Working retail had always been appealing to me. Throwback to when I was fifteen, when searching for a job was like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. After searching for a few days, I got an interview with one of my favorite stores, let's call them "X" for now.
Don't doubt that working at X had its highs, but it also had its lows, and those lows have influenced me enough to want avoid retail for as long as I can. Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about.
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1. We had greeters.
One of our store's mottos was to greet and help every single customer that walked through the door, a common goal for most stores taken to an extreme level. You may notice depending on what store you go to, but X had a policy that required a sales rep to be standing at the front of the store to simply say hello to all customers and follow them until they could explain the sales of the day.
2. We'll tell you we don't have a bathroom, but we really do.
It doesn't matter how much you keep telling us that you know there's a bathroom. In most stores, the bathroom is in the back where we keep all our off-floor clothing, so blame your bursting bladder on the people before you who thought it was a great idea to steal.
3. Our back stock room is normally empty.
We all know that infamous question "Can you check in the back?", but I am here to tell you that it's extremely uncommon for anything to actually be in the back room. We either have bare minimum or little to nothing back there, and definitely not the XXS in a completely other color you're looking for.
4. When you see us without our name tag or walkie on, we're not available.
Sure, most employee's you walk up to and ask for help from will still help you out of common respect, but don't be upset if we give you to another employee. We're probably on our break, which we have limited time for, and are rushing to get some type of food before going back to work.
5. We silently judge you if you ask "Do you work here?" at X if we're clearly wearing our name tag and have a walkie in our ear.
The age of seemingly useless headsets are gone, so if you see a walkie, it's safe to assume we work at X. On the off chance that you ask someone who's wearing one and they don't work at X, they're either stuck in the 80s or they clearly found a way to get in the back room and take one.
6. As much as you may think it's scary to approach us, we're here to help you.
As much as someone can complain about working at X, we work there because we love fashion and helping other women dress in a way that makes them feel beautiful and proud of their bodies, because every woman deserves to feel that way. So don't be afraid to walk up to someone when you're shopping, whether you have a question or need an opinion. We're here to help.
