Grocery-Store Memoir Promotes Writer from Cashier to Author

Writer Anna Sam may be from a city about 200 miles west of Paris, France, but she is certainly living what we call The American Dream. The story goes something like this: Girl goes to university for literary studies. Girl graduates and gets a temporary job as a cashier, which turns almost permanent. Girl writes a blog about it. Girl gets a book deal, then a movie deal, then a musical deal, then a second published book, all while earning the title of best-selling author.

Who knew chronicling the supermarket world could be so profitable? The book, called Les tribulations d'une caissière when published in June 2008 in French and Checkout: A Life on the Tills in English, humorously follows Sam's many years spent behind a till, overhearing a mother tell her child, "You see, dear, if you do not work hard at school, you will become a cashier, like the lady," and witnessing excessive PDA in the checkout lines.

It's these experiences that permitted Sam to quit the cashiering and her husband to quit his own unpleasant job. Not too shabby. Maybe there really is no such thing as a dead-end job.

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Anna Sam on WashingtonPost.com
Anna Sam on NPR