Here is my schpill on working retail, especially during the holidays.

1.) Retail workers earn very little money for the work they do. Not only do they earn very little money, if they work overtime the extra wages naturally go straight to taxes. After taxes I typically make about $5.39 an hour… that’s not even enough money to get two gallons of gas. The majority of retail workers are in the same boat. I may have been through two pay raises thus far, but I still barely make enough money to pay my bills or compensate for the work I do. If you think retail is so easy, how about you try it? It’s one of the most stressful and emotionally trying aspects of my life.

We work long hours thinking we will get a good paycheck and then it is all taken by taxes. THEN we have even less hours the weeks following to cover the overage that has happened. It's a lose lose situation.

2.) I get so sick of customers getting angry at ME because an item isn’t as amazing as they had imagined, the price isn’t as cheap as they would hope, or because something broke after they used it incorrectly. In the store I work at the merchandise is completely uncorrelated with the store. They just send us things; it’s not like we can pick and choose what we get. I can’t even count the amount of times that I’ve been yelled at by customers because they want to return something without any proof of purchase, or because something broke and apparently it is my all fault because I am the god of retail that controls the flimsiness of the POS they just purchased. Going back to a store and yelling at someone because something was damaged or broke easily is pointless. We don’t make your items. We don’t pick the merchandise. We didn’t tell you to buy that. If you wanted the cheap way out you should understand you take the risk of getting a cheap product. Simple as that. 


3.) One of the hardest parts of my job is that I have to be nice to people no matter how terribly they treat me. I try to do that in my everyday life, but sometimes it’s just hard. I had a gentleman go off on me last week because he got in a closed line and was furious that he had to push his cart five feet farther. He then proceeded to get angry at me and stormed out of the store leaving his entire cart full of items unpaid. The entire time I had to remain calm and collected while he attempted to demean me to make himself feel better. No matter how rude someone is acting towards me I have to be nice to them because my job depends on it. Whoever said “the customer is always right” has never worked in retail. Being berated by a customer is sadly becoming part of the job description because people know that in this day and age if you retaliate you could easily lose your job and jobs are sometimes hard to come by… I mean why else did we end up in retail?

4.) “Hello there, do you have a rewards card.” “No.” “Would you like one?” “No, just like every other time you ask me. Stop asking me.” Do you really think that we would hound you for a card if we didn’t have some sort of reason that we HAD to? I can’t really say how I truly feel about that because I do have employers on my facebook, but sometimes things happen because they are part of our job requirements. I know that every time I go to stores such as TJ Maxx or JC Penney they ask me the same question (except theirs are worse because it’s a credit card). What some people don’t realize is that we ask these things not just to inconvenience them, but more often than not we are encouraged to reach a certain quota, and more often than not if you don’t you lose hours… sad but true.

5.) Working retail is tiring, so when you see me and ask me how I am (which happens less than half the time) and I have to lie and say I’m okay, but you continue on to say I look tired… well… DUH. I have to work long exhausting hours to make sure lines are kept shorter for customers like you that immediately complain the moment they have to wait in line. Sometimes I imagine the long lines of people as zombies inching their ways toward me. (I have this weird repeat day dream about the Zombie apocalypse at work, but I’ll save that for another day).

If you come to a store that you see only has 4 working registers and you decide to check out the exact moment someone else does (it’s literally like clockwork every time… we can have NO ONE and them BAM, everyone comes flooding at you) you’re obviously going to have to wait, and if the material items you’re buying is so important maybe a little patience would make the waiting game a little better. I am not a machine, nor am I a robot. I am a real person working as hard as I can to quickly and efficiently help you, the customer, get the items you deem as so important. I don’t have the right to be miserable and rude to you as a customer service rep, you don’t have the right to be miserable and rude as a customer.

I wish I was exaggerating by saying that people will spend their time shopping and then storm out without paying for anything because they hate waiting in line. Working in retail makes me hate my life sometimes. I come home angry and uptight almost on the daily because I have to hold all my frustrations in. People suck… change my mentality and be a nice, patient customer. Pay the kindness forward and it will come back to you.

Not everyone celebrates holidays, I understand that… but I really hate when customers say “Wow, I can’t believe you’re open. Shouldn’t you be at home with your families?” I really just want to look at them and be like: “Well, I would be if it weren’t for people like you.” END RANT.