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Yes, I do believe everyone growing up should work in retail for at least a year. It's a valuable experience (my experience was working for a year in a Toys R Us

by Magi604 11y ago

Yes, I do believe everyone growing up should work in retail for at least a year. It's a valuable experience (my experience was working for a year in a Toys R Us).

ergothus 11y ago
I worked retail in high school, and none of the takeaway lessons were about the customers...
- pavel_lishin 11y ago
  What lessons did you learn?
  - ergothus 11y ago
    I learned that I hated a business where there are cycles without positive feedback. Put away christmas displays, put up valentines, cycle through the holidays, never see the benefits (people might enjoy their purchases, but you'll never know it). I learned that terrible managers can be quite successful. The chain I was part of had 800+ stores, and MY store had the highest turnover rate of them all (because the manager was angry and mean). But we made our numbers, so upper management didn't care. I learned there is a lot of risk being taken behind the scenes. When our accountant quit (because of manager), he had no one else to do the job so he stuck our newly hired 16 year old on the job (she came on a month after I did and had no more accounting background than I did, but he had no one else). One day I ended up doing an extra shift because it was a holiday sale and our asst manager was brand new. He relied on me a lot, and at the end of the day my register was somehow a few hundred short (honestly no idea how - probably accumulated errors over the 13 hour day, but I was normally dead on) and I never heard a second word about it even though that'd normally be an immediate firing. I learned my coworkers (mainly 40-50 year old women) wished their husbands did more in the marriage. I also learned I'm a bit of an elitist snob. My favorite line: "Bill and I never go on dates anymore. But the tractor pull is this weekend so I'm hoping!" The store bought overstock and sold it, and I learned a bit about what the difference between junk, junk with a brand name, and brand name goods that actually had value. I learned that if you stocked unheard-of brands of condoms, people would still buy them.
    - dawnbreez 11y ago
      Is there a cheat code that lets me give a post infinite upvotes?
apozem 11y ago
Absolutely true. I wasn't a jerk to people in retail before I worked a crappy job as an ice cream server, but I didn't really care about how they were treated. One summer dealing with customer bullshit changed that real quick.

by Magi604 11y ago

Yes, I do believe everyone growing up should work in retail for at least a year. It's a valuable experience (my experience was working for a year in a Toys R Us).

ergothus 11y ago

I worked retail in high school, and none of the takeaway lessons were about the customers...

pavel_lishin 11y ago
What lessons did you learn?
- ergothus 11y ago
  I learned that I hated a business where there are cycles without positive feedback. Put away christmas displays, put up valentines, cycle through the holidays, never see the benefits (people might enjoy their purchases, but you'll never know it). I learned that terrible managers can be quite successful. The chain I was part of had 800+ stores, and MY store had the highest turnover rate of them all (because the manager was angry and mean). But we made our numbers, so upper management didn't care. I learned there is a lot of risk being taken behind the scenes. When our accountant quit (because of manager), he had no one else to do the job so he stuck our newly hired 16 year old on the job (she came on a month after I did and had no more accounting background than I did, but he had no one else). One day I ended up doing an extra shift because it was a holiday sale and our asst manager was brand new. He relied on me a lot, and at the end of the day my register was somehow a few hundred short (honestly no idea how - probably accumulated errors over the 13 hour day, but I was normally dead on) and I never heard a second word about it even though that'd normally be an immediate firing. I learned my coworkers (mainly 40-50 year old women) wished their husbands did more in the marriage. I also learned I'm a bit of an elitist snob. My favorite line: "Bill and I never go on dates anymore. But the tractor pull is this weekend so I'm hoping!" The store bought overstock and sold it, and I learned a bit about what the difference between junk, junk with a brand name, and brand name goods that actually had value. I learned that if you stocked unheard-of brands of condoms, people would still buy them.
  - dawnbreez 11y ago
    Is there a cheat code that lets me give a post infinite upvotes?

apozem 11y ago

Absolutely true. I wasn't a jerk to people in retail before I worked a crappy job as an ice cream server, but I didn't really care about how they were treated. One summer dealing with customer bullshit changed that real quick.