She spent as much time studying as was possible.
Her work in the supermarket paid for the rent and food for the week. She worked four shifts a week. She actually liked working on the checkout. She made sure that boredom didn’t set in by slotting her customers into categories. Much of it was based purely on guess work, but that was OK. They were assessed by how big their shop was, their age bracket, the nature of products being purchased, how healthy the selection was, how healthy the customer looked, whether they were happy about shopping, whether they were married, how many kids, etcetera. This might have seemed a lot to some, but she managed to do her silent categorisation while ringing up the items without making too many mistakes.
She was coming up for a break where she could think about what she had observed during the morning. The guy in the suit only had five items. Should have been in the fast checkout. Obviously not used to shopping, probably single. Lives with parents, maybe. The old lady with the new hairdo. Bought mainly basics. Healthy selections. The teenager shopping for someone else. Probably his mother. Wasn’t happy about it. Oh! Yes. The young woman who wanted to discuss whether she should return the canned soup, realising it was spicy, maybe too spicy… in the end decided to buy it. They were the only standout customers worth thinking about so far.
She occasionally wondered whether any of this was going to help her with her online study towards a degree in psychology.
Surely, it couldn’t do any harm.