When Satheria Duvernay first got hired by Giant Food, Michael Jackson’s music was topping the charts, a loaf of bread cost 66 cents, and gas was $1.25 a gallon.
“I’m a worker bee,” says the 59-year-old Centreville resident, who’s one of Giant’s top-30 longest tenured staffers. “I was first hired as a salad bar lead.”
Employed by the supermarket chain since 1983, Duvernay has faithfully worked in the deli, salad bar, flower shop, bakery, and other departments at various Giant stores.
“My favorite thing to do is cashier,” says the Arlington native, who has worked in Herndon’s Centreville Road store for 11 years. “I wanted to be one of the best cashiers that Giant Food had.”
The perpetually cheerful Duvernay is a model employee. With perfect attendance for 40 1/2 years, it took a life-threatening stroke — and coma — in 2022 to slow her down.
Doctors said her career was over, but the mother and grandmother insisted she would return to work.
“I told my family, whatever you do, do not take Giant from me,” she says. “It would kill me. That’s how much I love it.”
Duvernay’s colleagues saw her determination to recover.
“The day after she came out of her coma, she said, ‘I’m coming back to work,’” says customer service manager Wendy Bragg.
Giant staff teamed up with Duvernay to accommodate her return.
“We try to give her all the resources so she can still be successful,” says Bragg. “She loves the customers. We need her here.”
Despite partial paralysis of her left side and a speech impediment, Duvernay arrives at work daily to make a difference in people’s lives.
“I want something to do that’s meaningful,” she says. “The best thing is I get to come to work, talk to my customers, and give them the best service I can.”
Love in the Deli
Duvernay met her husband, James, when she worked at the deli counter of the now-closed Elden Street Marketplace store in Herndon.
“He came in and I gave him a sample of the shrimp salad,” she says. “He came back the next day and got another sample; I captured him with the shrimp.” The couple will celebrate their 20th anniversary in October.
Never one to slow down, Duvernay continues to go the extra mile on every shift.
Says store manager George Martin: “I tell her, ‘If I could clone you, I would.’”
Feature image by Jeff Heeney
This story originally ran in our July issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
