Okay so I’ve been working in retail for what feels like an eternity and I know similar posts have been made about this subject before but I just want to tell you the reasons why I hate working in retail and hopefully some of you will agree with me. Before I started working in retail I was a nice person, I liked meeting new people and I liked to have a chat with strangers. This has all changed now, I now have no patience for anyone and even if someone in the store just looks at me I will smile back but a little fire of rage starts up inside me for no reason what so ever, I mean this person who has just smiled at me could be the nicest person in the world just out shopping but I will just instantly start to hate them, I mean its nothing personal. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not actually horrible to customers, I will smile and help you and joke around with you but inside I will be dying. Anyway, without further ado here are some reasons why working in retail is the bane of my life…
The Jokers. When an item of clothing doesn’t have a tag on so the customer says to you “Oh! It must be free!” No. If you just give me two seconds to do my job I will type down the code and the price will appear. The first few times I heard this so called joke I laughed along with the customer but after you start to hear it atleast 6 or 7 times a day you just start to stare at the customer like are you done yet?
Student Discounts. Every day I will come across a customer that asks for a student discount but will have no proof what so ever that they are a student. Or worse, they will show me their oyster card and inform me that they have used it as ID in our store before which is not true.
The Sale Freaks. Walking into the sale section to tidy up is like walking into the lions cage in the zoo wearing a dress made of meat. Those sale freaks do not care if you are there to tidy, to them you are a waste of space, you are in their way. On boxing day this year I actually got scratched by one of these sale freaks because she just wanted a jumper so badly.
Faulty Police. In my opinion this is the worst type of customer. They will come to the till with an item of clothing that most of the time doesn’t even anything wrong with it and demand a discount because there is a loose thread. Its even more annoying when they bring an item from the sale section which has already been reduced to £3 and ask for a discount because a button is missing. HONEY ITS £3 BECAUSE THE BUTTON IS MISSING!
Browsers. You know who I mean, the customers that come into the fitting room with ten items of clothing and will not buy any of them and to make things worse they will return all the clothes to you detached from the hangers and inside out. You literally get given a ball of clothes with a few hangers sticking out of it.
The Indecisive. These types of customers can be spotted all around the store. When they’re on the shop floor you can spot them by following all the misplaced items, if they’re in the fitting room they will most likely be next to the sales assistant holding out each item of clothing and starring at it for long moments, if they are at the till they are the ones that give you an item separate to the ones they will buy and say to you that they have changed their mind on that one but half way through the transaction they will say “actually I’ll leave that one and take the one I gave you at the start”. I don’t understand this, no-one is rushing you to make a decision, no-one is holding a gun to your head saying “GO TO THE TILLS NOW”.
The Rude Ones. When you spend a good 20 minutes with a customer helping them pick out an outfit or when they come to the tills and you go find them another colour or size and you shower them in customer service and they just walk away without saying thank you. After customers like this I tend to go to the staff room and have a drink of water to calm down my anger.
Tornadoes. These are the customers that will literally ruin the store, when they leave the store will look like it was hit by a tornado. Half the clothes will be on the floor and you’ll have broken items and there’s nothing you can do about it apart clean up after them and hope another tornado doesn’t appear half way through you tidying.
The Stingy. When customers act shocked that we charge 5p for bags. Its been the law since October, are you telling me you haven’t shopped since October? Then the proceed by having a go at you saying they don’t want to spend 5p on a bag and why should they have to pay. Maybe because its the law? I mean there’s nothing I can do about it, if you don’t wanna pay then you get no bag and you have to carry those thongs you just got in your hand.
Sneaks. The ones that manage to sneak into the store 5 minutes before you close and you have to wait for them to leave but they take their sweet time and when you inform that you are closed they tell you they didn’t realize. They didn’t realize the whole store was empty and the doors are shut and there is no music playing.
If you read this and thought “Oh, Ive done that before” please please please don’t do it again! And if you’re currently looking for a job in retail think twice before you apply.
Arda x
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