ANNA McDonald and Janine Thiele recently celebrated 40 years of working at Kmart.

They both started when the Kmart opened as a Super Kmart in 1983, originally intending for it to be a temporary job but enjoying it so much that they ended up staying.

“I thought I’d apply for a job and I got it and I thought I’ll do it for six months and then go back to school but then I liked it so much I stayed and I never went back to school, simple as that,” Ms McDonald said.

“I started when I left school and it wasn’t my career goals but the more I looked into it, I enjoyed it and worked my way up and here I am today,” Ms Thiele said.

Ms McDonald said she has been working at the Wangaratta Kmart the entire time and her favourite department to work in was apparel.

While she has worked in management, the office, and in sound and vision, she enjoyed working in apparel more due to the interaction with customers and being the first to see the latest fashion trends.

“I do all the unpacking here, I see everything first and I always have a collection of the things that I want to buy,” she said.

“I see the fashions change every year, see the different colours and some of the fashions come back that were popular 10 or 15 years ago.”

Ms Thiele started working on the registers in Wangaratta and then moved onto working in the office, which she said is similar to working on the floor due to the customer interaction.

“It’s pretty much the same, on the floor your customers are your outside customers and you have your rapport with them but in the office your customers are either your head office or your team members,” she said.

“You just work to give the customer the best experience and in the office you work to get the best experience and results for the company.”

Overtime, Ms Thiele said she has worked at four Kmarts and she believes out of all them Wangaratta Kmart has the best working atmosphere.

“All the Kmarts were good but Wangaratta is probably the best store you could work with,” she said.

Both Ms Thiele and Ms McDonald said they have watched the Kmart change and grow over time and have found the advancements in technology helpful.

On the floor, Ms McDonald said the new technology has been extremely helpful for stock management.

"I find technologies really good now we’ve got ‘Tory’ the robot that goes around the store every night and counts all the clothing and then we’ve got the little machines every morning and we’ll click on a jumper and it will tell us where it is in the store," she said.

“It’s so much easier, it makes it easier on the body not going home with aches and pains anymore.”

Ms Thiele said the main changes in the office include invoices being more automated, leaving them more time to work on different aspects such as safety.

“We’re very focused on safety and that’s been my role to keep everyone safe in the company in Wangaratta which we’ve done a great job of,” she said.

Ms Thiele and Ms McDonald are both extremely grateful for the experiences they’ve had at Kmart and said their children have also worked at Kmart and have taken those experiences into their future professions.

“My two daughters worked here and the knowledge that they’ve got has gone into their own roles in their lives,” Ms Thiele said.

“My kids both started here as casuals and they were both here for around 10 years and it got them started,” Ms McDonald said.