Whether it be working in a clothing store, shoe store or handbag store, overall, working retail is basically the same no matter where you are. As an employee, you get to know the product, and you sell it to customers day after day. That seems pretty simple, and it is, but no one tells you how working retail is more than just clocking in and checking people out at the register. Here are the seven struggles that all retail employees face on a regular basis:
1. Being around the same product so much that you don't even like it anymore.
You may start out at a job loving the products that you are required to sell. But after so long of constantly having to look at it, straighten it up and answer questions about it, you lose interest in it.
2. Being scheduled for random on calls.
Usually retail stores schedule regular shifts and then on-call shifts. The downside of an on call is that you can't make plans for that day because when you call in, they may actually need you. But if they don't need you, you're stuck with nothing to do for the day.
3. Being yelled at by customers because you can't change a company policy.
I can't tell you how many times I've dealt with an angry customer because they didn't like a company policy. But if they had any common sense, they would know that a sales associate is as low on the totem pole as it gets. So there's no way I control or could ever change the way the company runs its business.
4. Having to smile your way through straightening the same product over and over after customers continuously leave it messy.
It seems like every single time you straighten a stack of something, a customer comes right along and messes it up entirely. And then you have to go behind them to fix it, just for it to get messed up again in 10 minutes .
5. Starving your way through a shift because your managers most likely kept you way past when you were actually supposed to leave.
Retail jobs are notorious for taking up more time of your day than what you were originally scheduled for. Seems like those mobs of customers always know just when to come in and ruin you clocking out on time.
6. Trying to stay calm when there are seven different customers asking for assistance.
When the store gets busy and there aren't enough associates to cover every customer, it gets extremely stressful. And of course every customer wants to be catered to first, so you're being pulled in a million different directions and you have to decide which to take care of first, without making anyone mad.
7. Feeling awkward when a customer asks you a question you don't know the answer to.
As an associate, there is no way to know every single policy or every single detail about each product (unless you've worked there for years). So when a customer asks you something that you have no clue how to answer, it can feel really awkward to tell them you don't know. For some reason they think you created the company yourself and you must know every minor fact there is to know about it.
For all these reasons and more, think twice when you apply for a retail job. It's not exactly the most fun job on the planet.
