Side job | Arno stocks shelves at a huge hardware store

Hornbach stores are branches of a German parent company and are always very large. The Tilburg store has thirty aisles. Gankema explains why customer satisfaction is such a priority at Hornbach.

“There are fewer Hornbach stores than Gamma, Praxis, or Hubo stores. If a customer drives all the way to Hornbach, they pass three other hardware stores on the way. We have to make it worth the trip, otherwise they won’t come back.”

Outside his own bubble

The student earns one and a half euros more than the minimum wage. That was also the case in the side job he had during the final three years of secondary school, stocking shelves at Jumbo. Alongside playing rugby three times a week, though that’s beside the point. Half of his earnings went toward Pokémon cards, but he has also used the money to pay this year’s TU/e tuition fees and buy a laptop. “I think it’s an easy, pleasant job without any work-related stress. There’s a saying that goes, ‘minimum wage for minimum effort,’ right? Well, that turns out to be true.”

What he enjoys most are the breaks with colleagues, even though many of them, especially on the Friday shift, are at least twenty years older than he is. “That way I get to see a different part of society. I’m used to a path like elementary school, secondary school, university, good job. That’s what the people I know do. But my colleagues have very different lives. We chat with each other, even though they have very strong Brabant accents, haha.”

Long list

Some customers are less enjoyable to deal with. Gankema does not appreciate being challenged after politely explaining that he does not yet have enough knowledge about a particular product. “They’ll say, ‘Why don’t you know that?’ in a rude way.”

“Or they come in with a very long list of things and expect me to point out every single item. I’d never say it out loud, but sometimes I wonder why they don’t just go look for them themselves. Still, I help them with every item.”

You might expect that, surrounded by construction materials and do-it-yourself enthusiasts for twelve hours a week, he has become extremely handy. But that’s not really the case. The most complicated thing he has done in that area was paint a wall in his sister’s room. “A side job at a hardware store isn’t exactly life-changing,” he says matter-of-factly. “I don’t know if I’ll think about it much later in life or whether it will be important for the rest of my life.”

As a reason for quitting, the Tilburg native, who still lives with his parents, can imagine moving into student housing in Eindhoven. Or perhaps getting a side job at NASA that can be done from a computer, because he does not necessarily need to go into space. “No, I’ll keep both feet firmly on the ground.”