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THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Donna Mercredi says there is much more to running a retail store than many people realize.

Donna Mercredi is assistant manager of the Fields store in Fort Smith. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"They think that working at a store is nothing. It is something," said Mercredi, assistant manager at the Fields store in Fort Smith.

In fact, she didn't realize what running a popular retail outlet involved until she started her job in mid-December.

"I expected I'd come over here and just work the till and do the stocking," she said.

However, Mercredi has discovered that being an assistant manager also includes such things as computer work, paperwork, ordering, receiving and stocking shelves.

"It was really mindboggling," she said.

Mercredi added, while she was surprised by how busy her new job turned out to be, she was not frightened away by the task.

"I don't get frightened too easy," she said with a laugh.

Plus, she enjoys a challenge and working with people.

"I'm a people person," she said.

Mercredi said she started working at Fields for a change in her working life.

She had worked for three years as a special education aide at the Headstart Program operated by Salt River First Nation. Before that, she helped look after elders at Northern Lights Special Care Home in Fort Smith.

She also has some experience in retail, having worked for about a year at Kaeser's Stores in Fort Smith and having managed a small store in northern Saskatchewan.

While she was born in Fort Smith and considers that town her home, Mercredi has many relatives in both Fort Smith and Fort Chipewyan, Alta., and is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.

With the winter road now open between Fort Smith and Fort Chipewyan, Mercredi gets to see family members and other people she knows in Fort Chipewyan when they drop into the Fields store.

"I enjoy that because they come here and shop from Fort Chip," she said.

People come into the store for a wide variety of items, ranging from groceries to clothing.

The Fields store has operated in Fort Smith since 1993. It is one of two Fields stores in the NWT, with the other being in Hay River.

Mercredi said she is still learning more about her job. "Every day is something new."

And, the 49-year-old hopes to be working in retail for a while.

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