During my Winter Break, I interned at a social enterprise called Good Market. They promote the use of organic farming, conservation of energy and resources and restoration of land. They sell only verified organic foods and products that meet their standards they have set in their website. Good Market also organizes a weekly local market where multiple stalls are set up, and local farmers and businesses can sell and promote their products. Besides the market, they also have a store where they sell similarly categorized products. Furthermore, Good Market is a self sustaining enterprise and a not for profit organization. They value the businesses of the local people over their own. Through this enterprise, Good Market hopes to create a more environmentally sustainable world, driven by sustainability and not profit and build communities for more lively and healthy markets.
My time with Good Market was short but engaging. During my first few days, I was introduced to Good Market and I got to know about what they do and why they do it. I was given a tour of their shop and I learned about the different products they sold as well as the placements of fast moving goods and slow moving goods. Since I was just an intern, I was given a few jobs and responsibilities. One of them was to make a record keeping forms for farmers. This form was used to keep track of their crop plan, their harvest times and the tools used for farming. This information was used by Good Market to evaluate the quality and the eco friendliness of the farmers’ farms. Making this form took me about a day to complete. After this, I was given the responsibility of checking the stocks of the products in the store. I was given a list of the all the products in the store and their specific location. I was to check if all the products were in the right place and the amount was suitable. If anything was off, I was to make a change in an online copy of that document to indicate the issue. This took me about a day as well. I was also in charge of restocking the products that were missing in the store and moving the misplaced products into the right place. Since the store has a variety of products, this task took me about two and a half days. My other duties at the store included managing the cashier counter and helping customers out with their shopping experience. This was the first time I was handling a cashier and it was quite new and challenging to me. The speed at which the items need to be processed was initially beyond me and it was really hard to handle the pressure. But after about five to six customers, I got the hang of it and I could bill the items as quickly as an experienced cashier. I also helped out in the digital side of things. On Good Market’s Instagram page, they promote their suppliers’ products. Some of my coworkers along with me, had to take some appealing photos of the products sold at the store. Unfortunately, due to the COVID 19 spikes in the country as well my parents’ paranoia, I had to pause my internship at Good Market physically, but I am still helping out digitally. I am currently working on a logo for on of their suppliers and I hope to finish that soon.
This was one of the best learning experiences I have ever had. I acquired new skills during the process as well as learning about the office environment and the importance of communication and collaboration. This experience has helped me demonstrate that I have undertaken challenges and developed new skills in the process, demonstrate the skills of working together and demonstrate engagement with significant global issues.