Getting a job in retail as your first job is not necessarily a bad thing but after working in retail for almost six years now and nearing the end of my college career and starting to look at my future I, with the help of one of my coworkers, have come up with a few reasons why I can't stand working in retail anymore.

1. Unpredictable Schedules

I couldn't tell you the last time I had a weekend off or one of the smaller holidays off. Sometimes it gets old working every weekend and every holiday. I just want to have some time to myself. Another thing is working nights, I cannot tell you how much I hate working nights. I don't know what it is that I hate about working nights. All I know is that when I work nights I am a lot more crabby at home and a lot more frustrated. There is also almost never a set schedule when it comes to working in retail. You could literally work whenever you are needed.

2. The "Customer Is Always Right" Mentality

The fact that this is a thing irritates me because this mentality makes customers a lot more ignorant to their surroundings and it makes the workers in retail weary about arguing with a customer. I can tell you from personal experience that the customer is not always right, and it does frustrate me that I have to be careful with how I tell a customer that they aren't exactly right. I shouldn't have to feel worried about trying to help a customer, it makes working in retail scary sometimes because you don't know how people are going to react to your advice.

3. Being Told I Don't Know What I'm Talking About

This kind of connects to the previous point. Sometimes customers believe that they know everything and that no matter what you say to them, you are wrong. It makes us workers angry, to be told that we don't know what we are talking about. Or when a customer thinks that they can do our job better than we can, because I love to be told that I don't know how to do the job that I've been doing for years now. I also love when a customer asks to speak to a manager so the manager can tell the customer the exact same thing that I have just told them. These kind of things make working in retail such a joy. Oh and if you couldn't tell, that was all sarcasm.

4. Judgement

I have had this one done to me very often but you always get those customers that ask you why you're working in retail and not doing something better with your life. The answer to their question is that if I wasn't working in retail there wouldn't be anyone to check them out at the store and working in retail is not my end goal. Most of the people that work in retail are high school and college students It is only a filler job until we go through our schooling to get to the career that we want. So me working in retail is not something that I'm going to do for the rest of my life; it's just something I have to do right now to make it through my college years.

5. Bad Attitudes

There is nothing worse than having to deal with a customer that has a bad attitude and then to tell them that we can't help them out is even worse. I know people have bad days, I have had them myself many times but to take it out on the workers of a store is not the way to go. We understand you might be in bad mood for whatever reason but most of the time we had nothing to do with it and for you to take your frustration out on us is a little upsetting.

6. Empty Threats

I'm sure that if you have worked in retail before you have heard these kind of threats before. You know the ones I'm taking about, the ones that don't really mean anything. My favorite threat is, "I'm never shopping here again!" and then you see that same person in a few days buying something else at your store. I also love when a customer threatens to tell my manager on me for simply doing my job but according the the customer I was doing it wrong. I would love to tell them to go ahead, tell my manager what an awful job I'm doing and get me fired. Luckily, though, I have very understanding managers who know my work ethic and know how some customers can be. Empty threats are just annoying sometimes and not really worth my time to worry about.

7. Exhaustion

If there is one thing I can take from working retail, it is that you are always exhausted. The fact that you are constantly on your feet all day doesn't help either. The hours are also a killer. I'm lucky that my store is only open until 8 pm because I could not imagine working until 10 pm like I know my brother has to do sometimes. Working long hours on your feet can take a toll on your body and I know it has taken a toll on mine. There are some days that I come home from work so exhausted that all I want to do is go to bed and sometimes that is at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I shouldn't feel exhausted at 2 o'clock in the afternoon after work.

8. Small Store vs. Expectations

I work at a small hardware store, so when people come in expecting something like Menards or Home Depot, it gets a little old. Even though we are a small store, we still do a lot for our customers but sometimes our best is not good enough for people. We always get the complaint that our prices are too high or that they can get whatever they are looking for cheaper at Menards. I hate that small hardware store are compared to the big box stores because there is a huge difference in what can be done at each store. The big box stores can sell their stock for cheaper because they can get their stock in bulk for cheaper. Smaller stores don't have the same luxury because we are limited on where we can get stock from and limited on how much stock we can carry in store. Its frustrating that the expectations of small stores are the same as big box stores.

9. The Constant, "Why Don't You Carry That? It's On The Website," Questions

This kind of connects to the previous point in the fact that smaller stores are limited by space and they can't carry everything that is on the Internet. The Internet is infinite so it can carry everything that can be made but when it comes to the physical store we can only carry as much as our square footage allows. Plus, every store is different, just because you see something on the internet doesn't automatically mean that every store carries that item.

10. People That Don't Read the Fine Print

I have started reading the fine print on everything now that I have worked in retail for a few years because I understand what it is like having to deal with someone that hasn't read the fine print. It happens a lot with coupons and sale ads that are sent out. The most common coupon that we get at my store is $5 off when you spend $25 or more on regular-priced merchandise and what most people see is just the first part. They don't read the part that says regular priced merchandise. This is the most common problem that we come in contact with on a daily basis, having to explain to a customer that we can't use the coupon because they didn't follow the directions or they didn't read the fine print. Yet, we can't just come out and say that they didn't read the fine print or didn't follow directions, we have to calmly explain that the coupon has special parameters that have to be followed. It gets old after a while when you have to explain the same thing for the umpteenth time in a day.

11. Kids That Touch Everything And Parents That Let Them

Now I have nothing against children whatsoever, but when a child comes into the store that I'm working at and touches everything in sight and continues to move the things they are touching into a whole other area of the store, I have a problem with children. I know that children can be amazed at things in a store but that doesn't give them the right to take everything they see and move it around. The other problem is when you have a child doing this said thing and the parent does nothing to correct the bad behavior, or jokingly says, "Kids will be kids." No. What you should be doing is disciplining your child when they touch something that isn't theirs and stopping a bad habit before it starts.

Now I can't say that working in retail is all that bad but there are a lot of things that are bad about working in retail that trump the good ones. At the beginning, I loved my job but as the years have gone on and I have grown up a bit, I have come to truly dislike working in retail. I look forward to the future when I don't have to work weekends or holidays anymore, and to the days where I don't have to deal with customers everyday.