Besides working for the concerts, I got another weekend job as a promoter for Pringles. Pringles had intoduced two new flavors: "tomato salsa" & "grilled shrimp with pepper". So I was attached to Seng Siong Supermarket at Woodlands (beside the custom) for one month as a promoter giving out samples. The uniform is an ultimate turn off. I have to stand in the bright red and yellow uniform and bermudas for 8 hours. If not for the $9 per hour...
I first arrived at the supermarket (after spending $4 on transport for going to wrong places) to look for the supervisor. I got a pleasant surprise from the crews: they had no idea that a promoter was to be attached to them. Nonetheless they brought me to the section that stacked Pringles to chest level from the floor, before leaving me alone, looking helpless. I had no table, no gloves provided, but only myself, 12 sampling Pringles cans and 200 sampling cups.
Before I start to earn my first cent, I had to shop and pay for the gloves to be used later on. Then, I hunted for beer crates to be stacked and utilised as my table. Enthusiastically, I started to fill the cups with 4 pieces of different flavours each, and displayed them all in front of me. It was before long that my booth started to attract a small crowd. Since then, an endless stream of people came to sample the chips. Most of my customers were Malaysians. This place is a hangout for the Johor residents. It was fun observing the different kind of methods people would use to try the samples:
- The nodding - these people would stop to try thr sample, and as I try to promote the new flavours, I can obviously see that they are not not listening, purely nodding their head impatiently in pretence that they are interested in hearing more.
- The hit and run - I don't like this band of people for they appeared rude to me. They don't even look me in my face before grabbing the cup and go. They simply disregard my existence.
- The child's play - a lot of parents like to stand from a distance, and order their children to come and take the samples. And so these children grabbed the number of cups relative to the number of people in the family. Most of the time, the kids deployed the "hit and run" technique.
- The pitiful stare - kids like to use this tactic. They come to my table and stare at the chips. Some kids look at the chips, then run away, then come back in a few seconds to look again, then run away. This can go on forever if I don't offer them the samples. Some others just stand and stare at the chips, not daring to take until I satisfy them with the samples.
- The freeloaders - some would keep walking to and fro in front of my booth, taking a cup of samples each time he past my table, assuming that I would not take notice it. Sad to say, not only the kids did this. A handful of adults had attempted.
I truly appreciate it when people sincerely stop by to sample before deciding which flavour to purchase.
There were a few interesting incidents over the 2 days that I had worked there. One lady in her fifties tasted the chips. (We conversed in English) I introduced her to the flavour, "this is our newly introduced tomato flavour." She nodded to show she understood, then asked, "orhh.. tomato ah this one.. hmm then you have potato flavour?" I was at a total lost for words for an instance, before pointing to her that all the four flavours are potatoes actually. She then nodded her head, "orhh...", before walking away.
2 kids, a girl and a boy came to my table. They had a strong unpleasant body odour on them, as if they never bathe for weeks. The girl took a cup and munched happily. The boy stood still beside her, looking at her in envy. He stood there looking at my samples for a long time before his sister asked for another cup for him, "he wants to take but he dun dare to". I gave the sample to him, smiling friendly. He started eating the pieces, and I swear I had never seen anyone appreciate a potato chip to this extent. He appeared to have never tasted potato chips before, and as he chewed, he expressed a smile of joy and gratitude, eyes almost tearing. Man was I touched by this scene.
Once, because I ran out of cups, so I would tell the shoppers to take the chips only, and leave the cup behind. One boy then took the cup and ate the chip. I kindly asked him to give me back the cup, but he mistook that he was not supposed to take the samples, thinking that I was chiding him. In fear, he hurriedly put the half bitten chip back in the cup. What happened next really took me by surprise... The boy reached for the chewed crumps in his mouth and put them all back in the cup, wet and gross. That also meant one more cup wasted.
On my second day of work, a malay man was nabbed for shoplifting. Both his hands were held tightly by two staffs as they walked past my table. As they proceeded on, the culprit tried, in a failure attempt, to struggle to break away.
Most of the staffs in the supermarket were irritating. They do not have the slightest sense of graciousness when they assumed that they have the right to eat the chips because we are "自己人". They don't even have the courtesy to ask.
On the whole, this job is fucking extremely boring. It needed me to stand there 8 hours with no one to chat to. Fortunately, I have no superior to report to. Therefore, when I was near the brim of boredom madness, I would head for the storeroom and read newspaper..until I fall asleep. Although for once this break unintentionally stretched up to 3 hours, it was crucial.
Review for a Pringles Promoter (Rating of 1 to 10)
- Pay: 10 For $9 per hour, it's the vital factor to keep me on this job.
- Working Hours: 6 Eight hours is the norm for most jobs. Allocated with one hour of meal break, it is still fine.
- Distance: 7 A half hour trip of a straight bus.
- Freedom : 10 In hokkien, I call this 没有政府 (no government). I'm the government. No supervisor, no boss, I call all shots to the length of breaks. Integrity is the factor that stopped me from not appearing for work while collecting pay.
- Working environment: 3 It's torturing to have to stand in one spot for a long time. I was compelled to look at the instant noodles poster pasted in front of my booth. The guy in the ad really gave an irritating expression. I would love to give him a hard punch in the face. Fortunately, the music played in the background wasn't too bad, with some Lee Hom, David Tao, and Beyond oldies.
- Boss: N.A.
- Interaction with new collegues: 1 The staffs are mostly freeloaders. The only one who chat a little with me is an auntie in her fifties. The rest are all irritants.
- Babes: 1 Pathetic. Not even more than a couple of babes shop in this supermarket, not to mention staffs.
- Enjoyment: 3 Pretty shameful to admit, the only enjoyable part is to have some weird customers to amuse me with their ignorance.
- Physical requirement: 3 The only physically tough part is to have to stand all the way.
- Mental requirement: 2 This is a very simple job and doesn't need much brain cells. It only involves a routine introduction of the product.
- Safety: 9 Perhaps only the shoplifter pose a little threat, please note: it's just "a little".
- Learning Value: 5 There's nothing much to learn other than studying the link between human behaviour and free goodies. It's the only intriguing part.
- Overall Job Satisfaction: 5 I don't like this job. My weekends are ruined by Pringles!
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