When John and Emily Fuentez first met while working together at a Best Buy store five years ago, they didn’t seem to have much in common.
“Our management styles are totally opposite,” John says. “She’s black and white, I’m completely gray. But we just started chatting, and one thing led to another.”
They became fast friends and then started dating. Two-and-a-half years ago, they tied the knot.
Now, they’re both general managers at Best Buy stores in the Kansas City area. John still runs the Liberty store where they first met. Emily leads the Metcalf store in suburban Overland Park, Kansas, about 35 miles away.
“We try to keep work at work, but when you have a rough day, it’s nice to come home to someone who just gets it,” Emily says. “You don’t have to explain. We both have the same job and understand what our day-to-day can look like.”
They love the outdoors
Another advantage of doing the same job is that they have similar schedules. They’re both off on Sundays and Mondays, and there’s only one day a week when they work opposite shifts.
When they’re not working at their stores, it’s a pretty safe bet you’ll find them enjoying the outdoors with their three dogs.
“Over the past two years, we’ve been to 16 national parks,” John says. “We do a lot of hiking and a lot of camping. We pretty much work to travel.”
Emily adds: “On our vacations, we typically try to find places where we don’t have cellphone service, at least for a little bit of it.”
John and Emily don’t have big Valentine’s Day plans this year. They’re both working until close, and that’s fine by them.
“We’re not huge Valentine’s people,” she says. “We try to give as many employees as possible the night off so they can be with their families and loved ones.”
Even so, John didn’t miss the opportunity to surprise his wife with a romantic gesture. Instead of flowers or chocolates, he sent her a “Puppy Gram.” A local shelter showed up at her store on Saturday with three puppies for her and the other store employees to pet and play with for 20 minutes.
“Everyone who knows me here at work knows I love puppies,” Emily says, “so that was pretty exciting.”