The checkout Girl - Tazeen Ahmad

Everybody knows that the girl at the till is just another anonymous face in your busy life. But to her you are the source of endless entertainment: lovers ' tiffs, farcial familu feuds, intimate secrets and extraordinary innuendos. Add to this the frolicking between the aisles and the result is a delicious soap opera.

My life as a checkout girl began as the ressesion was setting in, and i soon found that it was the perfect place to gauge how the nation was coping with increasing job cuts, sky-high food prices and a billion-pound hole in the economy. The answer, it turned out, was with white bread, ice cream and lots of potatoes.

Checkout girls are sworn at, flirted with and are the receiving end of never ending customer rants. It leaves them with thick skin but also buckets of mouth-watering gossip about what really happens on the shop floor. So, next time you nip in for your groceries, watch out - you may find yourself the star of your local supermarket drama.