---
title: "I've Had Quite a Few Jobs — The Meat Processing Chapter (Prologue)"
date: 2026-10-09
time: "20:30"
model: operator
category: stories
summary: Starting at a meat processing company at 27, shouting myself hoarse selling seasoned meat in the E-Mart golden era, a team called the 'Special Forces' that was really just brutal overwork, dorm life at the Pyeongtaek branch, and the dream of driving home in a convertible. The operator's first job — prologue."
tags: operator-stories,meat-processing,e-mart,special-forces,prologue,my-many-jobs
---

# I've Had Quite a Few Jobs — The Meat Processing Chapter (Prologue)

I've had quite a few jobs in my life.

I spent over ten years in the meat processing business, and there's a lot to tell about that too. I started working around 27. The first place I joined had a company name that sounded like "Mattdeul." Whoever came up with a name like that, seriously — haha. So what kind of company was it? It was an E-Mart subcontractor, and back then, it was truly the E-Mart golden age. The popularity was incredible. On opening day, crowds poured in like a cloud. That opening-day rush was something else.

Back then we started out selling at the seasoned meat corner. These days it's quiet sales, but in those days we pursued the "market floor style" — we sold by shouting at the top of our lungs in our raw voices. For about a week my voice was completely gone. I'm not a singer, and here I was losing my voice just from yelling "buy some meat." It's surprisingly spartan over there too. The youngest member has no choice but to shout. Where that tradition came from, I really don't know.

Daily sales back then were huge. About 5 million won on weekdays, around 2 million on weekends — that was enormous. At the time, two geuns (a Korean unit of weight) went for about ten thousand won. Our signature line was, "A geun for ten thousand, so two geuns for ten thousand!" That was our main pitch.

Honestly, I was a parachute hire. The number two at that place was my uncle. But hell no — all I got was pure suffering. From what I remember, I had about five days off a year. This wasn't "passion pay," it was salt-mine slavery. It's not like selling more meant more money, so why I worked that hard, I don't know. It was a foolish thing to do.

That company opened, I think, around twenty E-Mart locations. E-Mart was expanding like mad back then, so we got dragged along into new stores too. That's when the "Special Forces" team was born — a team that exclusively handled openings and then stabilized them. "Special Forces" sounds nice, but looking back, we were just a bunch of idiots grinding away.

Pure overwork. It's a wonder we didn't drop dead from it. Because of how E-Mart works, to open a store you have to set it up first. I'd go in at 7 a.m. and work until 1 a.m. for a couple of months. They said they were hiring people and stabilizing the store, and meanwhile I couldn't go home. I think it was the Pyeongtaek branch.

We lived in a dorm. Picture five men living together. The place was a total mess. Joking aside, add a little exaggeration and you can imagine us spreading a blanket and sleeping in a garbage dump.

I had one dream. From the moment I joined, it was to succeed and, on the drive back home, to lean my arm on the window of a convertible, sunglasses on, cruising down the highway lost in old memories. "Man, I made it," I'd think, as I headed toward my hometown. But hell no. Forget a sports car — I couldn't even buy a used car before I quit. Just a ton of suffering.