Dawn Marshall walks fast, talks fast, changes her hair color so often - bright red for Christmas, with alternating red and green nails - that coworkers never know what to expect. Except speed.
Three years ago, at age 30, Dawn applied for a job at Pathmark in Upper Darby. There she discovered her gift: bagging groceries.
Paper or plastic, it doesn't matter.
Month in, month out, she's the fastest cashier on the line.
Pathmark has a computer system that measures bagging efficiency. Honest. Every item in the store is assigned a value. If a shopper comes through the line with 89 items in her cart, the computer will calculate how long it should take the cashier to scan the items, bag them and take the money. For heavy items, the computer allows extra time for double bagging.
Top cashiers score 100 percent - as fast as the Pathmark computer expects them to be.
Dawn Marshall hits 135 percent. Routinely.
She is the Allen Iverson of bagging: fast, fluid, creative. She's a master of the no-look pass - laying Jimmy Dean sausage into the bag with her left hand, blindly, while reaching for the eggs and scanning them with her right.
She never dunks, but rarely misses a layup.
In May, Dawn's supervisor asked her to compete for the title of Pennsylvania's Best Bagger, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Food Merchant's Association at a casino in Atlantic City.
The competition was May 16, a Wednesday. Dawn was getting married three days later.
"I went down there to calm myself down before the wedding," Dawn said.
She won - $750 and a trip to Las Vegas in nine months to vie for the national title.
Dawn got married that Saturday. Several Pathmark customers attended. She has made great friends working there: "I'm scanning. They're talking. You hear their life story."
Dawn and her husband, Derrick, a SEPTA bus driver, honeymooned in Niagara Falls.
She came home pregnant.
The baby was due Feb. 13 - the same day as the national competition in Vegas.
Dawn decided: If the baby arrived by Feb. 1 - after all, she does everything fast - she'd go to Vegas, taking her husband and newborn with her.
If the baby came after Feb. 1, she wouldn't go.
Jan. 27: No baby.
Jan. 28: No baby.
Jan. 29: Darien Marshall, 6 pounds, 10 ounces. Her fifth child.
Dawn wasn't nervous. On Feb. 11, her pediatrician gave the green light. The next day, Dawn, Derrick and 14-day-old Darien all flew for the first time.
Mom prayed the whole way.
Baby slept.
The national competition was sponsored by the National Grocers Association. Twenty-five states sent winners. This was Vegas, the national championship - pressure bagging.
First, Dawn had to load 28 items into two brown paper bags. Competition was based on speed, equal distribution of weight in both bags, and packing technique so bags didn't fall over.
Dawn tried to get into her zone, just as if she were in Upper Darby. "At my store, what makes me good, I see my food, I look it over, and I start bagging. I'm going to get the chicken and beef together, the soap and toilet paper and toothpaste together, the cereal together, freezer items together, because when a person gets home and starts to unpack her food, she appreciates it in some order."
Then Dawn bagged the same 28 items in plastic.
Dawn prefers plastic. "First of all, it hangs on the rack. Second of all, you don't have to stop. Once a bag is full, it's easier to start another one and keep moving."
With paper or plastic, she explained, "you want to build walls first, like with cereal boxes, and then fill the middle." And of course, she added, "you want to keep your crushables on top."
(Her Pathmark is now 99 percent plastic. Her store managers say it's much stronger than paper, biodegradable, recyclable, and easier to carry.)
Dawn finished the first day in the top five, qualifying for the finals the next morning.
"When I went to bed," she said, "all I did was dream about those food items. 'I got my mayonnaise, my relish, my beans and Spaghettios.' I guess I didn't want to be like the guy from Iowa. He forgot to bag his LifeSavers. They were just so small he didn't see them. I didn't want that to happen to me."
Next morning, the five finalists bagged side by side, first paper, then plastic. She was relaxed. "I was just going with the flow," she recalled. She remembers little other than putting the Cheez-Its between jars of mayonnaise and relish to prevent shattering.
Paper: 28 items in 29.88 seconds - finishing first.
Plastic: 28.12 seconds, also first.
She cried. She won $2,000 plus a trophy - a wrinkled brown paper bag made of ceramic, set upon a wooden pedestal. The gold plate read: America's Best Bagger, 2002.
Dawn is on maternity leave but went by the store Thursday to show off baby and trophy.
She's waiting for Letterman or Leno to call.
