Who's Who: Roberto Taylor

Name: Roberto Taylor

Age: 30

Occupation: Manager at in El Cerrito

How long have you worked here? It’s been about a year.

Are you local to the area? I used to be. I moved to El Sobrante. It’s less expensive over there, and the commute is not that bad in the morning.

Did you grow up here? I grew up in the Bay Area. I moved to El Cerrito when I was about 9 and went to Fairmont for a couple of years. I have family here. El Cerrito has always been nice next to Albany. I went to Berkeley schools. I’ve always liked El Cerrito. I moved here again for a couple of years when I was 20.

What’s a day on the job like for you? It depends on the day. Most of the time it’s just interesting to me because you meet different people and hear different stories, and I don’t mind listening: You’re talking to your friends, and next thing you know, you get the locals coming in and you get the one-liners going.

Do you get the same people coming in all of the time? That’s what drives our business a lot. They’re loyal, and we try to be as nice as possible. Listening to them–for me it’s entertaining. I think that’s kind of what El Cerrito is. It’s weird because it’s not Richmond, it’s not Berkeley; it’s kind of a blend of everybody. You get people that come in here to get certain things, talking about their everyday life. This lady, she comes in here every day like clockwork, and she’s just really nice—Martha, she’s on a cruise right now.

What does she buy? Lottery tickets. We have a lot of lotto buyers, and cigarette people, they come.

What do you sell the most of? Cigarettes: the Marlboro lights, and the American Spirits because they’re organic, and then the lottery, because everyone wants a chance to win. And it’s funny, because everyone who comes in who is a regular or just nice promises, “If I win, we’ll party.” Our distributors stop by and we shoot the breeze. We all mix in.

Your greater business goes outside of just what’s in the shop. It’s a bigger network with distributors, like a Safeway. Yea, almost. It’s like a little version. The main thing is that in a smaller setting, you’re more intimate with people so you socialize a bit more, and that’s the cool part. You get some characters, but overall they’re nice people. They just want someone to treat them well. I mean, I don’t smoke cigarettes, but the people that come in ask me my thoughts and we joke around because I don’t smoke cigarettes. Everybody just wants to be accepted, feel listened to or shoot the breeze.