POULSBO – When Maryann Miller bagged her first sack of groceries for Safeway, Gerald Ford was president and America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal and the end of the Vietnam War.

In the ensuing years, headlines on the newspapers she rang up told of hostages in Iran, gas lines, military campaigns in Beirut and Grenada, wars in the Middle East, droughts and wildfires, economic recessions.

And yet it was at the checkstand, during America’s good times and down times, that Miller saw one constant: random acts of kindness that constantly renewed her optimism and her faith in others.

There were customers who paid for others’ groceries. Customers who asked her to put an additional $100 on their card toward the groceries of the military family in line. Customers who made donations at Christmas time. Customers who discovered they were given too much change or were not charged for an item and returned to the store to make it good.

The big takeaway from her 40 years in grocery: “There’s a lot of  good in people,” she said. “The good outweighs the bad.”

Miller, a resident of Silverdale, retired from Safeway on Aug. 31. She started her career at age 16 as a courtesy clerk at a Safeway in San Diego, California. She moved to Port Orchard a couple of years later and joined the Safeway there, working at that store for more than 30 years. She joined the Poulsbo Safeway when it opened in 2014.

Doing some rough math based on store manager Debbie Buhl’s estimate of 500 customers a shift, Miller rang up about 946,000 grocery transactions during her career. That she managed to get to know multiple generations of customers, and was sometimes a source of comfort for someone having a rough time, says a lot about her.

“She’s always in a good mood and always takes the time to say hello,” said Valerie Cox of Quilcene, who shopped after dropping her son off at West Sound Academy in Poulsbo. “And that’s rare.”

Annie Erker, a co-worker with 21 years of service at Safeway, said Miller “is always in a good mood. Each day’s a new day. She’s always welcoming, someone who reaches out and makes you feel at home. To her, it’s not just a job, it’s one big family.”

In 40 years, the connection Miller had with customers rose to a level that was more personal than business. She saw children of customers grow up and become store regulars. She mourned when customers passed away, comforted customers going through divorce, consoled customers whose pets died.

On this, her last day on the job, she encouraged a former co-worker who is nearing graduation from college and congratulated a fifth-grader on the beginning of a new school year.

Like most families, Miller and her Safeway clan shared some funny and unusual experiences.

“One time in Port Orchard, one of my customers came up to me and said, ‘Maryann, Maryann, this guy just flashed me,’” she recalled. “We all looked for him but we couldn’t find him.”

She adapted to changing technology. When she became a checker (Jimmy Carter was in the White House then), she had to punch in the price of each item at the register and had to know the prices for non-tagged items, like produce. Now, each item is simply scanned. No more “Jimmy, can you get me a price check on broccoli?”

She also became adept at handling unusual requests or problems, a skill that will never be replaced by a self-checkout machine.

Like the customer who once asked Miller if Safeway sold an item more likely found at Lovers Package. Or the customer who wanted to return an item that was not in the system.

“Sometimes, to appease them, we’ve given them credit for it,” Miller said. “It’s the little things that make them come back.”

That’s the example Becca Stonecipher, a Safeway service specialist with 19 years with the company, will remember.

“She’s a very dedicated, hard worker who always put customers first,” Stonecipher said of Miller. “The customer was priority No. 1. She never stresses out. She doesn’t sweat the small stuff.”

Like Miller, Stonecipher started with Safeway when she was 16. “I probably will be like Maryann” and retire with 40 years.

And, like her coworkers, Miller juggled shift work with child-rearing. She appeared to do just fine: her daughter, Marina Miller, is a recent graduate from Seattle University and is now a nurse at UW Medical Center. Her son, Jesse Miller, has an MBA, works for a property management company in Seattle, and is active with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Boy Scouts of America.

As Miller worked her last shift, Caitlin Rees, was stocking produce. She’s 19 and started working for Safeway in June. Does she see herself working 40 years for the same company, like Miller did?

“It’s a great company,” she said. “I would be comfortable working here.”