Long-time Marana Circle K employee retires | News

Marie Perez recently experienced a day many people dream of: retirement. On Feb. 22, after exactly 35 years behind the counter, she will leave the Circle K Convenience Store at the I-10 Marana exit. 

“Being 78, it’s time,” she said.

During her years at Circle K, Perez has witnessed it all. Some might argue she’s experienced the entire circle of life. For instance, she has observed the changes that time has brought to her customers’ families. 

“Customers come in and she’s known their fathers, their grandfathers and now the kids,” store manager Ana Gutierrez said. “It’s like three generations. Customers come in that grew up with her kids.” 

Although Perez knows her regulars, she won’t cite her favorites.

“There have been so many favorite customers,” she said. “That would be very hard to say… They’re all my favorites; they’re all precious to me.”

She’s also witnessed the changes that have come to Marana and is unsure how she feels about them.

“I liked the customers who used to come in and ask about the field and what was growing,” she said. “Then they asked, ‘Can we go pick some cotton?’ Of course, all the farmers would say, ‘Go ahead and pick it.’” 

Perez began working at the store in 1990, and throughout all those years serving the public, she hasn’t noticed much difference in the people — her customers — who walk through the doors.

“My philosophy is ‘attitude and gratitude,’” she said. “You treat (customers) with love and respect, they give it back to you. For me, there’s not a lot of difference between customers back then and today.”  

That’s truly the key to her success and lasting presence at Circle K.

“You put a smile on your face, you tell them hello, greet them and they greet you back,” she said. “They’re friendly for the most part. We’ve been lucky at this store. We have very few customers who are really very ornery.”  

She finds young people are good customers, too.

“There again, as soon as you smile at them, they see that you’re going to accept them just like they are and they will respond to you and that is the truth,” Perez said. 

She has had some interesting experiences in that store. For instance, there were two skunks who believed the back room would be a perfect home.

“It turned out they were pets, but we didn’t know that,” she said. “The poor manager, she comes running out of the back room, screaming at the top of her lungs.”

Perez has seen life at its most fragile (two births in the parking lot). Here’s the story of one.

“They were from Mexico, and she wasn’t feeling good,” she said. “The husband came in, ‘The baby’s coming, the baby’s coming.’ We’re thinking, OK, we’ll get the (ambulance).  He said, ‘No! It’s coming now!’”

Perez and the other clerks grabbed towels. One of the clerks stayed with the mother-to-be while Perez and the others waited on customers.  

“And, yeah, she delivered the baby,” Perez remembered. “After the delivery the ambulance showed up.”

She’s seen death as well.

“An older gentleman stopped because he didn’t feel good,” she said. “He died in his car… A customer came in and said, ‘I’m not sure that man is awake. I don’t think he’s just sleeping.’ 

“That’s when our clerk went outside and knocked repeatedly, and that’s when they called the police.”

Still, it hasn’t all been about life and death. Sometimes things happened that were funny — in retrospect. 

“There was a truck across the street,” she said. “An older gentleman had left his dogs inside with the air conditioner on. That truck crossed the street, no driver. It missed our pumps and missed the gas and missed the cars and drove right into our door. No driver. It came all by itself.” 

No one was injured.

Perez will be missed. Gutierrez, who has worked with Perez for 17 years, knows Perez’s absence will leave a big hole.

“Marie is basically the matriarch of this Circle K,” Gutierrez said. “She has seen people grow up. She’s seen a lot and people come in just to see her… It’s great to see her retire but it’s going to leave a void for us. The customer service, you can’t get that anywhere else you go.” 

The decision to go was not easy; Perez loves her customers and they love her, but her arthritic feet are protesting her work hours. These days she works only a few weekly hours.

“Now I’m down to just nine hours a week so there are a lot of people who don’t know me,” she said. “The other day a lady came in and said, ‘Are you new here?’ and everybody started laughing.” 

Perez will spend her new free time reading and volunteering.