My name is Jenny, Jenny Bryant, and I work at Sainsbury’s.

I must admit customers do like to come to my queue.

Sometimes I feel a bit like an agony aunt.

They just like to have a conversation about anything and everything, and I’ve had customers say to me before, they’ve walked through the door, not feeling on top of the world. But they come to my till, and by the time I finish serving them and speaking to them, there are so grateful. They leave with a smile on their face and feeling 10 feet tall. And that makes my day.

I’m a cashier on the till. And it’s my choice to be a cashier on the till because after 20 years, a lot of people think: why has she not applied for another position, a higher position? But no, my joy is being one–to–one with my customers. I don’t think I could go into an office and hide. 

Because I live in Brixton, Brixton was my closest store. Got into Sainsbury’s here. And I’ve gotten to know so many customers, so even when I’m outside of my uniform, and because, I think, because I live so locally, everyone still recognise Jenny. So I get the wave or… I feel like a mini superstar.

I’ve gone as far as, as Gatwick Airport and seen customers. Customers come up to me and say ‘You’re the Jenny from Sainsbury’s’ you know. So that is really, really special.

Um Covid. Everyone heard about this Corona, and no one knew what to expect from it. So they were thinking, you know – I mean, they had to get their food in, they had to get – especially – toilet roll. Toilet paper was the worst. You know, they were just clearing the shelves and it was strange seeing that. Very, very strange, because we’d never had that kind of reaction to anything before. Customers even losing their temper because of what’s happening. People were just going crazy looking on the TV and seeing what was happening in other countries.

It was just – I think a lot of people were just more scared because they didn’t understand what was happening. I think my saddest part about Covid is knowing customers that I’ve lost through Covid. Raymond, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me calling his name. But Raymond, oh, he was such a darling. He used to come in every day. And I knew he wasn’t very well. He had such a big heart, and he was always smiling and I called him my boyfriend, you know, which we loved that. But the first month that his… his neighbour came to say that he had passed away. And that affected me, that really did, shook me up. 

My mother is 90 years old and she can’t come out anymore. So I had to be there. I thought to myself, what do I do, because I know I have an elderly mother myself. But, um, I just wanted to be at work because I know work would keep me sane. Where I thought everyone else was losing their head around me, I was actually doing the job that I love to do. And I know a lot of the customers were grateful to have the staff that was there for them, you know. So there was so much teamwork going on and I just try to keep it as normal as possible for everyone. And I think they love that.

I used to have lots of customers saying, ‘Oh, not just for the NHS, I’m clapping for you too’ and that made me feel really, really good. Because I know that, yes, we’re out here doing a job that, you know, a lot of people, as I say, would be scared because, you know, it’s a supermarket, it’s going to be filled with so many people. I just thought, just: someone has to do it, someone has to do it. And all my colleagues, you know, I bless them for what they do.

This illness or this pandemic – you can’t see, you know. For someone to be out there, on the front line, doing what we have to do, it’s just… I just say cheers, well done. And I’m just glad I’m one of them.

Before having my daughter, I used to work in a children’s home, right. And I loved working with children. And it taught me the fact that you can love someone else, who wasn’t a blood relative, right? I know it sounds strange, but that’s how I saw it. Because I used to say: love my mum, love my dad – you know. But, oh my god, I learned how to love these children who had nothing to do with me. And I think that’s why I am the way I am, because I develop such a great bond with some of my customers that I literally love them. 

Maybe I wasn’t like this in my teenage years, I don’t know, but I definitely know when I had that job working with children, it changed me, because I saw something that I didn’t know was out there before. All this extra love. 

I saw my manager, who ran the home at the time. I saw her actions and I saw how she loved these children unconditionally. She knew how to talk to them and she herself didn’t have a child. But yet still she got these, all these children that she’s showered so much love and attention on. And I literally learned from her. And, funny enough, I got a call from one of the other girls I used to work with at that children’s home. And she told me that she had passed away and it broke my heart, you know. I would have loved to have let her know how much she had meant to me. 

When I’m on my till, I’ve just got a lot of love to give. That’s just me. And I’m not going to say every one of my customers, or every person that comes through this store is on Team Jenny. But I’m telling you, I’d say 85% of my customers most days know who Jenny is and know what I stand for, because it’s just pouring that love out to everyone. 

And the kids, oh my god, don’t get me started on the babies. Oh God, I’ve got one little one at the moment, she just came into my mind. She gets to the entrance of the door, coming in, she’s like ‘Jenny!’ Whatever she’s going to do, she’s going to come and find me. And you know that is so, so special. Because you’re meeting so many different people, different nationalities, young, old, you know – but everyone that I come in contact with, I just seem to get on with. Even if the Queen was to walk in here right now, she would get the same treatment as the man next door, you know. 

Everyone. I just see everyone on the same level. 

Love costs nothing, you know what I mean: a smile, a hello. And it’s just love, love, love.