For those of you who have worked in retail, you know it can be a pain.

For those of you who don’t work in retail, it can also be a pain to navigate. However, with a few of these key terms in your vocabulary, you can sound like you have retail experience. Here are some things that will help you become a shopping professional when talking to employees.

1. DPCI

This stands for Department Class Item. These are the little numbers that tell the employees what item you are looking at in the computer according to their store. If you are trying to find a specific item, this is the code you want to keep to be able to find it again in their systems and helps the employees find the exact item and not just something similar.

2. UPC

There are a lot of acronyms in retail that mean basically the same thing. This stands for Universal Product Code. This is the little 12 digit number that is always found at the bottom of barcodes. As implied in the name, it is the universal code for that product. If you want to find an item between different stores, this is the code for you.

3. ISBN

This is yet another code for your item, but this one means International Standard Book Number. It’s only for books. Magazines? Still books. Notebooks? Not books despite the deceiving name. Candle? Absolutely not.

4. End Cap

These are the shelves that are found at the end of aisles. They stick out into the walkway to grab the customer’s attention and show off things the store wants to make sure you don’t miss seeing. If you say the words ‘end cap display’ in a sentence, everyone will think you know what you are talking about.

5. Reshop

Also sometimes called "go backs," this is what it sounds like for once. They are the items that will be put back on the floor. For all of you that have hidden items you no longer want at the last minute in the checkout lane candy, please, please just give it to the cashier. Tell them it is reshop, or that you don’t want to get it anymore.

They will put it in reshop, and someone later will collect it and put it back in its place. It saves you trying to find where to put it back yourself, and saves the employees having to scavenge through the snickers and grab the necklace you decided wasn’t cute enough for the price.

6. LOD

I know what you’re thinking. You thought we were done with acronyms. Unfortunately, that was wrong. LOD stands for Lead On Duty.

Anyone who wants to complain to a manager and actually get the person in charge? Ask for the LOD.

If you ask for a manager, you might get the floor manager, or a manager of a department. They will likely be able to answer your questions, but complaining to them will have to filter up the ladder to be heard. Plus, there isn’t much a customer service underling can do if you are upset that Pat packed your bags too heavily.

7. POS

If you think you are tired of the random letters, this is only the basics of all the acronyms retail workers have to memorize.

POS stands for Point-Of-Sale System.

Yes, many people make the joke of what POS could also stand for because many of these register systems are difficult to get to do what you want them to. This is the system that does all the cashiering and keeping track of what is sold in the store. Yes, it is just the program on the register and you’ll likely never need that only being a customer, but it’s interesting to know.

Do you feel like like you’ve worked in retail for 12 years after this article? Okay, maybe not, but you do know enough now to be a more efficient shopper. A budget a day keeps the basket at bay.