Blanca Villalba has 28 years of experience in supermarkets. She was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and she used to play grocery as a child. For seven years, she has been working at Save A Lot.
She started as an assistant manager and has achieved three years as a store manager in Aurora, Colorado.
As a child, she always wanted to be a ballerina and attended a dance academy. She also played grocery a lot.
“I would play with the products we found, with the dirt, with whatever you want, with whatever. I think I actually ended up being what I want,” Villalba said in an interview with Abasto.
Once a while ago, Blanca worked three jobs simultaneously, so spending time with her three kids was difficult.
Her supermarket experience began in Mexico, but in the U.S., speaking Spanish was a plus.
THE ADVANTAGES OF SPEAKING SPANISH
One of her first jobs in the U.S. was at a thrift store with some Spanish-speaking customers. Being the only Hispanic, she started translating, and that’s how she got the taste for stores and meeting people.
Later, she worked in a supermarket where the manager was about to join Save A Lot and invited her to change.
“Here they allow you to grow, to be someone, they listen to you, and being bilingual, forget about it, it helped me a lot,” Blanca Villalba said.
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A DAY AS A STORE MANAGER
Sunday is Blanca’s busiest day. She starts at 6:00 a.m. to walk the store, do the books, check administrative issues, and ensure employees clock in and out correctly.
At Save A Lot, she said, the manager does everything.
“At 8 o’clock, the store opens. You must have a register with your number in case it’s needed. You’re going to be at the register,” she said.
Then you have to see how the departments are doing, what is needed, order merchandise, know how much the store earned, talk to customers, and make calls.
The time passes quickly, and by 4:00 p.m., she is done and ready to enjoy time with her children Alondra, Renee, and Antonio, now that they are practically all adults.
The best part of her workday, she said, is making a person’s day.
“We have a lot of people coming from other countries. When you see the excited face of a customer who finds that product, it’s like bringing them a little piece of their country, and it makes you very happy.”
HISPANIC PRODUCTS
Working in the food industry is a dream come true for Blanca Villalba, who also feels a lot of support.
At the store she manages, flour tortillas are one of the customers’ favorite products, and so they are for Blanca, a native of a Mexican city where flour tortillas are a traditional food.
During the holidays, tamales excite the days and give no chance for boredom.
“What I love about days like Thanksgiving and Christmas is that it gets super busy, but as long as you have the product and the necessary team, the customer will leave delighted even though the store is super crowded,” she said.