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Staying fit in food land
Cart retrieval is a thorough workout
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MIDDLE TOWNSHIP - George Hewitt weighed 10 pounds at birth, was big all during his high school years and eventually topped out at 450 pounds.
These days Hewitt tips the scales at less than 200 pounds and eats whatever he wants. He doesn't owe his success to pills, surgery, fasting or any other fad dieting methods. When Hewitt goes out to eat, it's to a $13.95 all-you-can-eat buffet in Wildwood.
"I eat what I want. I don't want diet food. I want the real thing. I like hamburgers," said Hewitt.
It's a good thing, since he works right here at ShopRite. It is a land of food, one of the biggest grocery stores in the county. Hewitt has the most physical job here: he's the guy who retrieves the shopping carts.
Hewitt has retrieved thousands of them during his 16 years working here. Ron Sinn, a former co-worker of Hewitt's who did a shift wearing a pedometer, calculated that Hewitt has walked enough here to circumnavigate the globe twice, more than 50,000 miles.
His shoe bill tells the tale.
"It takes a pair of shoes a month. It eats the bottom right out," Hewitt said of his job.
Hewitt, a Cape May Court House resident born in the family home 59 years ago, was unemployed and grossly overweight 16 years ago when he got this job. He began the job weighing 450 pounds, and it wasn't easy, but it was rewarding when something unexpected happened.
"As I was working I was losing weight and eating the same kind of food I always ate," Hewitt said.
Hewitt remembers his co-workers that first year thinking he was sick as his waist size shrank from almost 60 inches to 40 inches.
Besides all the cardio benefits from walking, pushing several dozen carts at once was working his abs, arms, legs, shoulders and other muscle groups. Sinn, 66, of Green Creek, said the benefits are similar to the workers pushing the walking chairs in Atlantic City.
Hewitt said his health isn't just attributable to his job. He doesn't smoke or drink coffee, which he said tastes like "burnt water," and only has an occasional alcoholic drink. His problem for years was food, but now when he gets off work he can eat like a king.
"Give me the food. I can put away the food," Hewitt said.
Overweight people come here to shop, and Hewitt said the main thing he notices is they don't want to walk. "If they could, they'd park here,'' said Hewitt, pointing to the ShopRite entrance.
His job is to retrieve all five types of shopping carts ShopRite offers. The only ones that are easy are the electric ones for disabled customers. Hewitt said children are the only ones who consistently return carts to the store. Over the years, he said, fewer and fewer people attempt to return the carts.
Most carts are left right in the parking lot, though he has ventured much farther. One time a boss saw a couple of ShopRite carts across the street at the K-Mart and sent him over to get them.
"I came back with 18 of them," Hewitt said.
He has found them on railroad tracks and at a nearby apartment complex. There is even one near his house six miles away he won't retrieve because he doesn't want to scratch his new car. "If I had my old car it would be different," Hewitt said.
Hewitt started at minimum wage and now makes about $10 an hour. He plans to continue working until he can get Social Security. He might even go longer but some days he's had enough of people. Hewitt has witnessed many societal changes here in the grocery store parking lot, with people fighting for spaces and pedestrians nearly getting run over.
"I love my job, but I just can't take the people's attitudes. When I was growing up, everybody helped each other. You don't see that anymore. Everybody's for himself."
He notices everybody is in a rush and usually talking on a cell phone. Hewitt doesn't have a cell phone. He doesn't even have an answering machine on his home phone. He doesn't own a computer. He has a television but isn't hooked up to cable. Months can go by without him turning it on.
Sometimes he sees changes in the younger cart retrievers. He remembers one who was on the phone all day - and then would miss work without bothering to call in.
Another worker the police took away in handcuffs.
Hewitt liked working for four months with Sinn, who left for a job on a party boat. Hewitt now enjoys working with Frank Ashbridge, 37, of Del Haven, who started two weeks ago with his own physical problems. Ashbridge was a construction worker out of work for five years while he fought Crohn's disease, a hernia and other problems.
"This is giving me some exercise and loosening everything up. It's a lot of fresh air," said Ashbridge as he pushed some carts back to the store.
At 170 pounds, Ashbridge never had a weight problem. If he sticks with this job, odds are he never will. Hewitt said that's a good thing since eating is sort of an occupational hazard here.
"This job will make you eat like a cow," Hewitt joked.
E-mail Richard Degener:
Posted in Cape_may on Friday, July 10, 2009 3:10 am
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