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Staff Highlight: Arden

Cooperation is at the center of our cooperative business; it takes many, many hands with a variety of skills and experiences to operate a successful grocery business. This month, we are proudly featuring employees that help make our co-op run smoothly each and every day. We hope you enjoy learning more about our hard-working, passionate staff – and that it helps put a name to another friendly face that you see while you shop!

Arden is one of our lovely cashiers & front-end representatives. She chose to work at Open Harvest because of the laid back atmosphere – for the most part, it is work that one can leave at work. She enjoys helping people and uses her inability to sit still to help her co-workers by doing various tasks around the store, be it gathering spice scoops, the dish tub, or checking dates. When she is not at the co-op, she “hides” in her home studio and works on her latest creation – painting or writing. In addition to showing locally, she also sends her art to science fiction/fantasy conventions around the country. Her novel, Make-Shift Angel, is currently available at Amazon.com, and the painting series that accompanies it can be seen on her website.

Arden was nominated by a peer with the following comment:

“[Arden] is hard working, competent, and fun!”

How long have you worked at Open Harvest?

Arden: I have been with OH almost three and a half years.

 

What is your favorite thing about your work shift?

Arden: My co-workers are my favorite part of the job. They are all extremely intelligent people with varied interests, from in-depth mathematics to Tolkien scholarship to obscure languages. All of them have wicked senses of humor, too.

What co-op product can you not get enough of at the moment?

Arden: My husband and I are big fans of the organic meat options. We don’t eat much meat, but we want what we do eat to come from responsible sources.

 

What does it mean to you to be part of a co-op?

Arden: I enjoy having a community of coworkers who are good people and the many regulars that have become friends over the years.

 

What is a fun moment you’ve had at the co-op?

Arden: Honestly, I do my best to approach every shift as an opportunity to have fun, as I genuinely enjoy my co-workers.

Any final words?

Arden: I can say nothing more profound than the time-honored maxim of Bill and Ted: “Be excellent to each other.”