5 Upsides To Working Retail
Yes, customers can be assholes and yes, you feel like you are constantly folding the same exact shirt over and over again, but there are some perks to working retail. Also as long as you are getting paid, it is one of the easier jobs out there.
1. Discounts
No matter how little the discount is you will never have to pay full price at that store while you are working there. Hopefully you have chosen a place where you actually like the clothes that they sell. You know when the sales are going to be and you know never to buy something full priced because a week from now it will be half off.
2. Gossip
If you are like me, you work with chatty women who love to talk about anything and everything. You get to hear the dirt about their scandalous daughter who shouldn’t be with their deadbeat boyfriend or that their dentist is cheating on his wife with the receptionist. It’s like a real-life soap opera where none of the drama actually involves you.
3. Down Time
When the crazy winter season is over the mall turns into a ghost town. Customers are less irate and they don’t blame you for everything anymore. The store is cleaner because there aren’t as many clothes to fold, and the dressing rooms are no longer a battle zone. Though it may mean that you are bored at times, it’s much better than it was.
4. Customers
Unlike office jobs where you sit alone in a cubicle all day, you actually get to interact with people. Most customers love to chat. They also love when you pick out their clothes—and who doesn’t love finding clothes for a 65-year-old grandma going to her granddaughter’s wedding? I personally don’t mind being called “sweetie” from time to time.
5. Unlimited stories to tell
Something interesting is always happening when you work retail. Like that one time security had to chase down that woman who stole that Louis Vuitton handbag or that kid who decided to hide in the dressing room causing the mother to run screaming that her baby was missing. Everyday makes for a great story at the dinner table and as long as it doesn’t involve you, it’s always hilarious.