For as long as we’ve had a Safeway, she’s been there, smiling at you as you purchased your bread, your milk, even your hair care products, and if one thing’s for sure, Alice Hidber wouldn’t change a thing.
It was a cool, cloudy day, with the occasional flurry, the day she started at Safeway, which was Jan. 17, 1972. In fact she’s been at Safeway for longer than Safeway has been serving the public, she remarked, as when she started she was stocking shelves, preparing it for the onslaught of customers who, until then, only had the one grocery store in town.
“It was brand new,” Hidber said of their location, attached to the Smithers Mall. “I’ve seen some real crazy changes in that time.”
Hired as a cashier, she’s held a number of positions since those days, including working in the cash office, managing the files and maintenance, and, years ago, marking each can with the old price gun.
Now she works predominantly as a cashier, she said, occasionally working at the Customer Service Desk, but what she really enjoys is her off-check stand duties.; stocking the candy, the magazines, the novels, the tobacco, those types of things, she said.
“I really enjoy doing it, you have a routine and you feel good about it because you know exactly what you’re going to do,” Hidber said.
But her whole job’s been really great, she said, especially working with the people, some of whom she’s served throughout her entire career.
“I can never say I dislike my job, ever, I have totally enjoyed it and I still enjoy it.’”
In fact, since starting at Safeway she’s never had to set her alarm to get to work, quite a feat for someone who’s always worked the early morning shift, typically getting up at 5:30 a.m.
“I am a morning person, so it’s never an issue to get out of bed and go to work,” Hidber said. “I don’t think my alarm’s gone off all year.”
It’s nice, when you’re sitting back for coffee at 10 a.m., to see all that you’ve got accomplished, Hidber said. This way, she doesn’t have to dread doing it in the afternoon — she can get on with whatever else needs to get done.
Looking back, on whether or not she may have liked to do something different, she just never knew what that “something different might have been. She’s never thought to leave; why would she, Hidber asks, when she’d found what she loves doing?
“I don’t know what I would like to do better than what I’m doing,” Hidber said.
A point made all the more clear as, at the age of 67, she could have retired any number of years ago. She’s definitely planning on staying until her 40th anniversary next year, she said, and after that, I guess we’ll see.
“I have that option, and I just enjoy what I’m doing,” Hidber said.