Papou left his job at his uncle's grocery store, and entered the job market. Maybe he was too successful in finding a job -- he held down three at once.
Papou quit his other two jobs to work full-time at Panos Grocery store on Mack. But, he got caught up in a "funny" joke that ended up getting him fired. A co-worker played a prank on a woman, saying that they won the lottery. When the woman came asking for her money, Papou got blamed for the trick.
"I was driving him home, I was going to the market for him. Because I knew the business, I started putting signs on the windows. People started coming in. We started doing good business."
Papou’s hours and hours of labor didn’t dampen his entrepreneurial spirit. Papou’s goal was never merely to survive, but it was to thrive. Despite his positive impact on the business, because of something completely out of his control — he was soon back out on the streets searching for another job.
“I had the window open, sleeping there in my car, and… (whooc)… she spit on me”
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This is a time when Papou was about 20, and he wasn’t being paid enough to live on. He had to take three jobs — a night shift working the “High-Low” at Great Lakes Steel, a morning job at the breakfast diner Royal Coffee, and then a job working as a butcher in the afternoon.
He wasn’t paid much in his first job, either. Working at Nick Phillips Supermarket, his uncle paid him just $25 a week. This seems like a huge upgrade over the 1 piastre a day wage he earned in Cyprus, but still — $25 a week boils down to just 29 cents an hour when you’re working 85-hour weeks, as Papou was. The minimum wage at the time was 40 cents an hour.
Papou, unfortunately, didn’t earn any lucrative overtime pay.
Today, you hear the term “employee burnout” — which is a real problem. But despite working three jobs, sleeping in his car (and getting spit on) in between shifts, Papou didn’t burn out. He kept his morale up — was it the people around him keeping him going? The desire to bring over a wife, eventually? Possibly, but I think the real reason is because Papou knew that’s what it would take. When you start from the bottom and the odds are not in your favor… “employee burnout” is not really an option.
Papou found a job working for at the meat counter at a liquor store... but lost that job when the owner brought his brother in, and let Papou go.
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Well... Papou started working at 9 mile and Jefferson -- Olson beach.
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One day his uncle, Theo Joe (Joe Phillips) calls him up, to help him open a grocery store. Papou put $6000 for the cost of opening the store. Finally, Papou thought he was going to have his own business.
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Joe, instead, gave the business to his son-in-law. Then, he sold his own grocery store, on Warren and Beaubien, for $30,000. But instead of giving Papou his money back, he buys property in Florida, and moved there.
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Papou was left, again, out-of-luck. Eventually, he went to work for his Uncle Nick, who gave him $500 for what Uncle Joe did to Papou.
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And he kept Papou honest and working hard:
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"Today I want to celebrate, I got engaged" Papou said. "No, go work," said Uncle Nick.
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Warren Rd, 1940s, Detroit
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Uncle Joe's grocery store was at Beaubien and Alexandrine.
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Uncle Nick's grocery store was at Beaubien and Warren.
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The new grocery store that Joe gave to his son-in-law was at Outer Dr. and 3rd st.
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In the meantime, Papou was living in an apartment with three other Cyprian guys his age. They didn't have much, but Papou remembers a record player that kept playing the same song, over and over.
