My part time job just so happens to be cashier. In the past, I've worked at a computer store and a retail store.
My last job was Melanie Lyne, a women's clothing retailer. At the job interview, it looked like the most glamourous thing ever. The clothes at ML ranged from $60-300 a piece so it was a pretty classy place. Owned by the Laura Corporation, it was also Canadian so I thought, why not. Despite the retail warnings from everyone I encountered, I went for it. I ended up working at Melanie Lyne for about six months before I quit.
I wasn't getting enough hours and as a cashier, I was being sorely under-appreciated. I'm the kind of person who sort of thrives on praise. The thing is, I don't just expect praise, I do things to earn it. As a cashier at Melanie Lyne, I was expected to:
- Help customers
- Greet customers
- Make sure no one stole anything (which was not the responsibility of the Sales Associates, but only the cashiers
- Check on fitting rooms
- Start fitting rooms
- Ring people through cash
- Clean THE ENTIRE STORE.
- MOP THE ENTIRE STORE
- SWEEP THE ENTIRE STORE
- Take care of all the documents
There's more but I won't bore you.
The demographic that shops at Melanie Lyne is very diverse. I've seen women ages 19-90 come in wanting to buy things. Don't get me wrong, they had beautiful merchandise but the women who shopped there were bordering intolerable.
Just because you spend a lot of money somewhere doesn't give you the right to treat the employees like crap.
I don't care if you spent a thousand dollars on your last purchase here. You can't buy your right to yell at an employee.
Another thing is....
IF YOU UNFOLD SOMETHING AND YOU DON'T WANT TO BUY IT, FOLD IT BACK NICELY. MAKE IT AS PRETTY AS IT WAS. BECAUSE STORE EMPLOYEES ARE NOT YOUR MOTHERS.
Not only that, but every single week.
And I mean EVERY week, without fail, they'd get the marketing woman to come in to change everything around. Nothing was in the same place it was the week before. Which made my job even harder because I didn't know where any of the merchandise was anymore!
I'm so glad I'm out of there....
Stay tuned for a post about my current job.
P.S. Sorry for the raging.
LOL! I've never worked in a clothing store before but after reading your post it makes me happy to inform you that I ALWAYS re-fold clothes that I take out if I don't end up buying them. On another note, I know what it's like to be underappreciated. I've had similar experiences working as a counsellor and it's extremely annoying and defeating when you can't do anything about it. :]
ReplyDeleteWhere has the respect gone from one human to the other? You make a great point. I would have a hard time assisting a customer if they were being rude to me. If I allow a customer to be rude to me, I may keep my job, but I will loose my self respect. I couldent live with that. I have been guilty of not folding the clothes back, mostly cause I dont no how to fold them like they do in the stores. GREAT POST!
ReplyDeleteI worked at a sporting goods store for some time and I can completely relate. As a cashier I had ridiculous amount of responsibilities and yet, the other employees got mad at us for trying to do our jobs because we generally got to tell them what to do. Well sorry if I'm trying to keep this store in order.
ReplyDeleteJust for future reference though, you probably wouldn't want to say the name of the store you worked at online because a current employee, or someone who knows an employee could see this and that wouldn't look good on you. Anyways, good post though! :)