Retail Life

The thing about working retail is that it makes you, at least in my experience, more understanding. There is nothing to make you nicer to other retail workers than dealing with jerks. From angry people on the phone to screaming children to people who leave things where they don't belong (either two inches away from its proper space or the other side of the store). You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat their cashier.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." While I wouldn't say retail workers can do nothing for the people in the stores, the idea remains. If you are rude, your cashier isn't going to go out of their way to help you. If you demand the worker "look in the back" for something, you're not getting what you're looking for. If you get mad at the person on the phone trying to transfer you to the correct department, well, they aren't going to try terribly hard to connect you. And I'm sorry. That's probably not what you want to hear. But, you might say, I'm the customer, I'm always right. Sorry Charlie. You're not.

Picking up after people is not my job. I don't get paid to pick up empty beverage cups or the toys left in my area. I don't get paid to fold the clothes you decide to leave inside out on the top of hanging racks yards away from where they belong. There are fitting rooms if you want to try something on. It is not job security for me. It is simply more work. "Keeping the salesfloor looking neat" is not the same as "picking up after guests".

This is reading a lot like a rant. And I guess it sort of is. I know most of you aren't the kind to act this way. I wasn't raised to treat people that way, and if I didn't own it, I wasn't supposed to touch it. (I will admit, there are times when kindness and understanding is not possible, but, generally, kindness helps.)

And that brings me to my point. I have a life philosophy that we are here to make life easier for others. Not, like, in massive self sacrificing ways. Because you do need to take care of yourself first; like on airplanes, put your own oxygen mask on before helping others. But in little ways that are not hard and don't detract from your quality of life. Like saying hello to you cashier before you tell them how many of something you have. Saying thank you when someone tells you they'll transfer you to the person you want.

People don't often. Which is why I'm not terribly surprised when, at least in America, we still have to fight for basic rights. If you help someone, or increase their quality of life, you are not losing something. It's not like you have a limited supply of "thank you's" and rights are not zero sum.

Working retail has shown me a number of reasons to despair about society. But it also gives me hope. Talking to my work friends, who deal with the same people and are tired of the same things, but who are still nice and kind when it matters, who are, by and large, good people, balances out the bad. I've learned a lot about myself and about people working retail.

So, how do you treat your cashier?