Opinions About Working in Retail

Long story short, I was in training at another store with a training Store Manager who is “best friends” with said Store Manager’s Aunt and began to tell me that the niece was messed up in the head to watch out for her, that she’d abuse the policies and if I wrote her up and/or terminated her that the Aunt would try to retaliate against me. All that kind of talk came from my training Store Manager about my employee and her Aunt…

Whenever anyone asks me what the best part of working in retail was, I always say it’s the people. There’s just something to be said about having a shared experience with people that understand what you’re going through. I once compared working in retail to being a soldier in the trenches during WW2. You know that your situation is shit and depressing, but at least you can find the small moments of joy in that situation with your mates. Except we weren’t being bombarded with artillery or suffering from trench foot. I did once get a nasty cardboard cut though.

Customers expect way too much. Every item is expected to be in stock. Every retail worker is expected to have expert knowledge of all products in the store. If the customer isn’t happy about something they expect to get exactly what they want by throwing a tantrum. One minute you’re in their way, the next minute you’re not there when they need you. It’s exhausting.

You ever have that one close friend. Who turned into someone else after gaining a small bit of power? Well, it happened to me. She use to be a lovely kind-hearted girl. A really good friend of mine. Then the unthinkable happened. The home shopping college was bestowed the darkest power upon her. She was promoted to manager.

A job in retail is a great way to learn useful soft skills while you earn some cash. It’s one of few industries — next to hospitality — that will often take on staff with little to no experience in the working world. But what’s it really like to work in retail? Let’s find out.