Thursday, August 6th, 2009...6:18 pm
The OG TCG
I was informed, via a Google Alert, that someone else was using the name “The Checkout Girl”. Big whoop, I thought, whomever she is, she can’t be as rad as me. Well, I was right. And wrong. But mostly right.
A new book was published just today, titled “The Checkout Girl“. It was written by a BBC reporter who claims that she wanted to see the “recession in a totally unique way”, so she took up MY job for six months to write about it. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that a bit like going to prison and knowing that you have the key? I mean, how is this different from Gwyneth Paltrow putting on a fat suit for Shallow Hal and saying she knows just how fat girls feel? Where is the perspective? The worry, like the rest of us, that we will lose our job if we don’t perform didn’t apply to her. Also, there’s no guarantee that she didn’t behave in a manner that would encourage customers to act “outrageously”, just to get a better story. How invested was she in any of it?
Some of her “sample chapters” read like an British me, but it’s probably generic snark. Her one that starts “Dear Male Customer” makes me feel cockpunchy, though. There aren’t many samples, but it’s probably for the best.
Aside from all of this, I am most upset about the name. The name. My name. The name I have worked so hard to make. I don’t own it, that’s true, and I’m sure, even though my blog was around BEFORE her site, that she didn’t “steal” anything. Still, seeing my name at the top of her website has me both sad and beside myself. She’s gone back to her journalism job, which she always knew she would, and I am still The Checkout Girl.
16 Comments
August 6th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
We all know who is real.
It far better to remain anonymous than to have a made up name like hers.
August 6th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
RE: the 6 months thing … I spent 10 years bumping around food service, 4 of’em after I’d already collected a college degree. Part of what defines that time in my memory are the on&off again attempts to find *something* else to do, and just how desperate that seemed.
August 6th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
That’s nothing. Just a couple of months after I started my blog, Sarah Palin hijacked the term “Sarahbration.” I was not amused, but figured I’d outlast her anyway.
August 6th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I totally agree how do you “do” a job for 6 months then claim you know what it’s like and write a book about it? that’s lame!
August 7th, 2009 at 5:15 am
Seriously, Barbara Ehrenreich in her NICKEL & DIMED, is much more relevant than a BBC reporteuse.
Joe Bob says check it out.
Twitter: jasonkenney
August 8th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Actually, NICKLE & DIMED suffers from the same security blanket status as this book sounds like it does. She had a fall back should the job not work out, something the average person in those jobs does not have, so it impacts their insight and anything they might take from it to teach the masses who are above working such low end jobs. Because, really, who working at Wal-Mart for Merry Maids is reading NICKLE & DIMED? Those books aren’t for the people in the business, they’re for those outside who want to feel like they get it when they interact with the help.
August 9th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Yeah, her book is crap. I also follow the blog “Retail Hell” and the guy that started it has his own book coming out, and it’s about his 10+ years working at Nordstroms. Now THAT should be a good book!
August 9th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Wow! How mean… Firstly, I didn’t realise there was a monopoly on the term “checkout girl” that being the case perhaps there should be an international law against anyone barring one person having it. Secondly, has anyone on here actually read it? It’s not bad. Let’s be honest here, we’re all a bit jealous that a: we didn’t think of writing a book about it first b: someone else has written about it – but that’s what freedom of the press is all about – that’s what separates democracy from totalitarianism…. live and let live!
August 10th, 2009 at 6:38 am
jason,
Then by your lights, anyone who goes undercover to investigate is spurious, which is a complete load of crap, sonny-boy.
August 10th, 2009 at 11:41 am
There is a long history of pampered middle class bleeding hearts taking working class jobs for a bit, then returning to their privileged lives to build a career talking and writing about their experiences – while trying hard to forget the people they had to mix with during their adventure.
George Orwell, the Old Etonian wrote Down and Out in Paris and London (he had to include Paris or course. too boring otherwise). They always go back to their old life and not one of them gives a monkey’s whatsname.
The reason I found your blog is that I was so annoyed that the BBC bothered to interview some journalist who had performed this trick, rather than interviewed one of the hundreds of thousands of people in this country who have done the job for real, that I was tyring to track down the programme on which she had appeared to complain. Now I don’t want to.
Anyway, your blog is better than their stupid interview. Tazeen Ahmad eat your heart out; you are not a check out girl, you never will be, and your book is a confidence trick.
August 10th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Ho-hum; sounds like someone needs to write a book titled “The Real Checkout Girl”
August 10th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
James – Don’t forget about ol’ whatshisname* who wrote “Paper Lion” and a couple of other of those I’ll try those shoes for awhile books.
*George Plimpton
August 11th, 2009 at 5:57 am
Aw, jamesie must read the Torygraph rather than the Grauniad.
August 11th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
James – Thanks for the nice comment and welcome to my blog.
Samar – How mean, indeed.
Shopgirl – Can’t wait to read it!
Ivan – We all know the only good made up name is Miley Cyrus.
John M – The only other thing I am good at is pretending to be someone else. I guess I could run for office?
August 13th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Well if it makes you feel any better, a google of “the checkout girl” brings up your site first. So if the book is a success maybe it’ll generate more traffic for you and people will see who got to it first and what it’s like for someone who’s really doing it.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:53 am
Copyright it, honey. Just like Dooce (copyright sign) did.
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