The Lessons I Learned in Retail
Over the past five years I have been a full time student as well as a part time worker at two very distinct stores, one being a grocery store and the other a major retail department store. Through my experience at these places I have seen both the good side and the bad side of humanity. It is truly amazing what people will do just to save an extra dollar. Although it hasn’t always been the best, I have learned a lot about the way the world works and I have many lessons that will help me throughout my life.
Lesson Number 1: Leave the Mammograms to the Professionals
Every locally owned store has that one customer who is just a little bit off. They are a frequent proprietor, and they know everyone 's name but there
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I didn’t know what to say so I simply apologized and walked away. Later that day I walked up to my boss and asked her what the “W” stood for, and she again explained that it stood for “wide.” However, after that little encounter I now try to be more politically correct and I call it “16 Women” when I’m with customers. Since then I have also learned that it is important to think about what you are saying and to judge the situation before you open your mouth. To this day I still am not sure what the “W” stands for, but I suppose it doesn’t really matter.
Lesson Number 3: Cleanliness is Close to Godliness It doesn’t matter what kind of store you are in, a clean store makes for happy shopping and a more pleasant experience. One part of the store that never seems to stay clean no matter how hard we try, is the fitting room area. At JC Penney’s, there is no limit to the amount of things you can bring in and there is also no sign that states that you need to bring out your clothes after you try them on. Consequently, the fitting room is my least favorite section of the store. Day after day I watch people take in piece after piece, only to come out empty handed. I walk into the room and it is all on the floor, inside out, hangers everywhere. I worked a lot in the juniors section, so I thought that maybe it was something that just the younger generation did. Boy was I wrong. It turns out everyone makes a mess and grown women are the
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My coworkers and I found ourselves in a very similar situation. Often times a customer will ask if we can take something off of a mannequin for them and it sounds strange, but it’s actually one of my favorite parts of my job. I get to climb on the tables or a ladder and pull the mannequin apart and then figure out what clothes I want to put on it next. It is surprisingly fun. During a busy week two of my coworkers, Stephanie and Molly, and I were trying to change an outfit on a mannequin in one of our less busy, contemporary sections. The hardest parts of a mannequin to detach are the arms. Everyone is attached differently so it just takes and extra second or two.
When Stephanie grabbed one of the arms to take it off, the hand of the mannequin fell off and broke two of the fingers, the pointer and the ring, leaving the middle finger sticking straight up. This immediately caused us to break out into laughter, but when she bent down to pick up the hand, a white powder flew all over us. It spewed out a surprising amount from the two missing fingers and it covered the front of our black shirts and
Here I go again preparing to go to the store Stater Bros and checking my shopping list to see what to buy. As I walk through the store to my left, I can see the organic food and wind up at Services Deli while when going to my right. Buying prepared food saves me time cooking at home and the store has exclusive recipes for everyone. “Human begins walk the way they drive, which is to say that Americans tend to keep to the right when they stroll down shopping mall concourses or city sidewalks,” according to Malcolm Gladwell in his article “The Science of Shopping” (1). He explains how consumers’ shopping behaviors are affected by walking from scanning from left to the right and how it is easier for shoppers to do. Charles Duhigg, writer of The Power of Habit, says that “Realization came from a growing awareness of how powerfully habits influence almost every shopping decision. A series of experiments convinced marketers that if they managed to understand a particular shopper’s habits, they could get
I used to work at my local McDonalds for three years during high school. At first, I thought I was there just to make an extra quick buck to fund my weekend adventures, but later would turn into a key cog at the store as the crew trainer and starting to be prepped for a managerial spot. It was exciting, learning how to place orders for the store, make the work schedule and cycle counts among other things. Soon however, I started to realize how replaceable my coworkers a...
Society has portrayed men in general to be messy people for decades, upon decades. In movies like “Dude, Where’s My Car?”, with Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott, and “You, Me and Dupree” with Owen Wilson, men have been portrayed to be bad roommates.
Another possible reason for these types of manners could merely just be malice. While it would be nice to believe that all people have good in themselves, seeing how some people treat those who work in retail leaves a gap in that argument.
The hours I put in at the food pantry had a greater affect on me than the thrift shop. On October 16, 1999 another classmate and I were brought to the food pantry in the middle of a poor section of Lawrence. We were brought inside and I was instructed to serve salad, bread, and pickles. My heart really went out to the unfortunate people when they started coming up to me. I felt extremely bad for them. There were people of all ages. Parents with their children, wearing dirt stained clothing filled with holes that did not even fit them. A good amount of the people I had to deal with were Hispanic and very few of them were able to speak English. It was very difficult to communicate with them. The little faces of the innocent children made me really feel for them. I knew these children had insecure families and were looked at as though they were fortunate to be getting food. These young kids seemed to be very appreciative that they were able to get some food in their starving bellies.
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