If you’ve worked as a sales associate in retail, you’re probably experienced each of the following situations at least 1,000 times.
1. The intense struggle of late-night or early morning shifts.
Inventory is your worst nightmare.
2. Fighting your way through the Black Friday and Christmas crowds.
It could take you an hour just to walk from one end of the store to the other.
3. When customers think it’s your fault that their coupons have expired.
Sorry that you chose to ignore the expiration date on the coupon, but don’t blame me.
4. Or when a customer's coupon doesn’t work on certain items.
Do the customers think that the sales associates decide on this stuff?
5. When the register freezes as you’re ringing up a customer.
Of course, it usually happens when a long line of customers begins to form.
6. Finally figuring out where all of the clothes go, just to have the entire store switched around again.
You just can’t win.
7. When you can’t see the fitting room floor because it’s covered in inside-out clothes.
Clearly, it’s far too big of a hassle for the customers to put the clothes they’ve tried on onto the specified rack right outside the fitting room.
8. And there are what seems like two million hangers.
Hangers are just always everywhere.
9. Dealing with customers who think they’re the only ones in the store.
It’s one thing to ask for help finding something, but for the customers to basically ask for you to follow them around as they shop is a whole other story.
10. Getting yelled at by customers for asking for their email addresses or phone numbers.
It’s not like you’re adding the customer to your address book. It’s store policy.
11. When customers start shopping exactly one minute before you are supposed to close.
All you want to do is scream, “Get out!” But, according to store policy, you have to let them stay.
12. And they make a huge mess of the store you’ve spent hours cleaning up.
Just when you thought you were going to be able to leave early.
13. You spend hours wondering why you still deal with all of this.
The craziness, the messiness, the rude customers -- how could it be worth it?
14. You realize it’s because no matter how torturous it can be at times, you kind of really love your job.
Deep, deep down.
