I started working retail one year ago on Black Friday. This year, I was home from college and the mall my store is in was the only mall open on Thursday night. In the last year, I have gone from a part-timer struggling to find products in the stockroom to a potential co-manager this Christmas. As a college student, it can be extremely hard to work retail. We are broke and we are tired, but retail requires long hours at minimum wage. Some stores allow you to make commission, allowing a few extra dollars for extra effort, but most stores are strictly minimum wage. There were many times last holiday season that I didn’t leave the mall until midnight or later, just to come back in to open the next day. Retail is stressful to begin with, and the holiday season is a rough time of year for workers, so please listen to my requests this holiday shopping season.

1. Be Courteous

Holiday’s are rough on retail workers. Workers spend long hours in their stores making minimum wage, often dealing with rude customers. Part time workers, full time workers, and managers can’t help if the store runs out of a certain product or doesn’t carry the exact same style of something that another store has. Please don’t take out your frustrations on the workers, as there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Most workers will do anything and everything to help you find what you’re looking for, but being rude makes us not want to help you at all.

2. Be Patient

Holiday’s are extremely busy. Most people go out shopping on Friday nights, Saturday afternoons, and Sunday nights. If you choose to go out on one of these three days, be prepared to wait in line. You will most likely have to wait in traffic, wait to find a parking spot, wait to get help from workers, and wait in line at each store. Everyone knows how frustrating it is to spend so much time waiting, but believe me we’re trying. Workers are doing their best to help you get in and get out of our store to help you continue your shopping day. Please be patient with us and understand that yelling at us for making you wait only makes others have to wait longer.

3. Be Kind

During the holidays, retail workers miss out on spending time with their families to work long hours. We give up spending time with our closest friends and miss Christmas parties in order to work so others can shop. For college students, we give up the majority of our breaks to work minimum wage and miss spending time with out long lost friends to serve our stores. So please take time to be kind to us. We are tired from long hours, we are sad to miss our family and friends, and we are worn down from the lack of break/relaxation time. Take a moment to ask us about our day, or something non-work related.