A longtime Safeway employee has called it quits.
San Lorenzo Valley resident Norma Lindsey has retired after working for the grocery store chain for 35 years, including the past 25 at Safeway in Felton.
Lindsey said she started at the Willow Glen branch in San Jose and worked as far away as Menlo Park before settling into the Felton location.
She was best known by locals for turning her register into a cheerful place where all the Felton news was spread. Co-workers streamed in and out of her retirement farewell party Thursday, Dec. 1 at Don Quixote’s in Felton.
She was also an astute fundraiser, who collected money for breast cancer and scrip for local schools.
“At beginning of each school year, there is a window for employees to designate school scrip donations from cash register receipts that weren’t declared by the customer,” Lindsey said. “I’d stay on my own time and calculate plenty of those, raising plenty of extra money for local schools.”
She and her husband, Dan, a former fire captain in Santa Clara County, are both retiring at the same time. She retired because of the store’s upcoming plans to reduce retiree benefits.
In retirement, the Lindseys plan to visit their family, Norma said. She is originally from Peru — her parents came to U.S. when she was 2 years old — but her six siblings live in California, Florida, Italy and Germany. Also, one of her sons serves in Iraq, but his tour ends soon.
But no matter where they wander, Lindsey said, she and her husband are firmly rooted in San Lorenzo Valley, and that’s where they plan to stay.
