I'm not going to ask you to refrain from shopping this weekend. But, as a person

[grace0418]

who worked in retail for many years, I will ask you to be as patient and kind as possible to those poor souls who have to get up and be at work at 4 a.m. and deal with all the holiday shopping madness. Retail work pretty much sucks in the best of times, but it is especially heinous during the holidays. The pay is terrible, the days are long, you're on your feet the whole time, and many people will treat you like you are scum simply because they have a "career" and you are a mere retail worker. :mad:

I know we all have horror stories about terrible service and attitudes from store clerks, but please try to remember how much their jobs suck this time of year and cut them some extra slack. I remember a few times when someone was really kind to me just as I was about to have a nervous breakdown at my register, it really made a difference.

Thank you and happy shopping.

[fizzgig]

1. i will not be shopping this weekend

but i try to be extra nice to those in those working customer service this time of year

i worked food service for many years but i know it pales in comparison to what others put up with this time of year

[grace0418]

5. I consider food service to be a similar level of suckitude to retail.

You still get an awful lot of people that think they can treat you like shit because they think they're better than you are. Ugh.

[fizzgig]

7. the suckitude was amplified by the fact it was on a college campus

i have no idea how i did not get fired from that job

[grace0418]

9. Ah yes, I worked in food service at my college.

That was actually better than some jobs I've had. We got a lot of free food, which was GREAT for poor college students.

[fizzgig]

13. my job was at subway

i could sneak free food easily enough but the customers, on the whole, sucked in a way most unimaginable

[grace0418]

14. Oh yeah, that would suck. I worked for the university. So all the customers and

most of the employees were students. It was pretty laid back as jobs go. Some snobby rich kids and snippy professors, but mostly pretty easy.

[Connonym]

2. happy shopping is one of them there oxymorons

I can't think of a single reason to go shopping at all this weekend and the very thought of it makes me shudder. I cannot even fathom how awful it must be to have to work in retail this time of year.

[grace0418]

3. Yeah, I guess for me there is no such thing as "happy" shopping, at least

at this time of year. Not in a store anyway. Online shopping works for me. Anyway, I suppose that was more directed at those who are willing to brave the madness these next few weeks. *shudder*

[Hoof Hearted]

4. Amen! It's amazing how many people feel comfortable treating food & retail workers like CRAP

because they feel powerless in their own lives and feel the need to control *something* . . . .

because they've had a bad day and by God somebody's gonna pay for it . . . .

because you MUST be a stupid person/bad person or you wouldn't have this job so you deserve it . . . .

because they can't seem to figure out that you don't actually OWN the store so you do not therefore set the prices . . . .

and so forth.


I will not do any holiday shopping this year beyond some replacement decorations I bought (our others were taken out when our trees fell in an ice storm) and holiday food. This season I'll be making homemade gifts and using supplies already on hand to fashion cards and such. I feel really good about it. One of our major goals this year was to jump off the consumer highway. It's been really good so far.

[grace0418]

8. That's fantastic! I am doing a lot of homemade gifts this year, and my cards

are always handmade (the curse of being a graphic designer is that people come to expect a super awesome card from you every year). Unfortunately, my husband's family doesn't "get" homemade gifts. It's hard to explain, but they just don't. It's not worth the time and trouble I take to make them because they just don't see the value. So I have to shop for them every year. But they make it easy by writing up lists, and they love getting gift certificates so no skin off my nose. I'm glad at least that my family and our friends appreciate homemade gifts.

[Withywindle]

6. Im in ur thred, hitting 'rekomend.'

Thanks for posting this. Seems that's who really gets forgotten this time of year. And when times are tough, corporations cut corners on staffing first, and that means the people who are there get even more overworked than usual. Retail workers are the unsung heroes of the holidays and so rarely get a break.

I won't be shopping this weekend, because I've never understood why people deal with all that crowd madness on the worst possible days if they don't have to. I don't have to, because I work near the Mag Mile in Chicago and I can do my shopping bit by bit over the next month and be fine with it. (I take care of 80% of it in one 2-hour cruise of Borders anyway...also all my family and friends know better than to expect a lavish spread from me).

We all get stressed out, but if I'm ever gratuitously rude to a retail worker, may the shopping-karma gods strike me down!

[grace0418]

11. And thanks for your rec!

I used to work at the Art Institute gift shop and often got sent up to the 900 N. Michigan shop during the holidays. Talk about a nightmare! Actually the shop in the museum itself was even worse. Holy boy did that suck. People paid $40 for a yearlong membership to the museum (I'm sure it's more now) and they thought that entitled them to personal indentured servants while they were in the store. If I had a nickel for every time some joker huffed "BUT I'M A MEMBER!" at me because of some perceived slight... :eyes:

Oh, and if I had a nickel for every time someone came into the frame shop where I worked and expected to get 10 pieces of art fully framed THAT DAY for less than $200, I'd be very, very rich. Oh yeah, and those same people would come into the shop, see 25 people ahead of them in line, and still not manage to figure out that they weren't going to be waited on THAT INSTANT.

[Withywindle]

52. I love that store!

But I don't get why people need personal servants while shopping. I'm the type that prefers to browse quietly at my leisure (and believe me, that can be pretty damn leisurely when there are art and history books involved) and then make my selections methodically and pay for them with a minimum of BS.

also, psst: one of the several jobs I do right now involves work...for a certain venerable Chicago cultural institution that's right across from the Art Institute, but its medium is aural not visual. Member entitlement complexes....oh CHRIST. I hear you. XD

[SeattleGirl]

10. Amen, grace!

MrSG has to be at work at 4:45 in the morning, and work a 10 hour shift. Has to do the same on Saturday. Good thing he has a lot of patience, though he's not beyond standing up for himself in extreme situations.

[grace0418]

12. Wish him luck for me.

I feel his pain. :hi:

[SeattleGirl]

15. Thanks. I already did.

He's asleep right now, thank goodness. He needs the rest in order to get through the day.

:hi:

[grace0418]

29. Oy vey. I remember it well.

:hug:

[Skittles]

16. you'd love me, grace

last holiday season I stopped at Kohls to pick up some clothes for Iraqi kids - a dressed-to-the nines woman was berating the clerk about who knows what and the clerk was near tears. I looked at that woman and asked, "So, are you ALWAYS a complete bitch or just around the holidays?" She stormed out in a huff and the clerk burst out laughing, looked at me with undisguised admiration and said, "YOU"RE MY HERO!!!" :D

[SeattleGirl]

17. Hells, Skittles, I loves ya!

You really DO kick ass! :yourock:

[Skittles]

19. I don't just kick ass on DU!

I won't tolerate people picking on the defenseless - no INDEED!!!

[redwitch]

34. Yay for Skittles!

:applause: :hug:

[Andrea]

18. Fantastic! Way to Go! n/t

[Blue Diadem]

20. Skittles..you're my hero too.

:thumbsup:

[grace0418]

25. I do love you Skittles! That ROCKS! I can tell you from experience that clerk

will always remember what you did.

When I worked at the Art Institute of Chicago gift shop, people who were members of the museum could be the biggest pains in the ass. To this day, I will never understand how anyone could walk into a shop that is wall-to-wall people with every register open and lines out the door and NOT think they were going to have to wait a long time to get rung up. Yet people would regularly DEMAND that I drop everything I was doing, skip everyone ahead of them and wait on them because THEY were MEMBERS.

Anyway, one particularly heinous day, a woman discovered that demand wasn't working for her (because her and about 300 other people in the store were all members). So she started loudly bitching about how SHE was ON THE BOARD and SHE shouldn't have to wait in a long line...blah blah blah. She even started openly criticizing every move I was making as a cashier, like the fact that I had to open a new roll of change was holding up the line, NOT the fact that there were so many people in the store. Well, about the third time she declared how she was on the board of the museum and didn't have to stand for this nonsense, the PRESIDENT of the museum walked up to her. He just happened to be in my line, waiting patiently to make his purchases. He turned to her and said:

"Hello, I'm Joe Blow (I can't remember his name). You are on the board you say? Odd that we've never met. What did you say your name was again?"

:rofl:

Bitch wasn't even ON THE FUCKING BOARD, she just thought it made her look important. She shut up real quick after that and everyone just STARED at her. They even made a special point to say nasty things about her to me when they got to my register (in a stage whisper, so she could hear). When she finally got up to me, I was as sweet as honey to her. Had a huge smile on my face. She wouldn't look me in the eye. It was fantastic.

When the president made his way to the front, I thanked him profusely. He made my day, and I'll never forget what he did.

:applause:

[Skittles]

42. HA HA HA OMG I LOVE THAT STORY

and that president of the museum was awesome - funny Grace, when reading your story I pictured it EXACTLY because I myself have waited patiently in that line for a couple of souveniers.

I have a theory that people informally assign themselves to a "pecking order" - you assume your "order" in life and derive your power from it. If you PERCEIVE yourself as "better" you think you have more power and exercise it by abusing, say, clerks. I have never subscribed to such nonsense. I don't think I am "better" than a clerk because my job pays more - what I think about clerks is, I wonder how they handle so many f***ing asshole people? I don't like it when rich f***s look down on me so I don't look down on anyone else!!!

[grace0418]

47. Thanks! I heard the president was a bit unpopular with some people but to me

he was always a hero for that one simple act of kindness.

I never subscribe to that nonsense either about "pecking order" either. And the older I get, the more I realize that some of the stupidest, whiniest, most unqualified and selfish people I've ever met have somehow managed to get into positions of great importance and power (Dubya being a fine example) while some of the most talented, most intelligent, most interesting, kind and hard-working people are stuck in shitty jobs.

[lizziegrace]

33. I knew I loved you!

:hug:

You kick ass Skittles.

:)

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

45. Oh snap, Skittles!

You rock!

[FloridaJudy]

21. And let's hear it for the postal workers too

How they survive this holiday madness is beyond me. My post office is always polite and friendly, even when faced with some real jerks - and this time of year seems to bring out the latent asshole tendencies in a lot of people. So much for that stereotype of berserk postal clerks. I figure they're either well paid or on serious medication.

[grace0418]

27. Amen to that.

Even though my mail carrier sucks year round, I know she is not a reflection of all postal workers. And it's a damn hard job.

[Gormy Cuss]

31. My local post office is filled with hapless, frazzled clerks and it's always an ordeal

but that's no excuse to take it out on them. If I have plenty of time I'll go there but otherwise I go to a small branch where the clerks seem to think they won the lottery. They get frazzled during the holiday rush too but they're always polite and appreciate it when a customer coming to the counter with a dozen boxes (me) knows how she wants them shipped and has segregated the ones that need special handling.

One of my in-laws is a postal clerk and she told me about going to smaller branches during the busy season.

[tjwmason]

22. Thank you for continued service.

Christmas shopping is hellish for all concerned - but what we customers face pales utterly in comparison with what the salespeople have to cope with.

I'm an old-fashioned type - I do my best to treat everybody with decent manners; I was certainly raised to smile to shop-assistants, always say "good morning/afternoon" as well as "please" and "thank you". But I suppose that manners and empathy are passe in the modern world.

[blondeatlast]

23. Sadly, nowadays I think the most frontline retail workers can expect is

that the customer listen to them and not chat on the effin' cell phone while doing a (pardon the shout) BUSINESS TRANSACTION. Nothing, but nothing, pisses me off more than when I see a person doing that while someone tries to do a transaction--nothihng is more disrespectful, nothing at all. I always mention it to the CSR and they always seem appreciative.

Here's to the retail, food sevice, and related workers this holiday season--and to the precious few customers who treat them with the dignity, kindness, and respect they deserve! (There's apple cider in these mugs, btw) :toast:

[grace0418]

26. Thank Maude I no longer work in retail, but thank you for your kind words.

I will never forget what it was like and I am always mindful of the person on the other side of the counter now.

[Marrah_G]

24. I always go out of my way to give retail workers a smile and a thank you

It is a crappy job that you have to have alot of patience to do.

Happy holidays!

[grace0418]

28. Same to you. I'm sure you

are one of the folks that retail workers appreciate, even if they don't show it at the time. There were a few people I felt bad about because they were being really nice but I had just been ripped a new one by some jerk and hadn't gotten over it yet. It's hard to paste a smile on immediately after someone just treated you like shit. I remind myself of that when I get an attitude from a retail worker.

[MedleyMisty]

30. Worked at Arby's for three years

I used to drive by the graveyard and feel so jealous of all the dead people who didn't have to go to Arby's. I'd hope that I'd get in a car wreck on the way and get injured enough so I wouldn't have to go to work for a few days. I'd purposefully not watch where I was going when walking in parking lots, because hey, maybe I'd get hit and get out of work.

Eventually the only way I could stand it was to take out the box cutter blades and slip off to the back. Don't worry - I was very conscious of health safety. I may have wanted to die rather than work, but I did my job well enough to get promoted to manager.

One night I tried to switch shifts with another manager so that I could finally spend a night at home with my husband, but I got called in anyway. I was crying and throwing stuff around and my husband said, "Why don't you just quit?"

So I put in my notice that night. And it took me a good few months to recover, but I haven't cut in years now.

I came so close to completely losing it and killing myself.

So yeah - please be nice to people and don't treat them like shit just because of where they work or because your credit card didn't work or because they need to change register tape. You are not the fucking center of the universe, okay?

[grace0418]

36. Good heavens, I'm glad you got out before anything worse happened.

Nothing is worth that. I sure do remember stretches of time when I would cry the whole way home from work. That's no way to live.

:hug:

[fudge stripe cookays]

32. AND....

don't forget the worst part.

The same interminable CHRISTMAS CAROLS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN!

Love ya, Grace. As a retail veteran of many Christmases (record store, where you got to hear about 20 different VERSIONS of the same interminable Christmas carols), I go out of my way to be nice to my clerks. Unless they seriously screw something up, it takes a lot to get my goat this time of year. Because I'm glad it's not be doing it anymore!

[grace0418]

37. Oh geez, I forgot about the fucking carols.

At least at the frame shop I was the assistant manager and declared it a carol-free zone. Most people appreciated it and even made a point of commenting how it was nice to hear regular music. But at the Art Institute shop, it was ONE cd, over and over and OVER again for 2 months straight. Of course, the rest of the year it was the same one jazz piano cd over and over and over again. You could set your watch by the time certain songs came on ("oh it's the third time we've heard Dave Brubeck, it must be lunchtime").

Love ya too FSC. I'm glad you got out too. *shudder*

[fudge stripe cookays]

41. He he he...

At Pier One we had about 3 or 4 CDs. There was one that wasn't too bad-- it had some cool kinda new wave stuff (and I liked the Nck Heyward song on it), but it had been played to death before I got there. So no one would let me play it. And if I did put it on, someone would go rip it out and put in the newest one.

The "newest" one in rotation was all dinosaur rock, which I loathe. I still associate "Reason to Believe" by Rod Stewart, "Conquistador" by Procol Harum and a few others with my time there.

At least at the record store we had a nice variety. Although if I hear "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock ever again, I will fly into a bloody homicidal rage. It won't be pretty.

[Mutley]

35. Damn right.

I worked at Toys R Us for over five years. I can't even find the words to describe Black Friday (and indeed, the entire holiday season) at Toys R Us. My poor BIL still works at TRU and is there right now. I feel so bad for him, but I'm so relieved that I might actually get to enjoy the holidays for once. :D

[grace0418]

39. Oh, no, Toys R Us? Hell to the no.

Before I started demanding that my husband's family give me their lists by Thanksgiving, I had one foray into TRU close to Christmas. They didn't get us their lists until it was too late to order online and we were force to go to the store. I vowed to never step foot in there again. It was a freaking NIGHTMARE. People turn into absolute lunatics. No manners, no logic, no patience, no decency. I cannot even imagine what some of those people must say and do to the clerks. YIKES!

Give your BIL a :hug: for me.

[hippywife]

38. No shopping here this weekend.

Done both retail and food service in my day so I fully understand. Plus I never, ever for any reason shop on this weekend...ever!! I can't believe some of the people they interviewed on the news last night who spent their whole Thanksgiving camped outside of stores. For what? Cheap junk sold at twice what it's worth, even with the deep holiday discounts.

This is the day of the year when the evidence of what a materialistic society we really are is painfully on display and how some people allow themselves to be lead around by the nose in it. Makes me very sad.

[grace0418]

48. People shopping for the holidays doesn't bother me. People camping out, throwing

elbows and generally losing their minds to buy stuff bothers me. It's fucked up.

[tigereye]

40. I always feel bad for folks who have to get up at 3 am, or midnight, or

what have you the day after a holiday, so that people can shop at 4,5 and 6 am or midnight.

I don't get it. We used to go to the mall the day after Thxgiving, but it was more of a walk around, maybe get some X-mas gifts thing, have lunch, not an orgy to Moloch ( what my husband has taken to calling the shopping frenzy.) ;)

I always try to be nice to retail and other folks. It's not an easy job.

[grace0418]

46. I don't get it either. Few things are less appealing to me than getting up at

3 a.m. to go to a shopping mall and get trampled by a bunch of people looking to save a few bucks on stuff and willing to do whatever it takes to grab an item before it runs out. It's just not worth it at all. My sleep, my health, and my sanity are much more valuable than any discount I could get.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

43. this needs a good swift

:kick:

[grace0418]

49. Thank you!

:hi:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

51. you are most welcome...

truth to the power;)

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

44. I empathize with retail workers, having been one once myself.

I worked at KMart during a couple of college breaks; I remember during the holiday season, it was hell. Customers were nasty, lines would back up...it was not fun.

[grace0418]

50. No, it is not fun.

Some people are able to let stuff roll off their backs (my friend Michael is wonderful at customer service, I don't know how he does it). But when customers start acting like assholes, I do not handle it well.

[TK421]

53. How long have you been doing this?

[grace0418]

54. Doing what?

Working retail? I did it for 7-8 years but I work in an office now.

[TK421]

55. Thats what I meant, retail

I did it for about seven years

[grace0418]

56. My hat is off to everyone who survives more than a year in retail.

I think if more people had to experience working in retail (especially to actually pay the rent, not just for extra money in high school), people would be a lot nicer to one another.

[rbnyc]

57. We bought our tree....

went grocery shopping, and went out to eat 3 times. Everyone was very nice and patient. There were crowds, but it was surprisingly serene.