To those in self check-out line at the Hoffman Estates Jewel, the woman manning the computer station is more than just an employee who comes to the rescue when they hit the wrong button — she’s Joyce.

Joyce Miller recently celebrated her 25th anniversary at the store. And the 70-year-old Elgin woman is in good company, according to store officials, as one of seven employees who have been at the Hoffman Estates store for at least that long.

Miller knows many of her customers by name too, and often hears about their lives. “I enjoy the customers,” she said. “You get to know them just by talking to them.”

Miller first came to the store as a favor to a friend who was once a manager.

“He said, ‘why don’t you come and work for Jewel for the winter,’” she said. “Twenty-five years later, I’m still here.”

Miller, who works part time, said she truly enjoys her job — from the customers who she’s come to know to her co-workers she thinks of as friends.

Those same co-workers are the reason Deanna Hinds, 64, says she’s continued to work at the store for the past 33 years.

“I’ve made a lot of friends,” she said. And, Hinds treats her co-workers as family.

One Easter, Hinds, who works part-time at the customer service desk, told a developmentally disabled colleague she’d buy him his holiday meal, and to pick out anything in the store.

Despite hearing he’d made a special request order at the fish counter, Hinds was surprised to learn the bill was $93.

“I’m looking at his face and I can’t tell him he can’t have it,” Hinds said, laughing. “Everyone in the store was saying, ‘Deanna, you’re crazy.’”

There’s a lot of shared, funny moments when you work in the same place for so long, Hinds said.

“Most of the people in the store have been here for a while,” she said, adding it’s one of the smaller Jewel stores. Because of that, most customers recognize Hinds, a Schaumburg resident, even when she’s not working.

“I see the customers all over,” she said. “Everywhere I go, I run into people who shop in our store. I call everyone honey, so I don’t have to remember all their names.”

Manager Debbie Mesce said Jewel has a lot of longtime employees, not just at the Hoffman Estates store, but company-wide. Both Miller and Hinds said past contracts for union employees were very attractive in terms of insurance and other benefits.

“Back in the day, you had to know someone to work for Jewel,” Mesce said. “It’s an awesome place to work. They always treat you right.”

Like Miller, Hinds said she enjoys her job, so she’s never wanted to leave, and has no plans to retire.

“They’ll just have to put up with me a lot longer,” she said.