The Poetry of Herbert Scott

A few of Herbert Scott's poems are about the grocery business. In The Boss he comments on the fact that all types of people come to buy groceries, "The rich, the ugly, the beautiful, the sweet. He is from the traditional school, and the language that he uses shows that he is someone who made it on his own in the working class especially when he states "No-one give me nothing I earned what I earned" Being from the old school, it is his belief that in order to succeed in the business "You got to live in it." He sees the grocery business as being timeless and necessary because "We all got to eat." Like many bosses, he feels that he "knows this business." All indicators point to the fact that he feels he is very good at his job. In Six-Month Review he tells an employee how to make it in the business. Since the employee is not "naturally gifted in the sales or service line" he is only capable of working "The check out stands, stack cans, trim vegetables, sort bottles." He tells the worker that for his job he need not use the head on his shoulders and that if he is lucky and does what he is told, he will ironically make it until the age of forty. Once again, he gives the impression that he is knowledgeable about his job and feels comfortable dictating the employee's future. In Boss in the Back Room, Scott points out the pecking order in business. The bankers own the grocery and do not care about the mechanics. They are only concerned about "the paper and pen" aspects of the establishment. As proprietor, he is in charge of the running of the grocery store. As the boss it is his job to know the customers' spending habits so that he can turn a profit. He has control over the wages he earns by setting the price of the groceries and selling things to people. He tells us how he will "Keep the customers talking" so that "They don't know which way their money went. He lets the "customers pay" because "They got their own racket somewheres." He believes that "They take you. You take them." When he works the checkout on Saturdays, a high volume-shopping day, he uses various tricks such as weighing the produce and ringing the price high.