Retail

Over the holiday season (early November to end of December) I worked in the retail industry. I am not going to reveal the name of my employer, as I may same some critical things that may or may not apply only to the establishment I worked at (I can guess that it applies everywhere though). I worked in a department store in the misses department, and learned more than I thought I would, and have a few requests to shoppers that have not worked in retail.

I was in the misses department, thankfully, though it wasn't until much later I realized how lucky I was. It was so much easier to learn about products there, as opposed to say, fine china or children's clothes.

What was my job exactly? As a sales associate you are responsible for not only checking out customers but helping them find items, cleaning out the fitting rooms, and organizing racks and shelves/putting away fitting room merchandise (called recovery in the bizz)

I was thankful to be hired in this position, apparently around the holidays they hire a lot of seasonal "folders and fluffers," whose job is solely recovery, not always fun for an 8 hour shift (though nice when needing a break from dealing with people). Also a lot of people in Jewelry. In fact at my orientation 20 of the 23 new associates would be working in jewelry.

I filled a shift in jewelry one time (if you know me you know I wear little jewelry). It was the most unpleasant shift ever. I have never been able to understand why people spend so much money on jewelry. Maybe I've never had the expendable income to allow for it, or can't appreciate fashion, but still. $25 for a pair of ladybug earrings that look like they came out of a quarter machine at the grocery store, $180 (marked down from $300) for a necklace, while, albeit nice, i can just think of so many other things I could spend $180 on. Worse than that (because I realize that's something I'd need to get over working there on a regular basis), is the downtime. In misses, there's always recovery to do (even if it is sizing the clearance rack), but in jewelry there's just not as much to put away. And what there is to put away isn't fun for me, and it's tiny. I am not graceful, and as I put away earrings on their little tiny hangers and onto the little tiny racks, i felt like a bull in a china shop, knocking down as much as i put away.

I've never been much of a shopper, but now know lots about how it works.
Take coupons for example, the company mails, and advertises lots of coupons. People would come in with a 2 inch thick stack of them, and we would go through and figure out which ones would work best, and if it took 2 or 3 (or 4 or 5) transactions to maximize their savings, we'd figure it out. Something I didn't mind doing as long as there wasn't a huge line of customers, I'm all about a good deal.
make sure you read the fine print though, as the thing you want to buy is usually what is excluded. people would ask me why, and I'd read the back of the coupon and point to where it says "Excludes ______" and then they'd get mad.
also, most everything will go on sale. just hang in there. and if you come back after the fact, bring your receipt with you, most stores will do a price adjustment 1-2 weeks after you purchase something.

Returns. Wow! the things people return, from worn to washed to purchased several months ago, my store took it all back. It was the worst after Christmas of course. I had a woman return something, and the money could either be returned to her husband's debit card (which she didn't have with her) or store credit. with a debit card return you need the card and pin (for your protection) and she didn't have it, and didn't want store credit. she said "why would i have his card with me? can't i get cash back?" not my fault on this one, no need to get angry. but customers need someone to blame, so all i could do was apologize as she rushed off in a huff. A lot of people don't understand that return policies are the way they are for a reason (security, liability, like why would we give you cash if you purchased with a card). and actually my store has a comparatively lax return policy.
also, please leave the tags on (2 barcodes at a lot of stores will get you far without a receipt) or at least bring them with you. and if there are no tags, you'll have to go to the department they came from.

Customer Service.
So apparently a lot of people aren't very good at customer service. This is not a surprise to me, although I don't go shopping as much as your average Suzie Consumer so I experience it less. I realize I'm tooting my own horn here, but many a customer commented on my customer service, how refreshing it is to have someone smiling all day and being helpful. A smile really goes a long way.
And associates love to be helpful. or they should because what's the alternative to helping a customer (i'm talking about responsibility to do so aside here), recovery? please, I'd rather talk to someone and hear about their party that they're shopping for or family dinner or whatever any day.
Some people love to talk, and it's amazing how long people will just stand and chat with you..

Fashion Consultant.
This was not in my job description. The first time I head "Do you like this?" and turned around to see a woman wearing a pleather rhinestone studded jacket, all I could say was, "oh, do I like it?" before i could consider an appropriate inoffensive response.
It's crazy the amount of times that I spent 15 minutes or more helping customers picking out clothes. I did my best to steer people away from fashion disasters. but then again, I have so little fashion sense who knows how I did. So customers beware, of associates like me, who mean well but really have no idea what they're talking about.

Sales Goals.
Each shift I worked I was given an (arbitrary) dollar amount for a sales goal for the day. Okay okay, i'm sure it wasn't arbitrary, in fact i bet a lot of money and time was spent figuring out how to calculate them. Luckily for me, making these goals had basically no bearing on my job (though i've heard at other dept stores if you don't make your goal for a few weeks in a row your out, no matter if you been there 3 weeks or 30 years). every employee is given a "scorecard" based on sales goals, items per transaction(ipt), and loyalty (how many credit accounts you open). You get 0 to 55 points on each section, e.g. one week i had 55 pts in goals, 0 pts in IPT, and 0 pts in loyalty.
woo! 55 points sounds like a lot to me! but who really knows. Say I was a full timer, when review-time comes around, my raise would be based on this scorecard (known to the full timers as the 'wall of shame'). I'd probably not get a raise, because my ipt and loyalty were always low, mostly due to i'm not pushy regarding credit cards (which people actually thanked me for), and even if someone was buying 20 items, I might do 4 or 5 transactions in order to save them more money. But these things, and that I give people a great shopping experience aren't quantified and therefore have no bearing on my raise.
no wonder associates aren't very nice sometimes. In order to keep their jobs (income and benefits) they're pressured into sometimes out-of-their-control goals. my heart goes out to y'all.

Theft.
it made me sad every time I saw theft (well the aftermath) the two big ones i saw were tag switching and fitting room. I'd be organizing a rack and spot an item that had an incorrect price. Upon further investigation someone has switched this tag with the real price so they can get a 'better deal.'
once i walked into a fitting room to clean it out, and saw a cute shirt, wondered which brand it was. well, it was from another store, which means someone walked out wearing something that belonged in the store. grr.

And now I'd like to make a few requests for the next time you go shopping.

If you try something on, you don't have to put it away, but at least hang it up on a hanger and bring it to the rack outside of the fitting room. If clothing is damaged from the way you treat it when trying it on, no one will buy it, just like you wouldn't want to buy damaged items
If you are going to put it back on a rack, find the right one. don't just throw it on any rack, this is much worse than leaving them in the fitting room, because it may be a long time before that rack is thoroughly gone through.
Also, when finding something on a rack, say you knock something on the floor, it takes you 10 seconds to clean up after yourself, but hours for us to clean up after everybody. Would you make a mess and leave it like that in your own home?

Returns. figure out return policy before coming back to the store. call or check online to see if you can return something without the receipt or card, or if you can return it from a different location than you purchased it. It saves everyone time and frustration.

Locating an item. If you call a store to look for something, it will expedite the process if you have a brand and good description, even better if you have a product number, which can be found on the internet.

Double check everything. Prices especially. Look at the register as things are being rung up. sometimes signs don't match the prices in the computer, and if it's a lower price on the sign, the store should give that price to you if you show them. Price checkers are good for this.
Also, if you see one item on a sale rack it may or may not be on sale, because it may be in the wrong place. Don't be upset, understand that people put things back on random racks.
also, ink tags. it's frustrating for you to come back to the store to get them removed (if you do have to, bring your receipt), and while associates are supposed to check, be real, people forget. keep an eye out.