I have been working in retail for two years now. I originally had jobs in the food industry and that scarred me to the point that I never wanted to work with food again. Due to that, when I first began my job in retail, I was extremely excited to learn all of the ropes with retail. I fell in love with retail quickly and even ended up in a management position. Even though working in retail is so much better than working with food, there are some parts in retail that are absolutely unbearable. Here are a few things that drive me nuts about working in retail:
1. Constantly straightening up things
There’s nothing more frustrating than when you spend over 45 minutes folding a table just for a customer to walk right next to you and ruin your entire table. It never fails to happen during every shift that I work.
2. Customers always assuming you don’t know what you’re talking about
Personally, I worked 8 hour shifts at least four times a week. I know my stores discounts and promotions like the back of my hand. There’s nothing more frustrating when a customer tries to tell me that something is on sale when I know for a fact that it’s not.
3. Customers staying past close (and messing up the store again)
There is NOTHING more frustrating than when it’s finally time to close the store and a family comes in 10 minutes before close and decides to shop.
4. “Is this on sale?”
The store has signs all over the store explaining the types of promotions going on. It’s so frustrating when a customer comes up to you with a brand new unmarked clothing item and asks if it’s on sale.
5. Customers blatantly ignoring you
Work can get boring. Working in retail can especially get boring when you’re stuck at the front of the store greeting customers just for them to look directly at you and ignore you.
6. Floor sets
Floor sets seem never ending. About once a month, the store needs to be remodeled and that requires all of the employees at the store to wake up bright and early at 6 a.m. and move around everything in the store.
7. Customers complaining about the price of an item
Just because I work in retail doesn’t mean I make the prices. I hate getting yelled at by customers because they don’t appreciate the fact that jeans cost $25. Sorry about it.
8. Customers asking you how much something is when the price tag is right there
The amount of times that I’ve had customers come up to me and ask me how much an item is. The worst part is when they hand me the price tag along with it.
Even though working in retail can drive me absolutely insane sometimes, I wouldn’t trade my experiences there for the world. I’ve met some amazing people at my job and learned leadership skills from the opportunities I’ve had from this job. Every job has it’s annoying factors, but as long as you’re getting that paycheck that’s all that matters.