Zia Maleev was like a lot of people in Dalatyr. Her family moved in from a village in the east fifteen years ago when she was five in search of a better life. She did reasonably well in school and got a job in a Ministry of Distribution grocery store at thirteen. First as as an assistant doing various odd jobs before being promoted to a cashier four years latter. The pay was a modest thirty six credits a week with a uniform allowance and a discount on staple foods, but she made them in the warm and light with the smell of baking bread. She hoped to get into the Bureaucracy and she'd been taking the exams four times without luck so far. But that was no reason to give up on it, there was always the next one. Management was another career course which could still be useful for starting a bureaucratic career down the line. Even so, it could still be stressful.







Like most people she was glad that the war had ended well, though it had some consequences. First and foremost was the matter of prices. During the war, people were encouraged to spend less, prices on some things were increased while restocking became less and less frequent on a lot of items. Likewise people bought less leaving aside the occasional person stocking up. There were rumors going about involving rationing, though fortunately it did not come to pass before the war ended. When victory was declared people began coming back in droves, eager to make use of accumulated spending. Even so this had it's own strain beyond simply having more to do. During the war she'd got her share of grousing about shortages. Things had not so much changed.





A young man came came up in the queue with a list. "One wheat sandwich loaf, a can of greenbean, a can of carrots, a can of beets, a can of pork, a large yellow onion, a jar of mustard and another of raspberry jam, a pack of glazed biscuits and a bottle of syrup." He had not gotten through the canned goods before Zia had picked a fresh loaf from the trays and bagged while she moved onto the canned goods. Once the spiel was completed Arkhip went out to fetch the jam, vinegar and biscuits. With practiced efficiency she filled a tray of the requested goods, set it down and began bagging them.







She'd just put the Strawberry Jam in when he gave a response. "You sure that was Raspberry Jam? Because it looked like Strawberry." With that, she picked up the Jam Jar and inspected it.







"Yep, Raspberry." She put it back into the bag and continued loading it. She let out a slight sigh of exasperation. She'd collect the appropriate condiment on the off chance it







"Well they're been mixups and strawberries make my mother break out in hives. You guys need to keep a closer eye on things."



She forced a smile "Sir, I'm sorry for any failure of staff but I do check as I go." She did, but she could see how the mistake happened. Jam supplies had been low a week and Arkhip or some other kid probably figured that most people could not tell the difference and that it was better to provide something similar than say 'we're out' and cause a fuss. Or maybe they made made a mistake during rush hour.





"I'm sure your co-workers thought the same!" he responded waving his finger.







"If you have a complaint, the comment box is near the door. Providing input to the Ministry of Distribution directly helps the Great Machine of Infrastructure better serve it's people." The route response was remarkably useful. Even so, this one could be a problem here. "I'll talk to the manager about this." She conceded.







After filling a second paper bag she typed in the order into the new Registering engine before giving it a final crank. "That will be three point eight credits." The notes were proffered with minimal fuss and the next person in queue moved on. Things had been getting better as far as supply went but a lot of people still felt that the pre-war situation would come back overnight. Things had improved and were still improving between shortages, a surge in the size of the population and post victory splurging there was still some deficits which were still going strong months after the treaty. But the best thing she could do about that was her job, quietly and competently even when confronted by people at their worst and flat out jerks. The Ministry was setting up a couple new grocery stores and they'd need experienced hard workers to handle them.



