“I was never bored. It makes me feel strange to leave,” notes Michelle Humily, overcome by the impression that her 41-year career at Leclerc de Landerneau (29) has flown by. Monday December 30, a little over a month before official retirement, she will return one last time to the other side of the pampered displays of the jewelry carousel at the Leck hypermarket, at the conclusion of a professional career rich in experience .
As a child following the assignments of a military father, Michelle grew up in Cambrai (North), Arcachon (Gironde) then Orléans (Loiret). “Before I was 19, I had never heard of Leclerc,” she concedes. The arrival in Landerneau, in August 1981, to follow his mother from Plabennec and when his father had just died, would naturally promote a more familiar relationship with the brand. Initially an ambulance driver, the woman who dreamed of being a nurse took another turn by getting married and planning to have children (two boys will be born). It's not easy to fit the schedule of the first job with caring for toddlers. “But we needed income. So, in 1983, I showed up at the Capucins store. »
Édouard Leclerc at the pump
Alain Tournier, director of Leclerc de Landerneau at the time and today owner of Leclerc de Landerneau, hired him. From 1983 to 1986, Michelle alternated between being a cashier and shelving. With parentheses at the bakery-pastry shop or at the photo film, leather goods and other extra-food items store, located in front of the cash registers. “That’s where we counted the deposit tickets on the returns of glass bottles,” she remembers, to add to the reconstitution of habits and customs diluted by time.
I met Edouard Leclerc at the gas station where he came to fill up. Always a kind word
Hélène Leclerc came by very regularly. “Édouard Leclerc, I rather encountered him at the gas station (at the location of the current parking lot of the Hélène-et-Édouard-Leclerc Fund, at the corner of rue des Écoles and rue Bélérit, Editor’s note) where he came to do his full. Always a kind word,” remembers the Landernéenne, naturally reserved but not liquefied by these spontaneous meetings with the big boss.
“The jewelry?” I didn't know anything about it.”
She saw him again, but less often, at Leck, where the Landerneau hypermarket underwent its spectacular transformation in 1986. “Complete change. We went from the warehouse to the chic store. Very bright. » From her checkout, Michelle Humily is witnessing the rise of hypermarkets on the front line. It also actively participates in its diversification strategy. In 1993, Bertrand Abiven, then director, asked him to move to the Manège à bijoux, a concept bought from a jeweler in the Pink City. “I didn’t know anything about it. I was sent on an internship to Toulouse. »
His tour at the Manège ultimately lasted 31 years. Minus the few months of helping out at the Saint-Thonan drive-thru, when the covid confinements put the displays of rings, pendants or watches under cover, and Michelle could no longer hold back.
Direct contact with bosses
“Gaëlle Kermarrec (owner of the Leck hypermarket) gave me lightning training in the Saint-Thonan warehouses. » Another proof that the bosses of Leclerc are personally involved in the professional promotion of employees: at the turn of the year 2000, Marie-Laure Bordais (ex-owner of Leclerc du Leck) took her to Paris, to validate the aesthetic and practical choice of the new Manège furniture. “It happened at the Cirque d’Hiver, during the convention of the movement’s members. At one point, Michel-Édouard approached Ms. Bordais and asked her who I was. When he found out that I worked at Leclerc de Landerneau, he smiled and said to me: “Landerneau, the reference”. »
Rester positive
Michelle Humily, however, does not see too many differences between the Leclerc stores. “Maybe it’s friendlier here. What hasn’t changed over the years are the people who come to chat,” she appreciates. When giving up her place as manager of the Jewelery Manège to Estelle Kermoal, a former cashier, like her, one of the last contemporary employees of the Capuchins adventure was surprised when she was asked how she managed to keep up 41 years. “For me, it was very quick. I stayed positive. Happy to fix things, to help people have fun. » The human deposit of a multifaceted career.
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