Have You Ever Worked In Retail?

[The Gravekeeper]

I worked three summers at a carnival, another six months doing customer service/ticket scanning for an entertainment venue (no, not a theatre; more like a concert hall/rental hall/sports arena), a summer working retail proper at Rona, and about 6 months in sales.

I haven't held a job for a year thus far, but I've never been fired. The carnival work was contracted for the duration of the carnival only, I quit the customer service thing because of scheduling conflicts with my classes that couldn't be resolved without cutting my hours back to the point of me essentially not having a job anyway, and the sales thing has petered out without an official end. Rona, though...ugh. I'll never work for that particular store again. I liked the work itself, don't get me wrong; I love gardening and I'm happy to help people with heavy loads, so naturally I worked in the greenhouse and brickyard. However, the management sucked. Not only were we understaffed during our busiest season (during an economic boom yet!), but our manager had a habit of changing the schedule often. It wasn't uncommon for us to get a call from work on a day off wondering where we were, and then having to explain that we checked the schedule the day before and it said we had the day off, as well as having to point out that the labour laws here say that employees have to be given at least 24-hours' notice if there's a change in schedules.

The final nail in the coffin was when they laid me off for no logical reason and didn't tell me. I only found out when I asked why I my name wasn't on the schedule anymore.

[Paquita]

I have a lot of respect for retail workers, I couldn't imagine having to work odd hours, dealing with strangers all the time, and having to answer to bitter or uncaring management.  I'm a little ashamed to admit that I got it pretty easy.. I got an internship at my mom's office a year after high school and have been there ever since.. I've been promoted 3 times in 9 years.  I'm a system admin though so I did have to deal with help desk stuff for our employees.. not necessarily retail but it is kind of considered customer service.  Since I've been in my new job, I've just been a back-up, so I don't do that anymore.. some people that just decided I'm their "go-to" person still call me though.

I did work for the local Chinese restaurant's Taste of Chicago booth though.. that wasn't fun.  One morning some drunk guy came over screaming and threatening everyone saying that Chinese people were ruining everything  .

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

I worked at Lowe's for three years.  It was awful, everyone was so pointlessly cruel.  I wanted to die.  Thank God I got out.

Same here, worked three seasons in the garden center. Made 11 an hour and in the off-season it was back in the store.  We had some idiots, but mostly everyone was OK. 

It was the younger kids who would mostly goof off and stall for time and all that. One time a girl made a customer wait for 45 minutes while she walked around the store trying to find things to do to avoid him.

He caught her and let her have it lock, stock and barrel until the manager got in between them. What p*ssed me off is he let her go..they were laughing about the guy in the breakroom and making fun of him.  To me, that was wrong.

[Menard]

Still work in retail as a merchandiser. What's great about merchandising is a flexible schedule, I'm not tied down to a particular store, and I don't have managers breathing down my neck.

Black Friday!!!

Right now I've got some pull-ups scheduled for early Friday (actually anytime from 10pm Thursday to 5am Friday morning) and have put out the message to other managers that I'm going to be in the stores if they need work done. Both a solicitation for work and a warning for those who want to avoid me.

[Trevor]

and a warning for those who want to avoid me.

Why would anyone want to avoid you? You're a good person and a good pal: I wouldn't want to avoid you at all. 

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

and a warning for those who want to avoid me.

Why would anyone want to avoid you? You're a good person and a good pal: I wouldn't want to avoid you at all. 

Yeah, a guy with a grin like Menard's is hard to deny..they type of grin that says "you are crunchy and good with ketchup."   

[Bmeansgood]

I have worked all the jobs in retail from stock boy all the way up to store manager with a staff of over 100.  One day I just realized I had had enough and started making plans to go to grad school.  Now, 8 years later, I don't regret all the time I spent in retail, but I am sure glad I don't do it any more.  One thing for sure, I laugh my ass off every time I watch the movie "Waiting."  Even though I never worked in a restaurant, I can identify with so many of the plot lines in that movie.

By the way, I always liked Black Friday.  It was kind of a rush.  The worst day, by far, was the day after Christmas.  People wanting to return stuff without a receipt, mixed with marking everything down for clearance, with employees who don't want to be there. 

[HappyGilmore]

I have worked all the jobs in retail from stock boy all the way up to store manager with a staff of over 100.  One day I just realized I had had enough and started making plans to go to grad school.  Now, 8 years later, I don't regret all the time I spent in retail, but I am sure glad I don't do it any more.  One thing for sure, I laugh my ass off every time I watch the movie "Waiting."  Even though I never worked in a restaurant, I can identify with so many of the plot lines in that movie.

By the way, I always liked Black Friday.  It was kind of a rush.  The worst day, by far, was the day after Christmas.  People wanting to return stuff without a receipt, mixed with marking everything down for clearance, with employees who don't want to be there. 

With the experience I've had in restaurants, Waiting pretty much hit the nail on the head.  Closer than people realize.  From the normal stuff all the way down to the kindly old dishwasher dishing out advice.

[AndyC]

I own a business with a small retail component, but the closest I came to working in retail was as a janitor in a tourist complex (shops and restaurants) for a year in high school. That never put me in contact with the public though. I was one of a few teenagers who had the run of the place after closing. A lot of unofficial perks came with that job, what with the candy and ice cream shop, the fully-stocked restaurant kitchen, the specialty food shop and other stuff. Everything but adult supervision.

[Leah]

I accidently put the last one, but I worked at PJ's coffee for a summer in 08 to get 100 service hours.

[Mofo Rising]

I don't work retail, but I have for the past 6 or 7 years worked circulation for a public library. I'm not a librarian, so I don't get accolades for being the helpful guy finding people stuff (though I do that). I'm also not the unsung employee who makes the library work by shelving books and keeping everything in order. Nope, I'm the guy who gets to argue with people about their late fines.

If you think people feel self-entitled as a customer, wait until they're asked to pay for something they think is free. For some reason people who wouldn't balk at paying Blockbuster $5/day for late fines get really antsy when I ask them to pay up our $0.20/day late fees.

But, hey, I've long stopped caring about the way things will play out. I am not a person who likes confrontations, but at this point I will argue with anybody. And I do. In fact, when my coworkers don't want to deal with a difficult person, they will often call me in. I'm not a person with any sort of authority, but I'm willing to endlessly argue with people trying to finagle their way out of a couple dollars.

I really am genuinely helpful, and even with the most difficult customers I am trying to work out their problems so they can use the library. But they still have to settle up accounts.

Working with the public for so long, I've found that all of the good customers, those genuinely friendly folks, you don't remember. Those people are great, and usually fun to interact with. No, the people you remember are the a***oles. It only takes one a***ole to f**k up an otherwise great day.

If you get those people, send them to me. I'm unflappable and willing to argue. Why not? I get paid either way.

[Mr. DS]

Working with the public for so long, I've found that all of the good customers, those genuinely friendly folks, you don't remember. Those people are great, and usually fun to interact with. No, the people you remember are the a***oles. It only takes one a***ole to f**k up an otherwise great day.

Yep well said although I do remember the good ones like I said earlier.  But yes, the unpleasant encounters I can recall as if they were yesterday.

I think many members of the general public are sadists at heart.  Especially the church going older folks who you'd swear differently about.  They are simply looking for a punching bag to beat the hell out of verbally who won't strike back.  Its good Mofo you don't take the sh!t about late fines.  The customer is always right but there are exceptions.  If the customer doesn't realize those exceptions then they are mental.  If I know I'm right about something as a customer, you'd better bet I have all the facts in line.  Some people just shoot off verbal diarhea just to hear themselves talk.

[AndyC]

The customer is always right. What a misunderstood saying that is.

The customer is always right about what they want. They are quite often wrong about what you can give them.

[Chainsawmidget]

I currently work at Toys R Us.  I'm the Go-to guy there. 

[JaseSF]

One summer at a small local grocery store. I loved it! The people were friendly although honestly mostly I worked alone. Still had some fun coversations with customers. Really wasn't such a bad job but of course this was a very small-town store.