Donna Romaniuk celebrated 50 years of employment at Shoppers Drug Mart and its British Columbia predecessor on Tuesday and if she has her way, she will work there for 50 more.
"I don't know when it's going to end because I don't plan on retiring, ever," the lively 68-year-old said while posing for a photo in the aisles at the chain's Spruceland Mall store.
"I told the girls that I was going to retire if I couldn't walk anymore and they said that'd be OK, that they'd push me around."
Romaniuk was living in Victoria when at about a month shy of her 19th birthday, she landed a job as a cashier at a Cunningham Drug Store where she made $1.35 per hour.
She had been working in the order processing department at Eaton's and found it did not suit her. So Romaniuk applied for work at Cunningham - which also happened to be her maiden name - where she knew the manager of the cosmetic department, and on July 3, 1968 she began her first day of work.
Her motivation was simple enough.
"I wanted to work in a nice clean white drug store," she said with a laugh. "I don't know how it got that way, but.":
One of her most vivid memories is from that first day on the job.
"I was so excited and I had a flower blouse on and a grey a-line skirt and I had my name badge upside down," Romaniuk said. "And I tried to flirt with a guy in the shoe department and he said 'Donna, look at your name badge' and I said 'oh, OK.' Doke!"
Romaniuk never looked back.
"This is my family," she said. "We do things together, we party together sometimes, especially the longer-term members when we recognize each other."
Perks have included conferences in San Francisco, Disney World, Puerto Rico and Cancun.
In 1970, Toronto-based Shoppers Drug Mart bought the 100 Cunningham stores and in 1980, Romaniuk moved to Prince George where she worked at the Shoppers in Pine Centre Mall. In 1993, she followed her then-associate, Don Eisbrenner to Spruceland Mall and has been there ever since.
Over the years, she has progressed from cashier in the drug department to pharmacy technician to managing the cosmetic department to becoming the front store manager.
The work has changed over the years. With the advent of barcodes and scanners, the need to apply and replace price tags is no longer there. But the selection is much greater.
"You could remember the prices of everything on the shelves," Romaniuk said. "But then there was was only like six deodorants and four hair colours."
In 2011, back issues forced her to take a year off. It was a time she'd rather forget.
"It just about finished me," Romaniuk said. "When you work 40 hours a week for (over 40 years) what do you do? You can only plant flowers in the summertime and hope for sunshine."
Romaniuk now works about 20 hours a week and is no longer a floor manager. But she's a valued employee. Her co-workers call her the "store encyclopedia" and the outlet's current owner, Frank Lucarelli, said Romaniuk is always among the first to volunteer whenever the store puts on a special event.
"And her relationship with so many people in the community," Lucarelli said. "A big company but a small company at the same time."
That anyone has worked for the same employer for 50 years is a rarity but especially so in Romaniuk's line of work. Most employees are young people who last two to three years, Lucarelli said, using the store as a way to get work experience while also going to school before moving on.
