Last summer I sold shoes for almost five months at Payless, learning the ins and outs of sales and customer service. In the beginning, I was pretty turned off by the idea of standing at a register for hours, cleaning up messes in the store, and greeting customers over and over again with the same fake, animated smile.
This summer I’m exploring retail once again, working at Loft, a women’s clothing store in the mall. While certain days are harder than others and customers are constantly testing my patience, I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons from my time in retail and absorbed some life skills that I can access on an everyday basis.
Customers are difficult, but sometimes I find myself having memorable and inspiring conversations. A few weeks ago, one woman approached me and just wanted to talk. I didn’t get the sense that she was actually set on shopping. Instead, she was asking questions about school, my family, and where I wanted to travel. It was refreshing to meet someone who actually wanted to learn from and engage with the people around her, as opposed to just paying for some shirts and getting on her way. I was frustrated when I needed to cut the interaction short to help another customer in line at the register.
Through interactions with people at both stores, I’ve discovered a lot about how I operate, not just as a sales associate, but as a customer as well. I realized I always avoid employees in stores; I just want to find the item I need and get out as efficiently as possible. But a lot of the customers I’ve talked to at work value that small talk that I always try to run away from. They ask me about my day genuinely, as if I’m not being paid to push products on them and convince them to throw money our way. While ringing one woman up, I told her about my interest in journalism. She shared stories with me about her husband’s career in writing, and we bonded over our love for The Atlantic. Having those conversations not only gives me an opportunity to better understand the people we’re selling to, but it also helps pass the time in a more meaningful way.
As someone who thrives from staying active and keeping busy, I’ve learned to really appreciate the routine and predictability of working at a cash register, doing price checks, filling the store with clothes and shoes, handling orders, and cleaning fitting rooms. Outside of work and academic environments, I don’t usually adhere to routines. Sometimes they feel constricting, and when I break a pattern or fail to do something, I get way too worked up. When it comes to work, though, I find that I’m the opposite. If I don’t have some element of structure or routine that I can rely on, my energy level stagnates.
With working routine comes little victories and projects along the way. There are two reasons why I set small goals and projects for myself: 1. Focusing on pouring my energy into a particular task keeps me interested in what I’m doing, and it helps me stay engaged and active throughout the day. And 2. The more productive I am, the prouder and more comfortable I feel. If I can spend a shift deciding to organize a certain section of the store when the line dies down, or size check all of the dresses on a particular rack, the monotony of an eight hour shift suddenly leaves my mind. So while retail work may not be the most glamorous job one could have, you really do learn a lot about yourself and others.
