Last Splash

The gene pool could use a little Chlorine.

A note to all of you would-be shoppers out there:

When you are done trying something on in a store, give it to a sales associate or leave it in the fitting room. Do not leave it in the floor, hanging on any sharp knobs, or God forbid try to hang it back on the rack yourself. You may think you know how to button, zip, and arrange clothing on racks, but it's a much harder talent than it looks. Plus, you're lazy, and most of the time you don't bother to pay attention to how your piece of clothing looks compared to all of the others you're about to hang it with. We are there for a reason. It's boring in Jauary, and we really want something to do, and we've been trained on all of that crap. Plus we have boards to help us fold stuff, so you throwing an unfolded sweater on top of a stack is not necessary. It makes our store look junky. Really, if one of us offers to put something back for you, part of it is because we want to make your life easier and save you time, but the other part of it is that we know that later, while we're trying to sell someone that pair of size 4 jeans that are the last one in the store that you've accidentally hung backwards and unzipped in the petite section so that we can't find them, we will lose what just may be the $78 we need to hit our sales plan that day. And much later, when we stay for an hour to fold up everything you've gone through (which especially pisses us off when you either stay late or unfold every medium sweater in a stack b/c you just swear that they all fit differently) we will find it and a string of expletives will leave our mouths, all realeasing bad karma for you. You don't have to treat us like shit, either, because chances are we work just as hard as you do (especially if you are shopping at 2PM on a weekday) and actually enjoy offering assistance most of the time. Nope, when you're done in the fitting room, and you come out with your "yes" pile, a simple "is it ok that I left the stuff I didn't want in there?" will do. You uphold your end of the bargain, and we will uphold ours: to be pleasant, cheerful, honest, and knowledgable about our product so that you may actually enjoy shopping for clothes for once.

posted by: Cannonball14 at 20:56 | link | comments (8) |
the retail beast

Comments:

#1  05 January 2006 - 15:21

 

Very informative. I'm always a little confused about what to do. From now on, I'll just leave it neatly in the dressing room or in the bin, if they have one.

Windhazel

#2  05 January 2006 - 16:38

 

I have noticed that most men's fitting rooms tend to be fairly neat and orderly--but according to the females I know, women's fitting rooms tend to be disasters. Is that true? I know when I was a teenager working at a swimming pool, the women's changing rooms were always filthy- you would be amazed at what women chucked on to the floor, while the men's were not too bad.

JustMe63

#3  05 January 2006 - 19:36

 

JustMe63, I've heard that about the women's dressing rooms and bathrooms too. I know around the holidays the women's dressing rooms were a disaster so I would try to avoid going in there as much as possible. Piles and piles of clothes all over in the dressing rooms.

AdventureSpice

#4  06 January 2006 - 02:42

 

I think everyone should be required to work in retail for at least a month. If you haven't been behind the scenes, you don't really have a good idea of what goes on. The stuff you put up with, the fetching items, the acting like a personal assistant, the dealing with snooty people who think you're beneath them because you work retail (hello! Where would they shop without people working retail?), the late nights...sometimes I miss it, sometimes I don't. I think everybody should have to experience being on the receiving end, though. I think it's ultimately a good experience.

greeneyes

#5  06 January 2006 - 13:30

 

Most days I love it. Our part-timers always say "I don't know how ya'll do this every day" but it's not bad. Days off are mixed: some weekends, some weekdays (except Nov and December...) I get to sleep late 1-2 days a week when I don't work until 1 or 2, and the interviewing/hiring/training process is one of my really strong points. It's the snooty women customers that make me think twice about really doing this for the long term. I have some customers that are great: like the older gentleman that shops for his "girlfriend" and calls ahead of time to schedule "appointments" with me (even though we are not commission-based), or the customers that bother to learn my name and give me hugs, whose voice I can recognize on the phone, but there are also a lot of women that take advantage of the promo's, try to get price adjustments two months after they bought something and now it's sold out in everything but XL, or the women that leave all of the clothes they've tried on in a pile on the floor. That burns us all, because our product is fairly high-end, and I know I sure as hell don't leave my $128 silk shirt in the floor to be stepped on.

Cannonball14

#6  06 January 2006 - 13:31

 

OOOHHHH...or the old lady who smokes like a freight train and loves to buy and return and exchange things all the time. She can seriously buy a sweater at 9PM, bring it back less than 24 hours later, and it will smell like she layed it out in a biker's bar and told everyone to ash on it.

Cannonball14

#7  06 January 2006 - 13:50

 

Eeeewwwww, smoker smell is the worst. Well, that and BO. Ugh!

greeneyes

#8  06 January 2006 - 14:57

 

Oh my, I haven't worked in retail. I've thought about getting a part time job in retail before though. Walking into dressing rooms with piles and piles of clothes is something that has kind of turned me off from that.
I commend you for working in retail and putting up with the crazy shoppers!!

AdventureSpice

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