At The Campus Store on Euclid Avenue, customers can always be guaranteed three things: freshly made sandwiches in the front, aisles stocked with various snacks and drinks and, of course, employee Chris Llave striking up a friendly conversation at the register.<\/p>\n
For the past 25 years, Llave has worked at different businesses on Northside. In 2011, he started working at The Campus Store, and ever since then, he\u2019s become a staple on that corner.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Llave) is very friendly, he\u2019s outgoing and you can tell that he\u2019s involved in the community, because he\u2019s always got a conversation going on,\u201d said UC Berkeley junior and store regular Henry Brown. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have a local business that feels like it cares about its customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Llave is at The Campus Store nearly seven days a week for up to 13 hours per shift. From people who come in for a quick stop on their way to work to students pulling all-nighters during dead week, Llave has seen community members from all walks of life, at all times of day.<\/p>\n
According to Llave, his favorite part of his job is conversing with customers and, eventually, creating a familiar rapport through checking up on small details mentioned in another visit or remembering someone\u2019s sandwich order.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose little 30-second to one-minute conversations \u2026 it makes it easier, being in a place for that long of a time,\u201d Llave said. \u201cIt makes the time go by seeing like, you know, at least 300 people a day. \u2026 Dealing with students makes me feel like twice younger than my age, you know, because I feel like I\u2019m just their age too.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the qualities that makes Llave stand out, according to 2024 campus graduate and Northside resident Maddie Komlos, is how he gives regulars discounts or will let them run tabs if they\u2019re out of money or EBT balance.<\/p>\n
Llave said this trust is his way of giving back to the community and customers who support the store.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou might tend to overlook something, like, \u2018Oh, someone who runs a corner store,\u2019 but those kinds of people are the backbone of what makes communities livable,\u201d Komlos said. \u201c(Llave) is just somebody that it is such a privilege to be close to, even if you just go there to get a Red Bull or something. You feel that exchange (that) is so important in making communities feel more human and less artificial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Llave said the daily exchanges and support he has with the Berkeley community keep him going. He said he can\u2019t imagine living in any other city, on any other block.<\/p>\n
With the support from his coworkers, boss and customers, he hopes to continue being a familiar face on Euclid Avenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecognizing the regulars \u2014 that\u2019s the beauty of my job,\u201d Llave said. \u201cYou know, having a nice, unique relationship with the student, asking them about their day, and letting them know about my day, it\u2019s like we\u2019re in this whole thing together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At The Campus Store on Euclid Avenue, customers can always be guaranteed three things: freshly made sandwiches in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[119990,5295,119991,119992,143,145,144,43424,119989,2281],"class_list":["post-278128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-chris-llave","tag-euclid-avenue","tag-henry-brown","tag-maddie-komlos","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-philippines","tag-the-campus-store","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}