Lorenzo Arredondo's 3 years at the University of Texas at El Paso included working at the University Bookstore. First day out, Lorenzo went right to work on the cash register; his philosophy--great customer service makes for a strong employee and a strong business. His duties in the course of his job would go from working the cash register during the massive start of semester student rush, to selling office supplies to university departments, selling gifts and apparel, and running the main customer service register. Over the years a number of relatives had come to work at the bookstore, as his aunt runs the General Reading section of the store. It was her recommendation that gave him the opportunity to do find a position in the store.

For Lorenzo, the college years at the bookstore were great. "The staff I worked with had a great sense of humor and were a joy to be around with. I especially enjoyed working with other students in the store who shared in the experience of taking classes and working on the side." Arredondo, known to be crazy and dress up for special sales like graduation, had a lot of respect for the position. Occasionally the felling that went with working at the bookstore was a sense of let down that so many people wanted great customer service and were being let down. Employees arrived for the opening of the store at the same time the customers were let in, most employees on the sales floor did not have access to the pricing system to enter or correct prices that scanned wrong. Though Lorenzo allowed these feelings to be heard, it wasn't until late in the second year that things started happening. Lorenzo was given access to the pricing system when he asked for it, he was given a raise he had been waiting for and thought he had proven to be deserving of when he asked for it, and he was (as had always been given) a flexible work schedule after he asked for it. He had come to realize that customer service required someone who knows what the job requires to be done right and goes actively after it.

Don't think though that the feelings of bad customer service really equated with bad customer service. Coming to work for many of the employees that were also students allowed them to relieve some of the stress of school work and examinations and, because of this, a lot of humor was brought to the workplace. This, mixed with the full time workers' service skills, really made working and shopping at the UTEP Bookstore a different experience that shopping at their competitors. It was here that you could buy textbooks in a large supply, at the better price, from people that weren't just there to make a sale but enjoy the time they spent doing it.