Reply #53: I worked in a dept store behind a counter.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

And there was no place to sit ever. Even when we had to get on our knees and open safes and take out boards with jewelry on them. My ankles swelled up terribly. This was ten years ago. I was already on 3 kinds of blood pressure medicine and jumped six inches every time the phone rang in the store.

I was selling crappy jewelry labeled as "fine jewelry" which was a total crock. It was a lease dept. in a dept. store.
One Christmas eve, about 8 pm, because some guy was buying his girlfriend a silver bracelet when we closed at 6 pm Xmas Eve, and couldnt get his credit card to work, I remember stumbling out to the bench between the double doors of the store out to the parking lot, and just collapsing in tears on the bench, before I could get up enough energy to get to my car. Doing retail is hell, it's double hell at Christmas.

That's pretty exhausting.

GOOD jewelry stores have lower counters, plush chairs for the customers, and chairs or at least stools for the salespeople, because if you are buying a GOOD piece of jewelry (not necessarily expensive but stones of good quality) you want your customer to sit down and look at the item and really appreciate the color and the cut.

We were selling lumps of coal (diamonds and sapphires) and would-be grinding wheels. I was so ashamed of it. I never got a job in a good store where I could use my GIA knowledge.