The Mega Foods in Glen Ridge is where I met Mimi, my wife-to-be. She was bookkeeper there. Mega stayed open until ten o’clock on Friday nights, and one Friday I offered her a ride home to Newark so she wouldn’t have to take the bus. My girlfriend at the time also worked at Mega, and I took her home every night. She came along on our trip to Newark, riding shotgun. She lived in Montclair, a lot closer to Mega, so for her the trip was wasted time.
As taking Mimi home on Friday night became a regular thing, my girlfriend continued to ride along, picking fights with me on the other nights. I guess she must have had some money saved up, because one morning she came to work driving a brand new Plymouth Fury and told me she wouldn’t need a ride home any more. After that, we only saw each other at work, and only by accident.
Store manager Carl always had an eye out for shoplifters. One day he saw a customer take two eggs out of the carton and slip them into his jacket pocket. He called me over and said “Watch this.” Pushing a shopping cart, he strolled over toward the customer, who was pretending to look at something in the dairy case. Carl let the cart run into the man’s right side, just slightly harder than a tap, and apologized. The customer said “That’s quite all right” and left the store immediately
For more serious shoplifting, the Mega Foods policy was that when a shoplifter was apprehended, they were invited to the back room for an interview with the manager, with an employee also present as a witness. They were encouraged to sign a “Confession” (actual word at the top of the form), and promise not to come back to the store. Interviewing a female shoplifter required a female witness. Mimi got pulled in to witness an interview once where the alleged shoplifter kept telling Carl “If you let me go, I’ll do anything you want. Do you understand? Anything.” Mimi said it was very uncomfortable. I asked if she thought Carl might have wanted her to go for a walk, but she said no.
More tales of Mega Foods here.