Oh, retail. How much I love/hate you. You have taught me many many things. The most important of those being how to hold my temper. I have found that too often do customers feel as though they are above the cashier or worker. That regardless of what the employee tells them, they are always right. Anyone who has worked in retail knows that these signs are very true. and accurate. And will make you question why you still work in retail when let's face it, 85% of the time you hate it. (hint: it's because you love your coworkers and secretly like the place you work). But even if you love everything about working in retail (which is highly unlikely) you will still enjoy and hopefully laugh at this list below.
1. You take advantage of every second on your lunch break because you know as soon as you clock back in you will be bombarded with customer questions.
2. You also know that these customer questions you are bombarded with are absolutely ridiculous and stupid, but you still have to come up with some sort of reasonable answer to tell them. (and no, "let me go get my manager" doesn't work every time.)
3. And for those times you do know the answer to the question but the customer STILL asks for the manager and the manager tells them the same answer that you did. That's like icing on the cake.
4. Praying that your boss doesn't schedule you to work the same shift as the one coworker you can't stand.
5. But also praying that your boss does schedule you with the one coworker you love to work with.
5. You’ve heard the same 5 songs on repeat for your 8 hour shift so often that you’ve learned all of the lyrics and completely hate that you do but will still sing along.
6. You know all the hiding spots where no one can see you snacking or using your phone. (Sorry if my boss sees this).
7. But most days you don’t have enough care to hide it because you’re too exhausted to go through that amount of dedication to answer one text.
8. You do a little happy dance when your 9-10 hour day ends and you can finally go home and lay down.
9. Only to get back up at 7 am the next morning to do it all over again.
10. You’ve heard the phrases, “I printed this $100 bill this morning,” “It’s not scanning so it’s free right?” WAY too many times to count.
11. You have an obscene amount of hatred for those customers that see you closed 4 minutes ago but still waltz in and shop as if they don’t see you putting things away for the night.
12. You know that the customer is not always right. In fact, they are wrong 90% of the time but you never tell them that.
13. You've dealt with a line of 12 customers, both lines ringing on the phone, and you and one other employee left to do it all.
14. The immediate frustration when you ring everything out in the register just to have it freeze and need to be restarted.
15. You’ve learned how to deal with the most difficult of customers with a smile across your face.
16. You also know all of the regulars and get excited when you see your favorite customer walk through the door.
17. You are one of the nicest shoppers around because you know what it’s like to be the employee on the other end.
18. And you are actually happy that you've gotten the experience you did because you know how a person should actually be treated. (which is with respect and kindness, by the way.)
So, to my fellow retail workers I hope the days of crappy customer service and minimum wages are almost past you. And if not, well always remember to wear your smile :)
