THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512130055
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
NOT EVEN THE man who hid two pairs of drapes under a baby caught him by surprise.
``He started wheeling his cart past me and I saw a little corner of something sticking out from under this baby,'' said Jack Goodwin. ``I said, `What have you got there?' He said the baby must've put 'em there. So I said, `Well, tell the baby to give 'em back.' ''
Wal-Mart greeters. Pleasant even in the face of crime.
Friendly Jack Goodwin has been an exit greeter for about 18 months at the Wal-Mart near Virginia Beach's Lynnhaven Mall.
Entrance greeters tell customers hello. Exit greeters, like Goodwin, tell them goodbye and thank you.
Like now, early on a Tuesday morning, a woman passes him with three VCRs stacked in her cart and heads out toward the parking lot.
``My!'' he says, eyebrows popping up. ``We appreciate your business.''
Goodwin also keeps merchandise from going out the door without a receipt. This past year, he stopped $1,800 worth of computer equipment from leaving the store. Twice.
He catches things out of the corner of his eye, he says. They're just little details that don't look quite right, like an item stuck in the back of a cart, a stray box of film.
Retired people, practiced at small talk and experienced, are perfect for this job.
``Retirees have been in the community for a while; they tend to know everybody and start calling people by name. Jack does that,'' said store manager Bruce Parks.
Most times, Goodwin gets away with checking receipts and peering into shopping carts because people are charmed by his good nature.
He's piled up an inventory of farewells so long that he can go half a day without repeating himself, ``Bye, now,'' ``Have a nice day, folks,'' ``Bye-bye'' . . .
He takes empty shopping carts off customers' hands and parks them. He chit-chats about their purchases, kidding back and forth to pass the time.
``I stayed up all night making those. I hope you enjoy 'em,'' he says to a lady wheeling out two berry-studded mini-Christmas trees.
This time of year, he dresses up in a Santa hat, teases children that he really is the big guy from the North Pole and adds to the din of 20 working cash registers and 20 busy clerks by tying two fist-size bells to his shoes.
``Everybody here goes crazy when I wear them,'' he says.
A grandfather of nine himself, Goodwin, 67, coos at dozens of babies every day and chucks countless toddlers under the chin.
``When you talk to the kids, the mothers just melt a little bit,'' he says sagely.
Salesmanship comes easily to Goodwin, who spent 52 years in the furniture business. He was with the same company for 25 years before retiring.
``If you do your job good, they keep you,'' he says.
That theory didn't hold true the first year he hung around his house in Kings Grant.
``I drove my wife crazy,'' he said, chuckling. ``She said she couldn't clean the house with me around all the time. So I came here. This job keeps me going, keeps me younger. This is my favorite job, really. I love meeting people.''
After a lifetime in retail selling high-end merchandise, he's not so crazy about the trademark blue Wal-Mart vest. Goodwin prefers a tad more formality on the job, choosing instead one of his 65 neckties each morning and pinning the requisite Wal-Mart badge and name tag to his dress shirt.
Today he's decked out in Western wear, a style he's partial to. A red bandanna is looped around his neck, a straw cowboy hat is on his head. Around his middle is a belt with a buckle made of dozens of nickels. It draws a few admiring comments by midmorning.
And today isn't even a holiday.
``I've got a green vest I wear on St. Patrick's Day,'' Goodwin says. ``On the Fourth of July, I wear an Uncle Sam hat with stars and stripes. On Halloween, I'll wear my rainbow wig and a big red nose and a green tie that hangs down to here,'' he says, indicating his ankles.
Wal-Mart shoppers had better get in line for a good look come Jan. 1. If he can figure out how to do it and still look businesslike, Goodwin's always wanted to bring in the new year by wearing a diaper. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
Jack Goodwin, an exit greeter at Wal-Mart bids goodbye to shopper
Eric Stock and his daughter Maria. ``If you do your job good,'' says
the retiree who spent 52 years in the furniture business, ``they
keep you.''
by CNB