<Begin Segment 31>

YB: So I was the first Oriental that ever worked in the cosmetics, but they were very kind to me. Except one gal that gave me a bad time. And they said -- and there was a German girl right by the escalator a little ways from my... "Arai, is she giving you a bad time? Let me know 'cause if she is," she says, "I'll beat her up." [Laughs] And they were all always sticking up for me. But sad to say that the girl who did work next to me, and took over the line, was having bad habits of taking things from the store. Many of my expensive lipsticks were missing. And I thought, "Where in the world?" And even to the point, they would take my tester and put it in the good new lipstick, take the new one out. And I didn't know it, I didn't check on it that one day and I gave it to this person I knew, sold it to her. She says, "Yone, did you know you sold me a used lipstick?" I says, "No, let me see." Then I caught on, because there was no tester sitting in the front. It was missing and I thought, "Well, somebody borrowed it, forgot to bring it back," so I didn't question it. But, thereafter, I checked every lipstick. And she had been putting in the old one in the box and taking out the new ones, and it caught up with her. I didn't report her. She did many tricks on me and also some of the others girls. But these are things that I think every store experiences. And it was sad, but it had to happen, I guess, and we had to let her go.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.