Rants of Retail!

I have a part time job in a clothes shop, where my role changes throughout the day. This means I get to experience different aspects and areas of working in retail and although I am extremely grateful for having a job, especially since it’s not a hard job, there are still downfalls.

So today, I’m going to be ranting about those downfalls. 😀

 

The Customer Isn’t Always Right

Customer service is a huge part of working in retail and I’m generally a nice person, so I am nice to the customers and try to help as much as possible. But good lord, give me strength, sometimes there are people that I honestly think and choose to think have come from living in a cave, having been raised by wolves. It’s like they have no respect or care for other people. I completely understand you can be in a bad mood but it’s still wrong to be mean to someone, especially a worker trying to help you out.

I’ve gotten subtle racism, rude remarks about how I’m doing things wrong when I’m really not, ageism, harassment from older men, etc.  It can really mess up your day when you experience it.

 

The 5p Bane of the Universe Bag

In the UK, the charge for a plastic carrier bag is 5p. This is because it promotes and encourages people to not buy plastic bags and re-use their own or get a bag for life. It means that there will be less plastic bags littered on the streets and less plastic will be manufactured and broken down, adding to global warming. And I mean, it’s only 5p. You can find that on the walk to the shop.

However, if I got 5p for the amount of times I’ve been asked why they need to pay for it or have to stand behind the till, listening to customers complain about the charge, I wouldn’t even need a job. It gets old.

If you don’t want to get rid of your change, re-use a plastic bag or use the magic and power of your hands.

And then I have those cases where people will buy the tiniest thing like a keyring and ask for a bag. Seriously? XD Defeats the whole purpose of save the environment.

 

The Jokes

Sometimes, there isn’t a price tag on the clothes that someone is buying. This means I have to type in a code and usually, before I type it in, I tell them there’s no price tag so they know why I’m going to be tapping away at the keyboard. And sometimes, there are people who like to make overused jokes. I love conversing with customers but just skip the annoying jokes like the ever so funny, “Oh so I guess it’s free then haha.” This also happens when the barcode isn’t working.

I didn’t know I was serving Kevin Hart.

 

Waste of Timers

I often get customers come up to the till with a pile of clothes and I’ll start scanning them. Then they’ll ask what size the item they got is and say “oh…that might be too big.” And then they’ll decide they don’t want it. And that’s fine, you can change your mind but don’t. do. it. for. every. single. item.

And sometimes items are misplaced in the wrong sections. Some stands have signs on it saying £8. It actually says from £8, which means £8 and up. But nobody ever reads the ‘from’ bit so they’ll come up, thinking what they’ve got is whatever it said on the sign and not on the actual price tag and then get irritated at me when it’s a price higher.

Along the lines of wrong prices, sometimes people come up to the till, get me to scan and de-tag and bag everything and then realise the price is a whole £2 above what they thought the price was and yell at me. XD

READ THE PRICE TAG OR ASK FIRST!!!

 

Also, don’t come and tell me that a certain item you have your eye on is cheaper in another shop. If it’s cheaper in another shop, go there then.

 

Are You Gonna Pick That Up?

But seriously, are you?

The amount of times I’ve tidied something up and someone goes over to that particular stand and dropped a few things, turned the hangers around, managed to turn the clothes inside out and have the audacity to look me in the eye and do nothing is beyond me. Or let their kids run around knocking things to the floor.

I get that it’s my job and I have to clean it up but it’s not hard to just hang the one thing your just dropped. It’s like littering and saying it’s the street cleaner’s job to pick it up.

 

The Cherry On Top

Get ready for this because these are true stories. I have never been there on the days these have happened but I get told about it very quickly.

 

One piece of advice for you when clothes shopping is don’t get to comfy in the changing rooms.

People have pooped in there. For real.

 

This one man kept asking for the toilet and asked what he was gonna do since there isn’t a toilet. So he went in the changing room and I don’t think I need to explain anymore.

This other boy was trying on these suits. He was in the changing room for ages and my manager asked his brother why he was taking so long. Eventually, the boy came out, with poop in the suit trousers. He pooped in the suit trousers!!! I actually did come that day but not to work, just to shop.

There have been other cases and some with urine too. You’ve got to mix it up every now an again, of course.

 

Despite all these downfalls, I love my job and the people I work with and even the customers, because most of them are nice. I am very grateful for having it and the downfalls can be annoying but to be honest, they don’t actually bother me a lot. There are definitely more pros to cons but I thought the cons would be funny to rant about. I may post a pros post later on.

 

Do any of you have a job or have experienced the same things I have?

 

-Shay