In his uniform of a green polo shirt and khakis, Eddie Lawhorne, Harris Teeter's night manager, busily stacks cans of soup in neat rows of four. Tonight, because he's shorthanded, he's doing three jobs at once.
This is the night shift at Harris Teeter, the grocery store on Emmet Street that has kept its doors open all night since hitting Charlottesville three years ago.
As Lawhorne works, a few customers stroll by. This leisurely pace is far different from the mass crowds streaming through the store during the day.
Lawhorne, who has been working at Harris Teeter for almost two years, took on his current position to get more management experience. He says one of the best things about working the night shift is the quiet atmosphere.
"You can really get things done - there aren't really any customer service issues to deal with at this hour," Lawhorne said and motioned around at the unpeopled aisles piled high with packing boxes.
Lawhorne works from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and, as he describes it, kind of roams the store, making sure things get done. He makes orders, builds displays and monitors the sale items.
"A lot of the people who come in here are college kids who get the munchies or whatever, or the regulars who work weird hours, like gas attendants or doctors," he said.
But Lawhorne says that he sometimes sees interesting characters in the wee hours of the morning, including homeless people coming in from the cold or drunk college students who wander the aisles and occasionally pass out in the bathrooms.
"But the biggest problem by far is shoplifting. We even close one of the entrances at night, but it's hard to catch people when I'm always in different places," Lawhorne said.
Though the store used to have a security guard, it doesn't anymore, and a Charlottesville Police officer now looks in on the store at regular intervals on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Tonight, one of Lawhorne's cashiers couldn't make it in and the lone cashier in the front, Tracy, beeps him on the intercom for assistance.
Lawhorne hurries toward the checkout aisles, where he helps fix a problem with the cash register. A thread of customers stands behind the single register. It's 2 a.m. and many of them have dark circles under their eyes and lean heavily against the handles of the shopping carts.
But despite the hour, many of these students would gladly shop late in order to avoid the long lines during the day.
Fourth-year College students Beth Drake and Mona Kakria unload their shopping cart of organic fruit and vegetables while they explain why they like to shop in the early morning.
"We usually come at this hour with a mission. This week, it's healthy eating for one week. That's why we've got all this organic food," Kakria explains as she hefts a bag of apples out of the cart.
Drake agrees but also thinks that the student discount and short lines are a big draw.
"It doesn't interrupt your day as much and there are no lines and no traffic," Drake said. She and Kakria shop about once a week on average.
Behind them in line, a guy in navy Adidas pants balances a potted yellow carnation in one hand.
Joe Ventora, a first-year Law student, said he was buying a flower for a sick friend.
"I don't usually shop at this hour; it's really a ridiculous time to be at the grocery store, but it seemed like a good study break tonight," Ventora said.
A native of the Boston area, Ventora describes himself as a huge fan of Harris Teeter because it reminds him of grocery stores in his hometown.
Tracy Bosserman, also in a green polo shirt with a plastic nametag attached, rings up Ventora's flower and explains the typical night shift at Harris Teeter.
She usually works three to four nights a week while attending the National College of Business and Technology during the day.
Bosserman says that the store gets pretty dead between 2 and 7 a.m. but that she enjoys the quiet aspect of the night shift, for the most part.
"It's good until I've finished everything and then it's so quiet it just makes you want to walk around the aisles like a zombie," Bosserman said.
Like Lawhorne, she agrees that the majority of the customers who frequent the store during her shift are University students.
As she says this, a student type in a bright yellow jacket whizzes along in the freezer aisle, his feet propped on the rungs of his shopping cart.
Jeff Grossman stops to pile macaroni and cheese frozen dinners into his cart. He only shops at Harris Teeter a few times a month, he says, but when he does come, he comes at night.
"There's no one here, and it's quick. Besides, I can peddle up and down the aisles," said Grossman, a third-year Engineering student.
He says he has been shopping at Harris Teeter in the middle of the night ever since he brought his car to school last year. Grossman says he will continue his bimonthly late night jaunts to Harris Teeter to stock up on college staples ranging from Hot Pockets to Lean Cuisine frozen dinners.
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