Christine Malone Found Fun In Retirement At Ingleside Supermarket

About one and a half years ago, Christine Malone realized she wanted to do more in her day-to-day and applied to work at one of her favorite stores — Whole Foods Market.

The Chicago native, who worked for Microsoft, relocated to San Francisco in 2010 and retired from the tech industry in 2022. While being retired has its perks, Malone was searching for a new way to spend her time and found herself applying to work at Ingleside’s Whole Foods. There she tends to the store’s grocery department, restocking dairy, going through produce and helping customers find everything they need.

“When I interviewed, they were like, ‘So what do you want to do?’ and I was like ‘I just want to stand on my feet and walk around a lot,’” Malone said. “I was in the tech industry in meetings and on video chats all the time. I just wanted something different.”

While retirement has opened the door for more traveling, walking her dog, hiking and trying all new restaurants, especially sushi spots, her main focus is volunteering. Through Whole Foods’ nonprofit opportunities, she has been working at city farms and recently volunteered at San Francisco’s charity organization GLIDE where Whole Foods has also donated food to their food kitchen.

Above all she is grateful to be giving back to the community and finding ways to stay active.

“My life is much less stressful and I love it,” Malone said.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you get into working at Whole Foods?

You know what's funny? I'm semi-retired and I always shop at Whole Foods and I just like being in Whole Foods. I just wanted to work for one of the stores in San Francisco and this is the best. It's one of the small stores but we have great regular customers like everybody from the neighborhood like when I see Mae I'm like “Here she comes for her soy milk” and so I just was like, I might as well work there since I'm always there anyway.

What does your typical day look like?

I'm on the opening early morning shift so I'm driving in the dark. I start at 6:30 a.m. We get the store all prepped, stocked and ready to open. Then we open the doors, welcome everybody, and I end at 3 p.m. A full day.

What piece of advice do you have for someone who wants to do more with their retirement?

Stay active and engaged and maybe shift to part-time work or volunteer in your community.