The retail industry is so big and probably always will be. It pretty much consumes your life whether you work within it or not. Just think you shop online, buy groceries, order a cappuccino, and run errands that usually pertain to shopping or buying a product, which is all retail related. When you work retail you can honestly tell who has never worked a day of retail in their lives. It seems like the customer has no knowledge or understanding of it what so ever.
1. Business hours.
If you work or have worked retail you get in the habit of checking store hours. No retail employee appreciates cleaning everything up and a customer walking in five minutes before the store closes and making it a mess again. Normal retail shifts are about eight hours. When that eighth hour comes we are ready to leave. We do not want to re-clean up everything we already just cleaned.
2. Policies.
If we all worked retail we would all understand that every store has different policies for returns, exchanges, and coverage plans. Check the back or bottom of the receipt to see how long you can return something to get your original payment back. PS: Cashiers have to follow these policies. Don't take it out on them when they can not give you what you want. They need their jobs just as much as you need yours.
3. Read the fine print.
When you see a sign that says 50% off and you have worked retail you would know NOT everything in the store is 50% off. When though the writing on the bottom of the sign is tiny it is written there for a reason. Don't just read the large print that is just to get your attention.
4. The customer is not always right.
5. Manners and just being nice.
Once you work retail you understand the full value of manners and just being nice. When a cashier says, "hi" and asks how you are, it's nice to hear a "hi" back.
