I’ve been working in retail since the age of
16. I’m 21 now, so that is five long ass
years where I have had the pleasure of working with the public. I’m getting to the point in my life now where
I am ready to start a career for myself doing the things I love the most –
media, writing, PR and or possibly even marketing. I’ve
been studying media for the last three years, and I’m keen to get myself stuck
into it whenever a possibility shows itself.
I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to share the things
that I love and hate about working in retail.
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| How I feel after a long day at work... |
1. Depending on what kind of retail you’re working in,
unfortunately most of us we are working real hard for basically the minimum
wage. And some days, I mean working
really hard. Be it standing at checkouts
for a nine hour shift on a super busy day, or running around on the floor
helping customers and following the orders of management – just because we work
in a shop does NOT mean we’ve got it easy.
2. A fab perk about retail though is that we normally
get a pretty decent staff discount. That
pretty bed spread you bought yourself the other day? I treated myself to the same one also – with
a nice sum taken off the total at the checkout too.
3. Unless you are one of the very few and lucky ones,
those of us in retail tend to have to work most if not the majority of weekends
throughout the year. Those lush bank
holiday weekends everyone gushes over?
We’re probably working extra-long shifts to compensate for your long
weekend shopping, so don’t fight us if we don’t seem too thrilled as we go
about our business in store.
4. We do however receive plenty of days off during the
week to compensate this. Some weeks I
can have three days off and still manage to bag myself 28 hours of work. Although of course I would love to enjoy
every weekend to myself, it is really nice to break my week up with a day or
two off here and there – and it’s even nicer when the sun is shining and
everyone in the office is online complaining that they are missing out!
5. Members of
the public can be SO RUDE sometimes. And
by sometimes, I mean it’s very rare that
a day at work goes by when I’ve not had someone be extremely rude to me or another member of staff throughout the day. It’s so bad, and it makes me so mad that
people think it’s okay to come into a store and verbally abuse someone because
they’ve not been given exactly what they wanted. I’m terribly sorry about your awful
experience with the store/item/price – but unless you’re willing to talk to me
and not down at me, then I’ll be very reluctant to help you to my full
potential. I will NEVER speak to anyone
the way I’ve been spoken to by a few individuals.
6. That being said though, it totally makes my day
when I get to speak to the loveliest of people throughout the day, the ones who
generally are thankful for your help and want to chat about non work related
things. Especially when it’s been a
really rubbish or stressful day – you people who take the time to make conversation
and say please and thank you to us while we are working really do give me hope
for humanity. You people are the best.
7. I’ve met some of the greatest people I know through
working in retail (and some of the most annoying – but I won’t get into that
now). Although it isn’t always fun and
games in store, I reckon that retail is probably a lot more relaxed than some
careers – and you’ve got a much better opportunity to get to know the people
you’re working alongside with, especially on those grave time shifts.
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| And again! |
So there you have it, although I’m getting excited
about the idea of starting a new chapter in my work life in the near or late
future – retail actually has a lot of perks for all of the rubbish things we
sometimes need to deal with. Although I'm probably just in a bit of a slump about my job at the moment, I've actually really enjoyed a lot of the time I've spent working in retail, and dare I say it, there is a good chance there will be a few more laughs before the end too!
What’s your favourite thing to love and hate in
your job?
Until the next one,
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