Don't forget to smile

As a customer you have a completely different view of retail. You walk in, browse the store, unfold the clothes, avoid any small talk with the staff and move to cash as quickly as possible.

As a sales clerk, you walk up to the customer who curtly brushes you off, refold the clothes they leave in big messy piles, and try to avoid their impatient glances while you ring them in at cash. After they leave the store, you mutter a sigh of relief and wait for the next crazy customer to arrive. But wait! You suddenly hear the alarm beeping at the entrance of store and see your customer (even more pissed off) pull their item out of the bag with the security tag still attached. Of course, you then have to apologize profusely (as they give you dagger eyes) and take off the tag so they can get the hell out of the store.

With that in mind and after three weeks of working at a certain store in the mall, I learnt that retail was a totally different ball game when you’re on the other side of fence, or more fittingly, the sales rack. For starters, you always have to be wearing a big smile and come to work with ‘high energy,’ as if you gobbled down a bottle of Prozac to keep you buzzing around customers like a nagging bee.

Secondly, you have to constantly reiterate the same stuff about promotions, just in case your customers are incapable of reading the BIG, BOLD SALE signs posted on every wall of the store.

Thirdly, you have to wear this ridiculous headset. Ridiculous, for several reasons. Firstly, you can easily communicate with your co workers by walking over to them and asking them what you need. Secondly, if another employee is interested in telling you how to do your job, they can tell you discretley rather than annoucing it over the headset, so everybody else knows your business. Thirdly, the head set is frigging uncomfortable. My ears may be big, but every time i put that thing on, it cut off the circulation in my ear. Moreover, the cord attached to the headpiece always got caught on the little nooks and crannies around the store. As a result, I was left hanging off a sales rack or table as the customers skirted past me.

As you may have guessed, retail is not my forte. Although I enjoy talking to most people - eager moms shopping for their teenage daughter, school girls chatting away on their pinkberrys and razor phones, and little old grannies buying presents for their grandchildren, i absolutely dread pushing any of the products on them. Being a sales clerk may look easy enough, but when you have someone constantly barking at you on the headset about selling a customer this and that, you tend to be less enthusiastic about doing your job.

Although I spent less than a month at my retail job I did learn a few things.

One, don’t forget to smile. Two, headsets are a complete waste of time. I’ve got legs and can walk over to my co-workers to ask them something. Three, no matter how much you push the product, the actual sale depends on the customer’s wants or needs. And frankly, they might not be in the market for what your offering, and may be just killing time before they meet someone in the mall. In the end, if the product is that good it will sell itself, you won’t need to sell it.

So, whats the solution?

In my particular case, it came in the form of a little white letter, a polite “I quit” and.....a big smile.