Poll of the Day > Do any of you here work in Retail and like it?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Any of you

I don't hate it. It would certainly be more enjoyable if it wasn't commission based sales and all I had to do was help customers. All I have to do is give even the slightest effort and not appear dead inside and customers love me.

First retail job in my life, had to work Black Friday and it was a whole lot more tolerable than people make it out to be. My biggest complaint is that a lot of the customer base is geriatric and clueless with what they want or need. It makes it really difficult to help someone when they can't tell you what they're looking for.

Salrite posted...

I don't hate it. It would certainly be more enjoyable if it wasn't commission based sales and all I had to do was help customers. All I have to do is give even the slightest effort and not appear dead inside and customers love me.

First retail job in my life, had to work Black Friday and it was a whole lot more tolerable than people make it out to be. My biggest complaint is that a lot of the customer base is geriatric and clueless with what they want or need. It makes it really difficult to help someone when they can't tell you what they're looking for.

All you have to do is give even the slightest effort
....? Your store's customer service is that bad?

I spent 20 years working retail. In reflection the only thing keeps me from going back is the pay.

GranTurismo posted...

All you have to do is give even the slightest effort
....? Your store's customer service is that bad?

yeah one sec let me kiss ass while dying inside

every retail I worked for was garbo

I don't mind retail. If I could own my own small but profitable store with one or two other employees. I would do so in a heartbeat.

The problem is bigger retail stores, meeting pointless qoutas made for other stores in other markets. Trying to keep up with an unlimited growth model in a limited growth environment and doing so with most of your fellow workers only being there because they have no other options and so give the most mediocre amount of effort. And use store policy as a guideline so when it comes to you they are already over promised and angry.

Retail is a prison sentence everyone should have to serve; some of these people will then hopefully learn not to treat the staff like shit.

It's not literally all bad. I worked at a 24 hour pharmacy down the street from the ER. As much as a nightmare the homeless thieves, the drunks trying to get booze before the 2am deadline, and just the random foul-tempered, surly normal customers were; the people possibly having the worst day of their lives, 12+ hour vigils at the hospital, very much appreciated a friendly face and efficient service. Sometimes you got to make a difference in somebody's life and that feels great.

I hated it, I'm in food service now and I like it for the most part, though I wish the pay was better, even though I'm doing pretty good all things considered

I did a few years ago, it was only a temporary job though

One thing I definitely noticed is how I totally disagreed with the retail workers who hate when customers ask if they can look in the back of the store. When a customer asked that, I would take a casual trip to the back to look for whatever they asked for. It was a nice small break. And I think I even found what they were asking for at least once

Like any other job it's made or ruined by the people you work with.

I've dabbled. I didn't hate been on the shop-floor greeting customers, doing online orders, stockroom stuff, accepting deliveries and picking orders. The only thing I hated is using the till, but thankfully I didn't need to do that much. I'd happily do it again.

I used to work in retail and it is miserable because I hate customers.

VioletZer0 posted...

I used to work in retail and it is miserable because I hate customers.

Do you think the majority of your customers were alright though?

GranTurismo posted...

Do you think the majority of your customers were alright though?

Majority of them are fine. But it only takes one of the hundreds of customers you deal with in a day to completely ruin your day. Maybe because they are on drugs, have unchecked mental illness or just plain evil. In all of the above cases the responsibility falls on you to handle it.

It strongly depends on your boss too. If your boss will back you up and support you against the really bad customers then it's so much better.

If your boss is some "The customer is always right" type who always throws employees under the bus to please every single nasty customer then it's so much worse.

It's almost like it's the job of your retail boss to make you as miserable as possible before you quit. Never given adequate anything, always just barely enough.

Salrite posted...

I don't hate it. It would certainly be more enjoyable if it wasn't commission based sales and all I had to do was help customers.

I feel the same. I really loved helping customers selling computers and laptops, but I absolutely hated that I had to shill Norton or Mcafee instead of telling 'em they can get virus/malware protection for free. But on the other side, I liked helping people who were clueless about what they wanted, trying to figure out what they needed and assuring them was nice, but it was a time killer if you were really needing to make targets.

But the targets for financing were killer, it was just such a bad deal but you have to sell multiple per month. Ultimately that's what caused me to leave that job.

GranTurismo posted...

All you have to do is give even the slightest effort
....? Your store's customer service is that bad?

Customer service everywhere is that bad. Most retail workers don't give a shit about anything and can't even be bothered to put in the minimal amount of effort. No wonder they hate their jobs.

Hey guys, is it "kissing ass" to actually do your job?

VioletZer0 posted... I used to work in retail and it is miserable because I hate customers.

Case in point

i do but it's kinda a specialty case, I don't have to sell anything and I don't have to suck up to customers and it's mostly a trade job, all I have to do is repairs on customer owned stuff. It's a hobby store too so I'm not really interacting with the dregs of society, the people who come are the people who want to be there.

Retail is easy mostly but you gotta deal with the public who are largely stupid assholes and you have to sort of pretend that isnt the case

VampireCoyote posted...

Retail is easy mostly but you gotta deal with the public who are largely stupid assholes and you have to sort of pretend that isnt the case

yeah i mostly agree with this. The job itself, doing it, is easier than the vast majority of jobs. How bad the general public is is mostly understated by most. Have heard many people say bad management is even worse than bad customers at most big retail places. Not sure if you agree with that though.