Store Associate - Local Food & Garden Shop

Laughing Buddha Nursery is hiring a Store Associate in Metairie, LA. The role involves customer service, inventory management, and assisting with daily operations in a local food and garden shop. Key responsibilities include receiving deliveries, packing orders, and managing garden irrigation. Applicants should have a valid driver’s license, communication skills, and a willingness to learn about gardening and cooking. The position requires physical capability to lift items and operate nursery equipment.
Laughing Buddha Nursery’s mission is to 1) help people eat well by sourcing food from local, sustainable farms and 2) supply people with the knowledge and tools to be successful in their gardening pursuits. LBN focuses on helping customers grow plants naturally and organically, particularly vegetables and herbs, and provides local food grown at our own farm and 20+ other farms and small local value-added producers in the region that we source from.

In 2015, we started a regenerative, pasture-based farm (Local Cooling Farms) in Bogalusa, where we raise chickens, pigs, goats, cattle, rabbits and ducks. At LBN, we sell our eggs and frozen meat and we operate several biweekly neighborhood farm delivery hubs, where customers pre-order meat, eggs, produce, ferments, bread, honey, herbs, pasta, rice, coffee and more to pick up at a central neighborhood location. The farm is also where we have a composting operation to make a variety of garden soils, fertilizers and nutrients, including vermicompost.

Position Description: We are seeking an individual who is genuinely interested in our work and who in many ways is a self starter. As a store associate in our small but dynamic business, one must be or become familiar with aspects of the garden center/nursery and local food “industry,” including but not limited to: customer service, basic knowledge of vegetable gardening, inventory management, the benefits of eating local food, and the day-to-day operations of a retail shop. The store associate’s main duties are receiving deliveries from vendors, packing daily grocery orders for customers, helping walk up customers and answering the phone. The store associate also cuts culinary herbs each morning for orders and waters/manages irrigation in the yard and gardens.

Skill set requirements for position:
• Possess a valid driver’s license and have reliable transportation.
• Proficient in both oral and written communications.
• Proficient in MS Word and MS Excel.
• Proficient in basic math to count a cash drawer and make appropriate change for customers.
• Ability to read analog scales to weigh produce.
• Able to become familiar with Point of Sale software/online ordering platform.
• Willing to learn the operation of nursery equipment that is necessary to operate on a daily basis (i.e. forklift for loading garden soil).
• Ability to lift up to 50 pounds and able to carry 15-20 pounds repeatedly.
• Some knowledge or willingness to learn about gardening including plant health, quality issues, disease and pests of vegetables and herbs, in particular.
• Basic knowledge and/or willingness to learn the basics of cooking, particularly with our meat and eggs, in order to make recommendations to customers. **If you are a strict vegan or vegetarian, working at a store that sells a lot of meat is likely not the right fit for you.
• Ability to operate in an environment that can be stressful and fast-paced or slow and potentially boring, and find projects to work on in slow times.
• Able to represent the company in a courteous and professional manner.
• Good organizational skills and ability to multi-task.

Duties include:
• Showing up on time to open the store and/or meet delivery drivers. As typically there is just one person scheduled for each opening shift, this is critical and there is little room for error.
• Managing LBN day-to-day operations during shift, including opening store and cash drawer, watering (or checking irrigation) and spot checking all demonstrations gardens for pests, answering the phone, and closing cash drawer and store.
• Downloading pre orders for the day from the online software platform, accurately packing orders in an organized manner and ensuring invoices totals are correct.
• Loading cubic foot bags and/or cubic yard super sacks (with forklift) of garden soil into customers’ vehicles.
• Greeting, assisting, checking out customers and helping bring items to their vehicles.
• Tidying and light cleaning of shelves/sweeping of floor.
• Contributing photos and suggested content for LBN social media accounts and email newsletters.
• Identifying tasks and projects not specifically assigned in down time. This is not a place where we encourage bringing a book and babysitting the store. We pay you to be working and expect you to work during your entire shift.

To apply, complete the application via Google Forms. Then email Kate@LaughingBuddhaNursery.com with a resume and three professional references. We are seeking an associate to work 3-5 shifts per week. Days of the week we particularly need are Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.