The Reality of Working In Retail
As you can guess, I work in retail.
SURPRISE!
I honestly spam my feeds and Instagram stories with pieces from my work (apologies to my followers) BUT what can I say?? I LOVE fashion and I LOVE socializing with people. Working in retail has its perks and it teaches you many things about yourself and about other people. I’m probably over-analyzing, like I usually do, but I’m a COMM Major, so sue me.
Here’s a few thoughts on the reality of working in retail:
♡ It’s all fun and games until you get THAT customer
Yea, I said it. Every so often, you run into those super ice cold people (no matter how nice you are being) who keep to themselves, don’t want to deal, even say rude comments, etc. Biggest lesson I’ve learned is to not take it personally. They’re just shopping and people go shopping for various reasons. (I literally had a customer yell at me for greeting her with “have a nice day” because she didn’t want me to talk to her, WEIRD RIGHT??) But yea, you TOTALLY get those rude AF customers. Just do your job and don’t take it personally. ( CARRYING ON! )
♡ There’s a lot of BTS sh*t you have to deal with
Idk about you, but I feel like basically everyone thinks all people do in retail is talk to people and fold clothes. I mean I definitely thought that’s all I would be doing when I first got the job. WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. There’s LOTS of other sh*t we do, K?? We’re responsible for everything in the business, how the business runs, and clientelling. We organize the products, the stores, the clients. We keep track of everything and anything AND we focus on sales. We constantly have to bring in ideas and there is ALWAYS something to do while working.
♡ Clientelling is harder than you think.
CLIENTELLING is the sh*t people literally can’t do. SERIOUSLY. Ever walk into a store and don’t get greeted? Or the employee says a quick “hi” and goes back to watching NETFLIX on their phone? I mean, like, everyone has met someone who just totally sucks at talking to people (no offense, if you are, it’s just awkward). Yea, good clientelling is not just conversing with the common folk. It’s honestly making connections, networking, and overall making friends! It’s fun, but it takes time to develop, especially when customers don’t reciprocate the same energy to converse with you. Clientelling is making sure those customers return! Clientelling is what keeps your business IN BUSINESS. Clientelling is basically LIFE! Got it? Good.
If you work in retail, I’m sure you can relate! If not, well…there’s a pretty little insight for ya. It’s definitely not the hardest job, but it definitely isn’t the easiest (especially if your communication skills suck or you’re super socially awkward, sorry I said it) Who else can relate?
xx, Bri.
EVERYTHING BRUNCH 