Since the fall of 2008, I've been working retail here in Copenhagen. I work at a costume store, reminiscent of the Halloween Adventure / New York Costumes in NYC.
Working retail is routinely boring, frustrating, annoying...But sometimes also rewarding. Every day isn't "Not Always Right" day, though there are a lot of those days.
I'd like to share my two favorite stories from working retail with the internet.
Working in a store that not only sells costumes, but also decorations and assorted party items, I had a female customer in one day. She was pretty timid, but needed some help getting some stuff for a surprise party for her boyfriend. She told me she was looking for some stuff to give her boyfriend's apartment a hawaiian feel, and I helped her out with more stuff than she'd hoped to find.
After finding a lot of stuff (much of it cheap, to boot) she told me that she was very, very happy with coming into our store...She admitted that she and her boyfriend were both pretty much broke, and that he suffered from a depression. They'd both wanted a tropical vacation, but had no real hopes of getting one anytime soon, but that she was sure that the stuff I'd helped her find would cheer him up. She was almost in tears by this time, and I have to admit that I was pretty touched too.
Grateful customers are not as rare as some people working retail might want you to believe...But genuinely so happy that they're almost crying, that is pretty rare. It totally made my day, week and month. I know that working retail (now as a part time job since I'm studying at the Copenhagen Business School as well), I don't make that huge an impact on anyone's lives...But making that customer so happy really made me happy as well.
The other story was a day in the early autumn last year, I was helping out a couple of the, erhm...White trash persuasion. I don't like to admit it, but I am pretty judgemental (even if I don't say stuff to / about people out loud). I do try to give everyone the same attention and level of professionality, though.
I helped out this couple, and after having helped them find costumes and accessories for the party they were going to, they were both just positively happy. I'd helped them find just the right things, and even though they didn't say it, I could really feel that they weren't used to being given the kind of help I'd given them. The guy ended up shaking my hand (Which I feel kinda freaked out by...It's not often that I get my hand shaken in the line of duty at work, and even rarer from people that close to my own age :D).
I was ashamed of my own presumptions that they'd be an annoying, ungrateful pair of customers...But really happy that I'd helped them get a good experience.
On a slightly related note, I do get the impression that people (Around here in Copenhagen, at least) aren't really used to getting treated well by people in retail...I don't know if that's because so many people who work retail pre-emptively are agressive, or if there's some other factor I haven't noticed. But even then, as my boss usually says after we've had a crappy customer...Most people would probably be better people if they'd had a job either waiting tables or working retail.
In the end, I try to help out people the best I can, and I'm happy if I get to do that. When I get a crappy customer, most of the times I can just shrug it off (though sometimes, the sheer audacity of people's schemes, and lies, overwhelm me...But that's a wall o' text for another day).
-Barl0we
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