I've had friends who have worked in retail for years. I've heard all of the crazy stories, yet I never experienced them myself. Recently I applied to a job working in a little shop that sells soaps, lotions, clothes, and cute knick-knacks. I didn't think it would be as bad as all of my friends said, but boy was I wrong. Here are some of the retail worker nightmares you need to know about.
1. Rude Customers
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This one is pretty self-explanatory, but I think it needs to be said again for the people in the back. Nothing, I repeat, nothing, is worse than a customer who believes that they rule the store. Sure, the customer is always right, but when they try to use a coupon that expired three years ago and insist that I need to scan it, I question their logic. When I'm clearly carrying a heavy box of new soaps across the store and a customer decides that right then is the perfect time to ask me to get a ring out of the display case, I get a little peeved. What's worse than a rude customer in the store though? A rude customer on the phone. The struggle not to hang up in the middle of their rant about how the store is out of stock of this cute little baby onesie is so real.
2. Price Guns
As much as I wish I could have as much fun with a price gun as everyone thinks you can, it's just impossible. Maybe it's because I work at a small, family owned store where we don't even have an up to date cash register, but the pricing guns we use could be used as a torture method in an interrogation. Trying to refill those with the price strips paper stuff is like trying to conduct heart surgery while also eating ice cream and trying your best not to spill all over that guys intestines. I'm almost tempted to have my grandma come in and thread the paper into the machine since she's such a pro with sewing and needles. And don't even get me started on the knob system to change the numbers for the prices. That's a whole different battle.
3. UPS, FedEx, and US Postal
The days when you're excited to get a package in the mail are now long gone. Instead of the one tiny box for the cute french fry phone case you bought online, you're presented with about seven boxes of merchandise. Merchandise that you'll have to open, check in, price, steam if it's clothes, and put out on the shelves. Merchandise that you'll be sick of seeing for the weeks to come. When a customer comes up with the tiny stuffed bear holding a heart that says "I Love You Bear-y Much" and says "isn't this the cutest", you're tempted to say "it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen". The delivery person apologizes when they show up with a dolly full of boxes, and you force a smile as you sign your name (a little too forcefully) for the next three days of busy work.
4. 20% Off
I know. The last thing you expected to see was the discount you acquire when you work at a retail store. However, any retail worker knows how much of a nightmare this can be. You've just received your paycheck, you're ready to stash it in your savings account, when you see this adorable t-shirt with a pug on it and just have to get it because hey, you have a discount! Then you end up buying the pair of earrings you saw earlier, then the hairband someone else bought at your register, and before you know it you've blown 3/4 of your money in your own store. Sigh.
5. Coworkers
Sometimes you're lucky and you get put on shifts with some pretty decent people. Sometimes you get thrown under the bus with coworkers who can be one or more of the following.
- The coworker who talks all the time. They tell you stories about their weekend, their week, their entire life even. TMI isn't in their vocabulary. As soon as you say something relative to whatever they're spewing on about, they take it and run in an opposite direction with it just to keep talking.
- The coworker who slacks. They just don't do their job while you're running around, busting your butt to get everything done before the boss gets back. You look over to ask them to help you move the shelf of candles and they're browsing through SnapChat, volume all the way up. You figure they're either related to the boss, or very friendly with them.
- The coworker who latches. For some reason they think that they need to by three inches away from you while you're both refolding tank tops. They think that on your break they need to sit down directly across from you, just to drink their water and check Twitter. They think that they need to add their input in while you're helping a customer, even though they're needed at the register to ring up customers.
These are just some of the things that I've experienced during my time in retail. If you've had similar or crazier experiences, feel free to tweet them at me or comment down below.
