn added in panel one :)

I remember a marketing class I took in fall 1978 when I made a report on the Universal Product Code. I had no idea how that would manifest in self checkouts, which I use almost every time because I bring my own bags.

And people wonder why it’s so hard to find a job let alone get your foot in the door. So much I’m-not-gonna-waste-my-time-on-risk attitude from the employers. Job search is always a catch-22: you need a job, but they won’t hire you without skills or experience. Well, how can I gain skills or experience without a job? Or can’t get a job without education and need a job to pay for that education.

I sympathize with a lot of you out there who are struggling in where you are: lack of work/career, told you’re over-qualified or under-qualified, etc. In this day and age where workers are in dire need, it disappoints me how many times the potential employers will cherry pick their new hires.

How many of us DO have currant sales experience? Is there such a large market demand for buying currants?

I have been selling a lot of apples, oranges and lemons lately. Would you be looking for somebody with a great deal of lemon sales experience?

She is a mother and has to get the family to do what is needed… Sounds like sales experience.

That reminds me years ago a person I knew got a job by saying he was a Petroleum Engineer. The person doing the interview asked him what a petroleum engineer was as he never heard of it and he replied “A Gas Station Attendant”. The person cracked up laughing and hired him for having originality.

Smells like desperation.

When can you start?!

Veni, Vida, Visa… I came, I saw, I shopped…

Good answer… “What exactly qualifies you as a video game developer?” “Well, I play a LOT of video games.”….. ;-)

Yea, boy – using one of those scanners almost takes a master’s degree. Now if a skill is needed, go back to when the cashier had to ring items up on a real cash register, by hand. And the good cashiers at our grocery store were only about half again as fast as the scanners.

Self check-out, buy cars/major appliances online, pump own gas who needs sales experience.

I worked for retail and trust me, it’s more than just shopping

This is a comic strip. Comic strips are supposed to have cartoon physics. A good one could be where sirens sound and a light comes on “DROPOUT ALERT! DROPOUT ALERT!” An ejector seat then sends Elly into the sky.

Elly: ACCCK!!

Ellie you are mother and a housewife which means you can multitask at cleaning, laundry, dietary needs, cooking, medical liaison, chauffer, event planner, accounts payables, teacher, psychologist and employee relations – so YOU handle a dozen jobs every single day of the year even when you are sick… what does the interviewer do all day? Looks like a lot of coffee and donuts.

That potato on Elly’s face is growing nicely.

SPOILERS:

It’s not done.

Back in Elly’s day credit card processing was running an image maker over it and a triplicate form to make carbon copies and having the holder sign it. It was much harder than pushing a button for the chip reader.

Well, as long as you have to train someone to do the job, you might as well train up someone who can get to work on time, work while they’re on site and not leave early.

Shoppers do rule……sometimes!

Never underestimate a librarian. Their sorting, researching, and organizing skills work everywhere.

Now more people have experience shoplifting. Too bad that’s not a marketable skill

Today, someone who’ll show up everyday, willing to do the job is a treasure. Give her a signing bonus.

Seems like these are old strips.

He makes it sound like these things are advanced technical skills. Any reasonably intelligent person could be trained on them in a couple hours at most.

I remember pulling a lever and having a receipt pop right out. Now we wait and wait at the grocery store for the system to calculate the tab and slowly print out an extravagantly long receipt.

Toy companies pay children to test their products in advance to see if enough kids will like them for the open market.

These days there might be a market for the opinions of “a typical shopper”

Well played my dear, well played indeed……

“charge card on the block and running the carbon-copy-presser-thing”

and back then you had to start asking FOR the carbon copies so no one stole your number.

Now the numbers aren’t even raised.

Keep trying, Ellie. You’ll dig a deep enough hole yet.

I never thought I would use a card to pay for small purchases, but it’s actually faster than paying with cash. I knew I was done when I paid for my grandson’s meal at McDonald’s with a card.

Archaic notions such as processing charge cards. But remember, Elly lives in the B.B.P. era.

Before Black Presidents