Retail and customer service have become a staple of the American consumerism. The "hard-work-with-low-pay" lifestyle is something that way too many American have to deal with, especially here in New York City where the average retail worker makes roughly $9.50 an hour.
America is the land of opportunity. People from all over the world flock to our great nation to work to make a better life for themselves and their children. The rise up from poverty is a journey, and many individuals may never make it out. In New York alone, there are 125,270 retail salespersons — that's not including Long Island or any of the surrounding areas. In addition to those retail salespeople, there are 69,210 cashiers in the city. The average salesperson, including both full-time workers and part-time workers, make an average of $18,000-$20,000 per year, and the average cashier for full-time and part-time workers makes the same amount, starting out.
To say that making $8.25 an hour (which is what the minimum wage was when these statistics were calculated) isn't a livable wage is an understatement. Not only is the wage impossible to live on, but retail is incredibly hard work. I can safely say that because I've worked in the field for over four years.
I will not disregard or undermine the hard work that surgeons, engineers, crane operators, elementary school teachers, and air-traffic-controllers do every day. However, their wages — for what they do — are livable and are more or less consistent with the level of effort they put into their work every day. Retail does not show the same consistency.
For three years during high school, I worked at my local Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin' Robbins. Granted I was in high school and still mentally immature, but this job was difficult for me. I watched my beloved, hard-working boss, manager Farooq Parvin, fade away as the days went on. He relied on a salary, and whether he came in early or left the store late, he got paid the same amount every week. The money we made in tips every night was not nearly enough to pay for even a fast-food meal on most nights.
After quitting that job because of awful working conditions and corrupt management, I stopped working for a few months. When it came time to look for a job again, I was unsure what route I wanted to take. I was certain I didn't want to work in the food industry again, especially because my self-esteem couldn't withstand another blow from petty demands made by entitled rich people who would ask me to make their coffee sweeter in the rudest way. Despite this, I knew I had to suck it up and be an adult. I applied to stores like PetSmart and Kohl's and eventually landed a job at Staples in April of 2015.
My first weeks at Staples included small, visual, online tests that taught me how to talk to customers and goals that Staples wants to achieve. I took this job very seriously. My first role at this store was to be a simple cashier, to ask people if they wanted to open a credit card with staples or an extended service protection plan for their electronic devices. It wasn't the questions that got people to buy these things. It was the way I talked to these customers.
Eventually, my management team saw my seriousness about my job. I showed up 10-15 minutes early every day, asked every customer if they wanted to extend their warranty, and showed the highest sales numbers of any of my co-cashiers. They wanted to promote me into the Staples' technology department, a.k.a. Staples Easy Tech. It was the scariest opportunity of my life because I didn't think I knew anything about selling technology. The opportunity itself, the feeling of being wanted to perform a job, made me work harder because I knew I was appreciated.
It wasn't until very recently where I began to feel the pain of being a salesperson, and the only woman in a sales position in my store.
As a feminist and political science major, I should have known that I'd experience sexism in the workplace.
Part of my job, besides selling, is to restock the shelves and empty the truck that arrives twice a week. Being a technology salesperson, I sell heavy items like 24-sheet shredders and laser printers. Every single day work of work that goes by, I become physically and mentally stronger.
As a 5"4' woman who weighs 120 lbs, both men and women will stop me in the middle of the store if I'm carrying something and ask me if I need help. That, I don't mind. It's courteous to ask people if they need help, especially if a product is my size. What does bother me is when I've already gotten a product for someone, I'm ringing it up, I offer to carry it out to the car for that particular person, and they ask me if they could "get a strong boy to help them." What a lot of these people don't realize is that I might actually be stronger than half the men I work with. Granted the bulked up guys in the furniture department are indeed stronger than me, but it's not their job to carry out technology if I've sold it.
The sexist assumptions that people set against me doesn't only occur when it comes to my physical strength. It also occurs when it comes to my knowledge about technology. In order to get my promotion in the sales department, I had to take many online courses that guided me in knowing what I was selling. Not only did the online courses give me a well rounded knowledge, but watching and listening to my coworkers in the tech department helped me learn as well. I'm not an idiot just because I don't have a computer science degree like my department supervisor.
Sometimes, I will be working at the technology counter by myself, clearly wearing a black and green shirt which separates me from the cashiers who wear a red shirt, and they will ask "is there someone who can help me with ink?" This has happened way more than once.
Despite all of my observations while I was a subordinate, I never saw someone ask that question, ever, to my male co-workers. I'm assuming that people assume that just because I'm a woman, I must not be the person who knows anything.
The happens especially with older customers who tend to have an antiquated way of thinking than my younger customers. I can't blame them for growing up in a society I didn't grow up in.
Sexism may begin with my customers, but it doesn't end there. Sexism happens quite a lot among my coworkers. It's not anything serious. It's not harassment or assault, but it's stupid comments that drive me nuts. I love cars, and I have no shame discussing them with my coworkers, but one time I divulged my love for cars by talking about them. A male co-worker of mine said to me "wait, you're a girl though."
I'm sorry, but what does that even mean?
When it came to my sexuality, no one took that seriously either. Admittedly, I'm a lesbian. Unfortunately, that doesn't really mean anything to anyone, especially when they're immature and sexist. I've heard things like "you don't look like a lesbian," or "but would you have a threesome?"
Is that sexist or just ignorant? I'm not quite sure.
I work with many young adults, many who are still in high school. Their enthusiasm about selling is minimal, and their lack of seriousness about the job is unsettling, which is why they receive bad feedback from customers.
As a shopper myself, it's one of the most annoying things to put your items up at a counter and ask the cashier a simple, "how are you today?" with no response on their end. It makes one think if they care about their job at all.
Now seeing the issue from the other side of the counter, I realize that it may be a defense mechanism for people not to act like they care about their jobs, just in case they get fired or quit. If customer service and retail has taught me anything, it's that acting like you care about your job will make the day go by much quicker, and you'll start to find helping customers genuinely pleasant.
Besides uncooperative coworkers and the occasional sexist customer, another problem I face is just straight-up angry people.
As an Easy Tech Associate, I was trained to ask customers open-ended questions regarding their technological needs. One time, I was trying to help a woman purchase a corded telephone. I asked her if she was interested in basic things like caller ID, an answering machine, and additional cordless phones. Her response to me was "why the hell does it matter to you?"
Unfortunately, out of all the online training and tests that certified me as a sales associate I was never taught me how to deal with jerks. I was being tested. My response (which would not have been so poised three years ago) was a quick apology. "Miss, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to help you find what you're looking for in the easiest way possible." She was still unamused and accused me and all of Staples of being scam artists.
Stories like that happen at least once a work-week for me.
Currently, the minimum wage is $9 in New York. Right now, I'm making $10, for heavy lifting, cleaning, ringing up, selling (no commission on anything but cellphones, and even then I haven't sold a single one since April), dealing with sexist customers, stupid questions, and lack of common courtesy. Maybe I should be making only $10 an hour.
The retail experience is definitely a unique one. Each day is different and you'll never know what you have to deal with. I'd say, even though I hate my job sometimes, I feel like I've gained a lot of experience. I learned how to talk to customers to get them to comply with me, and selling technology has given me skills that have will help me in my future political science career, where I'll probably have to pitch my thoughts and ideas to politicians, publications, newspapers, advertisement companies, and companies in general to endorse me or the agenda I want to push.
Over the past four years, I've grown and matured from my customer service experience. It gave me the foundation of personal skills that all people in my age group should have. The day-to-day interactions with people became easier and more fluent, and my social anxiety is now minimal. So despite the obstacles you will face while working in retail you will come out a stronger and better person because of it.
