Confessions of Retail Associates

The people who greet you as you come in, who help you look for anything particular, and ring you up when you find what your looking for. As well as the people being screamed at and treated like public servants but somehow put up with it because we love what we do.-anom

[retailanom]

I really want to know how its a good idea to shove carts where they don’t belong when there’s a cart coral the same distance where you decided to discard your shopping cart

[retailanom]

I would kindly appreciate that money isn't thrown on the counter or shoved in my face or rolled up/folded up or crumpled.

[retailanom]

We all had some moments through out our day when our energy is low and we have to go rest on our designated break times to pick up our lost energy and cheerful spirit. On this particular day I had this customer who I greeted with whatever happy energy I had to muster "Hi how you doing?". They replied back with the same mannerism that other customers in the past hour had, threw their items on the counter replied with a "Alright" and went silent waiting for me to ring their items up so they could leave. Midway through the transaction they began to speak and ask a question. I strained myself for a moment to understand what they had asked not wanting to seem incompetent when asking again but had to. After an additional two attempts to try and comprehend the customer's question. They began to speak again and said "Let me speak english." A quick note to add that I am hispanic and have only received looks of my ethnicity and brown skin, never am I sensitive or pick at comments customers make to me. They explained their question in more details than before to which I understood with no problem at all this time around. After they had paid and their receipt printed out and they were packing away their card, they had commented how they were "grumpy" and that they "didn't have their coffee yet". They also added that I had their permission to talk about them when they left the store to which I nodded too dumbfounded to do anything else not even to tell them "Have a good day". All I could think of doing was calling the next customer to my register and try and greet them properly.

[retailanom]

First Post

Being a retail associate is rewarding in most instances aside from the aspects of our job. When we see our regulars and have the most pleasant few moments with them catching up from the previous week. Or when we acquaint ourselves with someone new while trying to find one particular item. Or even witnessing with our own eyes little kids paying for their toy for the first time and being excited about receiving their change and making their first purchase. These moments make our day after some tiresome days. There are some moments that aren't worth mentioning but to those starting to work retail or feel like it's the end of the word after one bad day- it's nice to know their is someone else out there who experienced something equally as bad but were able to pull through. As the Joker would say, "All it takes is one bad day". But it doesn't always have to be like that.