T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Joyce Meyer, pictured, is retiring after working at the Marshalltown Hy-Vee for 28 years as a demonstrator. A reception will be held in her honor on Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Market Grille dining area.

At 87 years old, Joyce Meyer is finally ready to retire for good.

“While I still have pretty good health, I want to do some traveling and go on a cruise,” she said.

After a 30-year career at Fisher Controls in the computer center, Meyer, who was almost 60 at the time, decided she wasn’t done working yet and got on at the Marshalltown Hy-Vee back in 1995, not knowing how long the gig would last. As it turned out, she got one of the best jobs at the store as a demonstrator, meaning, in simple terms, she hands out free samples of food in hopes that customers will be tempted to buy them.

“It’s something that doesn’t take a lot of brains, but it’s fun. I just like to talk to people,” she said. “I did pretty good at that. I must have because they kept me for all these years.”

She’s become especially popular with kids who come to Hy-Vee with their parents, and she’s happy to greet them with a smile and a hug. When her husband of 70 years passed away in January, Meyer said it put things into perspective and encouraged her to finally branch out and do some of the things she wanted to do while she still had time.

Other than a brief stint at the salad bar in her early days, Meyer has stuck to demo duties for most of her tenure and worked about 12 hours a week in recent years as she wound down from a heavier workload in the earlier days.

When asked what she’ll miss most, Meyer, who now calls the Embers in Marshalltown home, had a simple answer: the people.

“I like being around people. This is my social life,” she said. “It was always fun. Some days, they would have the easier stuff like cutting up muffins at the bakery or donuts, you know, but other days you’d have to cook a little with the frying pan and warming trays.”

A retirement coffee will be held in Meyer’s honor on Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. in the dining area of the Hy-Vee Market Grille.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255

or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.