After a recent experience at Macy's, where I saw a customer berate a sales associate for not being able to locate a sale item in the vast expanse of the store, I felt compelled to write this. As a former retail worker, I've seen it all. People tend to forget that retail workers are only human, and as humans, can only do so much. We make mistakes, we get tired, and sometimes, we just cannot do whatever you're convinced we're capable of doing and just don't want to do. So, here's four things you should never say to a retail worker.
1. "You don't remember me? I was just here two weeks ago!"
I wish I was joking, but I actually had someone say this to me during a busy weekend sale, and got offended when I failed to place them. Honestly, I could have seen this person the morning of, and I still wouldn't have remembered them at the end of a nine hour shift. While I understand we may be the only retail worker you've seen in a couple of weeks, you're not the only customer we've seen. We could have gone through hundreds in that amount of time, all with different demands and personalities. With the utmost respect, unless you made us cry or seethe or really happy, it's unlikely we'll remember exactly who you are and exactly where we put that dress you were thinking of buying.
2. "But the website says it's here!"
If you bring a retail worker at a large store a picture of a clearance item and expect them to miraculously find it, good luck. A lot of things, especially clothing, could end up in a lot of different places after prices have been slashed, and it takes time to get updated on the store's website. We'll try to find it, but at the end of the day, the part time worker you're yelling at for not finding the piece was definitely not the one in charge of updating the website.
3. "Why is this line so long? I've been waiting forever?"
That girl behind the register? She's trying her best. She's probably checked out a hundred people today, gotten yelled at by at least one other person and has been on her feet forever. Don't yell at her. She's probably called her manager begging for help, tried to flag down a coworker and prayed for her replacement to get back from the hour lunch she went on two hours ago. If it's a sale day, management has most likely opened up every register and has all hands on deck, so there's nothing else to be done. Waiting is inevitable. But don't yell at the poor girl, I can guarantee she's tired or starving (maybe both), and she's still trying do her best.
4. "See Timmy, if you don't work hard, this is where you'll end up."
Not only is this disrespectful to all retail workers who work very hard at their jobs to support themselves, it's also based purely on assumptions. I had a person say this about me at the end of an eight-hour shift after I'd finished off another long week of business school. I've worked with people who worked at my store as a second job in addition to an established career, as experience for a future job they wanted to get, or just as a side job while in school. Regardless of their reasons, or even if this is the career they ended up working, using them as a public lesson for little Timmy is an awful thing to do. It invalidates all the hard work we put in, and it only teaches your kids to disrespect retail workers.
So, please, don't be that person. If you've said any of these things in the past, avoid repeating them, and smile extra wide and be extra nice to the next retail worker you encounter. I assure you, they'll appreciate it.
