When Anna Sam, a literature student in France, graduated from college, she couldn’t for the life of her find a job in her field. So she kept the part-time job she had in school—as a supermarket cashier asking if patrons wanted paper or plastic. After years of observing the best and the worst of grocery store anthropology, Anna began blogging about her experiences on a site that quickly drew in 600,000 visitors. It wasn’t long before there was a bidding war between publishers to put a book deal in her hands and designer glass slippers on her feet. Voilà! Her memoir, Checkout: A Life on the Tills, became a best seller in France and has now been translated into 16 languages, including English. Now Anna has handed in her resignation for a life as an author — we hope she’ll live happily ever after. [NPR]
