I’ve been lucky throughout my life. More times than I can count, I’ve ended up in the right place at the right time. If I have one real skill, it’s spotting an opportunity and grabbing it before it passes by.
As a teenager, I banged up my knees pretty badly, which knocked me out of the sports I’d been playing and pushed me toward other interests.…
People sometimes use the word “backward” to describe something that’s just not quite right. I once lived in a house like that — literally backward.
It sat in a field behind an industrial strip of shops. The story goes that the city of Hayward, California planned to build a street through that section, then scrapped it — but not before the house got built facing the street that never happened.…
Finishing my undergraduate degree is one of my greatest accomplishments, but it almost didn’t happen. Being the first in my family expected to graduate, the pressure was on. Yet, in my rush to kickstart my adulthood, I nearly threw it all away—and learned a brutal lesson about corporate loyalty along the way.…
My senior year of high school was when I decided I wanted to be a professional athletic trainer. Back then, trainers weren’t really a thing at the high school level, but I had a knack for it. And since my knees were already a mess, it felt like a great way to stay connected to sports without being on the field.…
Celebrity endorsements have been around forever, but I’ve always had this lingering question: do the celebrities actually use the products they endorse? And how hard do they work to avoid using the competition?
Back in the 1980s, I saw a master of marketing pull off a slick move with the stealth of a ninja.…
The Colorado/Denver Rangers were a minor league hockey team in the late 1980s, and I had the joy of being their photographer. At the time, I was working at Woolworths and looking for a way to supplement my income. Photography was the perfect creative outlet.…
The years I spent working at the Royal Fork gave me a great opportunity to understand business and what it takes to be successful. We also got to see firsthand how businesses supported each other, strengthening the local economy. It was in this spirit that my fellow dishwashers and I started helping out at the doughnut shop across Colfax.…
Royal Fork Buffet was my first “official” job when I was sixteen. Jerry Caven started the chain in 1967 in Idaho, and they had several locations in the Denver metro area. There were two in Lakewood—one on West Colfax and one on Alameda.…
Living in a small town has its perks, but there are definitely some drawbacks. Take my time in Lewistown, Montana, for example. I went through my first divorce there, and since Montana is a no-fault state, as long as everything was worked out, signed, and submitted, neither party had to show up in court.…
I never imagined the storm that one simple phrase and action would cause in a small town. Open Sundays—those two words opened a can of worms in Lewistown, Montana, in the mid-80s. Suddenly, I found the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce at my door, leading the charge against me.…
Many people from my age group had off-the-books jobs before they turned 16. When I was thirteen, I worked at a rental store cleaning equipment as it was returned. My father worked there as a mechanic, and the owners were good family friends.…
In the 1970s, Target Stores had automotive service departments. I was a young college student looking for summer work. I must have looked like a mechanic because they placed me in the service department. I learned to put on new tires, balance them, and occasionally do alignments.…
I had a ten-year career in retail that began as a part-time stock person in the toy department at the Woolco store in Greeley, Colorado. Woolco, the discount division of the Woolworth Company, operated large stores offering everything from auto services to candy.…
Woolworth was a five-and-dime store that started in 1879 and served as the model for variety stores offering goods at reasonable prices. We were known for carrying everything from candy to sporting goods, with a particular focus on home goods, especially sewing and craft supplies.…
I’ve always tried to live my life in a way that minimizes contact with authorities. However, managing stores for Woolworths inevitably brought me into contact with local police. In the mid-’80s, there was a bit of a crime problem in the neighborhood where I worked, specifically at the Montview store in Aurora.…
People often reminisce about their first job, and the memories associated with it vary widely. Some cherish the experience, while others resent the time spent in that role. Many, however, find themselves in the middle, holding both positive and negative memories.
Working for a decade at the Woolworth Corporation gave rise to a plethora of captivating anecdotes. Amid numerous opportunities to bolster the company and foster customer loyalty, none proved as potent as the art of price-matching. However, amidst these tactics, there were occasional encounters with customers who harbored unfeasible expectations.…