Okay, so you know how Amazon has basically been killing business for physical retail stores, right? People are shopping more online and less in physical stores, and that’s directly affecting how much money these physical stores are making.
Well, I happen to work in a retail store. My particular store has some loyal customers who come in regularly to buy new clothes, and they are greatly appreciated, but frankly they aren’t enough. My store is usually at the top of our district, but this year has been rough and we’re behind on our sales goals, so hours are getting cut. As someone who can only work three days out of the week due to school, my hours were among the ones being cut. I’m consistently scheduled for 10-hour weeks. I only get paid $8.50 an hour. That’s $85 per week, or $170 per paycheck. That’s not enough at all, unfortunately…
To top it off, I’m an unsuccessful artist at this point. I get next to no commissions, and I hardly even get any views on my RedBubble products, much less anyone buying anything from me. Even if they did buy something, it could MAYBE buy me a coffee, because the actual amount I make from RedBubble sales is really small. So these venues through which I could, in theory, make some extra money are actually not doing me any good.
The amount of money I used to make from this job before my hours were cut was reasonable for a part-time job, I suppose, but this is not. I would get another part-time job if I could, but I’m a full-time college student and the way my schedule is set up, I am in class throughout almost all of the possible working hours except on the weekends, when I work my current job. I actually really like my job, so I’m not about to quit it in favor of another one, either.
So I guess what I want to say is this: support the retail workers who you strive to raise the wages of through your text posts by actually buying things from your local retailers! I know it may conflict with your anti-capitalist ideals, and believe me, it does kinda conflict with my own, but if you wish to help the underpaid workers in any industry, you must still support the industry, right?
(In case anyone was wondering, my current job is as a sales associate at dressbarn)
oh, here’s a link containing links by which you can support me more directly (such as ko-fi, redbubble, and shops I promote on instagram)
