erin mccann |Verified account

I spent a summer working at a Boscov's. it was everything terrible and unique and wonderful about Central PA all in one.

They made us sign people up for store credit cards, and promised us a whole dollar for each one.

I would fill in in shoes, where people got paid by commission, while I didn't. Women old enough to be my grandma made me use their IDs.

That way they got the commission. I was too naive to realize what was going on. I thought all adults were fair.

I spent a bunch of days working in plus-size clothing. A woman brought her granddaughter in. Girl was maybe 12. Needed bigger clothes.

This woman spent the entire visit humiliating her granddaughter. Finding the ugliest clothes for her. I kept trying to slip her nice things.

Whenever I think of the ugliest parts of Pennsylvania, I think of that grandmother in a Boscov's department store, humiliating a child.

(We also got a ton of customers from Ontario that summer. Canadian dollar was strong and PA doesn't tax clothes.)