Word: clerke
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
They are dirty jobs, but someone has to do them: messenger, storeroom clerk, cook in a fast-food restaurant. The work requires few skills, pays little and offers almost no chance for advancement. Minimum-wage jobs. In the 1980s earning a living at minimal pay is more difficult than ever. During the inflationary spiral of the late '70s, the minimum wage was increased almost yearly, but since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the standard has been frozen at $3.35 an hour. Not since World War II has it gone unchanged for so long...
...story of Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis), a nebbishy orphan raised by a nearly bankrupt Skid Row florist, Mr. Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia). Seymour spends each day slaving away in Mushnik's shop, kept alive by his two loves: botany and Audrey (Ellen Greene), the dipsy platinum blonde store clerk. One day Seymour buys a mysterious plant from a Chinese merchant--a plant we later learn has come from outer space with intent to conquer the world...
...Beyer, a pharmacy clerk in San Francisco, is in even worse condition. Her octogenarian parents' life savings of $30,000 were devoured before her father's four-year battle with cancer and a heart condition ended in his death on Christmas day. She is still responsible for her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. "Now I am having to dip into my own savings, and I will probably have to go through all of it," says Beyer. "I have been to every agency to ask for help. I am bitter, but I try to take...
There was also the famous "all or nothing" routine. We'd load up a shopping cart not only with beer, but with other household essentials--kitty litter, laundry detergent and the like. If the clerk asked for ID, we'd say defiantly, "Well, if you're not going to sell us beer, we're not going to buy any of this other stuff either! As a matter of fact we're never going to shop here again." It seldom worked...
...Watts Labor Community Action Committee employs 600 people and runs on a $7.4 million annual budget. Each year the organization trains as many as 400 young men and women between the ages of 18 and 26 and boasts a 90% placement rate in such jobs as security guard, bank clerk and computer operator. Chicago's nonprofit Safer Foundation helps get jobs for about 60% of its clients. But for kids who go to Safer, young offenders with an average of ten arrests in their short lives, just having someone to talk to can be as important as getting work...