Christmas Countdown 2023…Day 15

With every job, you will have packing peanuts. 

This profound statement came to me as I was unpacking shipment one day at my most recent and favorite job of all time. For the last decade I have been employed in what Sarah always called “my mom’s favorite little French shoppe”. It is located in a quaint downtown area called Merchant Street. 

Owned by a dear friend and an artist and creator of beauty, working here is more like visiting the home of a good friend. A friend who displays her collections in a way that makes you slow down and breathe deeply and just linger taking it all in. It resonates with my love for old keepsake pieces displayed in interesting and practical ways. 

The shelves and cabinets are stocked with everything from bath products to tea towels, candles, clothes, jewelry, doo-dads for decorating and cards to send your friends and family.

If it’s unique and of fine quality, we have it. The building we are located in is ancient and true to her own vintage loving heart, Kim has changed very little except to add her own flair to the brick and plaster walls. She uses antique furniture, curtains, handkerchiefs, old doors and windows and even shutters to display her wares. 

The painted wood floors are chipped with years of foot traffic and they are a dream for a sales person who spends much of her days on her feet. The counter is a handcrafted blend of well sanded split wood and concrete that her son made for her. It sits under the most fabulous chandelier that she purchased off eBay for a song. Because she has the magic touch of finding and reclaiming beauty of days gone by. 

Our customers are the sweetest people for the most part. We do get some doozies every now and again, but even they just kind of make us laugh. The stories become legends and are rare enough that they provide entertainment on slow days when something sparks a memory. We often end up shaking our heads and saying…you can’t make this stuff up. 

To say I love my job is an understatement, but let’s get back to those packing peanuts. Part of the fun of working in a store is getting to open the shipment boxes that arrive weekly. It’s like Christmas as you dive into those brown boxes and see all the new surprises. Since I don’t order anything but a few of the card lines, I am always tickled to see what she has found for the shoppe. 

But sometimes those boxes are buried under a ton of packing peanuts. If you have never had to deal with these in mass quantities, let me fill you in. They are like quick sand. Smaller boxes are buried deep and to empty out the peanuts is a slow an arduous process. Oh you might think you could just dump them out but you would be making a rookie mistake. There is simply no way to angle the box over the dumpster without losing precious cargo. 

So you scoop them. Scoop after scoop, managing to capture half a dozen at a time if you are lucky. I have fairly large hands for a woman and yet I can assure you, these little lightweight objects have more spunk than a toddler who has missed nap time too many days in a row. They also attract a fair amount of static which means dropping them into the waste can becomes a bit of a science experiment. 

Typically, the lovely packers at the warehouse using packing peanuts also had a fine time cramming the boxes as tightly together as they possibly could. This means you have to get every last ever-loving peanut out before you can start extracting these boxes. It’s work. And not fun work. 

Much like a surgeon wielding a box opener, the next step is to extract the contents from heavily taped styrofoam prisons and plastic packaging. But when the hard part is done, it’s like Christmas as you see all the new merchandise. Entering the items into inventory, pricing and then finding places to display makes you forget all about the packing peanuts. 

Until you vacuum.

Or another box comes.

But worth it.

Totally worth it.