My name is Jerr, and I work in Retail.

[Jerr]

Ask me to find you someone who has a complete loathing for all mankind, and I'll show you someone who works in retail.

I found that on a button. It is quite funny in the sense it is true.


Now, not all retail people are complete evil bastards... yet. Those who are... shouldn't be but they do have good reasons.


I'll take pictures soon just to show you why...



Imagine... a bunker (wooden shelves not on the wall made to hold folded shirts) filled with PERFECTLY folded shirts. 5 different colors on each row and 4 rows.

This is how we make it look.


Come back 1 hour later (in the ladies department.)

Chaos.

This is NO exaggeration. You would not be able to tell any order in anything. Shirts will be unfolded and THROWN. Apparently it is a battle zone and all non correct sizes are the civilian casualties.

I work at Belk. I work in the Men's department. We get hit pretty bad at times but I always keep it cleaned as I go because well lets face it... I'm good like that.

Ladies dept is a completely different story.

Things are completely trashed. 3 Z bar (a rolling bar that is about 6 feet long that has two bars on it to hang clothes on) minimum FILLED with clothes just to put back in their proper place. These clothes come from the floor, people who all of a sudden decide they don't want them (for many reasons), and from the dreaded dressing room.


The dressing rooms have gotten so bad that the piles of clothes people have created in there have been 4-5 feet tall. Just a mound of clothes. This is as tall as two of the employees.


Now, I know who is to blame for the chaos.


WOMEN!

I am not sexist. If you ever work in a large retail store where you have large sections for men and women. You will notice women cause the problems. My section doesn't look bad until the wifes/mothers come. They throw clothes that are not the right size. They ask you to check the prices of every single item they might want, knowing they won't want more then 4 of the 25 items they picked out.



I worked from 8:30 in the morning, yesterday. To 9:30 that night. I got two breaks in which all I did was lose sales and gain a bigger mess. (Also the breaks prevented me from getting overtime. I clocked out with 39 hours and 40 some odd minutes.) I have had more people bitch at me for things I CLEARLY have no control of then I believe I've even heard of.

Few things I get blamed for:

Brand exclusions. (Certain brands won't allow any sort of discount and that is apparently my fault.)

Clearance Exclusions (Apparently the fact that clearance items are excluded from coupon use is also my fault. Heaven forbid an extra 50% off the lowest marked price is what they have to pay... I know, 4-7 dollars for things ranging 40-90 dollars original price is awful.)

Return w/o Receipt prices. (Someone losing their receipt and having to take a lower price for what they bought is now MY fault. I'm such a bad person.)

Other Customer Service desks being empty of people. (My lucky co workers managed to hide behind a rack and avoid evil bitch so now I must suffer for wearing a yellow shirt and being 6 ft tall...)

Our opening times. (We open at 12:30 on Sundays. It is written on the door, yet I get blamed for them having to stand outside until we OPEN.)






p.s.

I love working in Retail. It is fun. I get confused, yet it is fun.

[Lava421]

I'm also a retail worker who gets to align merchandise, but at an American Target. Though, I've never worked in a clothing area.

I'm having a tough time believing that women are the (primary) culprits of ruining our work. Rather, I believe multiple factors add to how messed up an area looks:

1. Items' popularity (clothing) +
2. How alike items near each other appear to be (deodorant) +
3. The number of items in the area (little boxes of drink mixes) +
4. The weight of an item (heavy shelves) +
5. Any folding (towels).

There may be other factors I've missed.

Also, if you are correct, I'm curious as to why I've never seen my store's two aisles of tampons and feminine pads look trashed.

I have guesses as to why you find women to be the troublemakers:

1. You have more women shoppers? (Five women should statistically make more of a mess than one man.)
2. You haven't observed women in areas other than clothing? (How do other feminine areas look?)
3. Women, as compared to men, tend to be more interested in clothing? (Perhaps men tend to be more easily satisfied with clothing, meaning they can look at relatively fewer shirts to find one they'll buy.)

This is to say that a retail worker in a store that (1) has more male customers and (2) carries items that more interest men would conclude that male shoppers are the ones ruining the store.

Yea, I'm quite the skeptic.

[Jeimuzu]

Just carry one of the massive piles of clothes and hide behind it. :P

Hell, I'd not suit retail, I guess. I'd probably build a fort out of the discarded clothes.

[Jerr]

I work in the Men's dept. and I never really have any problems. I mean I have some guys who move the shirts that aren't his size over on top of the shirt next to it but when a wife looks... she is on a mission and hurls it.

This isn't just my testimony. The testimony of every single person in the Belk store. (There are only 3 guys who work here and there are over 20 other workers.) AND I'm gay and so is one of our managers... so there is only 1 hetero guy and we still all believe it is women.

I need to take pictures.

If it wasn't for I have to clean it up... I'd laugh more.

[TriBi]

I hear what Jerr is saying. Might be a generalisation - but from my experience it does have a strong element of truth.

It would also appear that he is likely talking about a major "sale" time. Sorry, but women shoppers, in search of a bargain, become absolute animals. Well, maybe both sexes - but there are more women at sales and they are especially bad. And, no, I am not being sexist...but I did work in retail (thankfully Admin - tho I did have to spend some time on the selling floor) for many years.

[Jerr]

So, I came back to this (sorry no pictures) because something happened to me the other day...


Well, it happened in my section...

I'd heard horror stories of this happening in the Woman's Dept. dressing rooms but.. I figured they were myth...


Someone.... on the floor in my section...

No lie... there was on the floor. (For those who haven't picked up I'm meaning poo... I just refuse to say that because this incident put me in such a rage I can't possibly say anything other then )


I mean, honestly... Really?... Really?...


OH another thing that kind of gets me. (confused that is...)



When you use a card or write a check or make a cash purchase of over 21 dollars it prompts for a Telephone Number. This is for a demographic. Sees were our customers shop from the most and who we need to cater to because each Belk store carries different things. (We all have some of the same stuff but some places have different brands and styles.)

I had the audacity to ask this man for the number associated with the card and he became furious and convinced I was attempting to steal his identity... Just try and wrap your mind around that... I still can't.

Sadly, I deal with people who at first refuse then when I tell them it is required they tell me they don't have one.... in the end they give me it... I always win. OH I didn't get one man's number.. he made me call a manager (his wife gave their number on her card so we had their demographic information) so I entered in my number and it printed the receipt. He was like "How'd it print out the receipt now when it wouldn't earlier?" (He thought he had won this battle....) I told him, with a big cheesey smile, "Because I associated YOUR bank card, with MY phone number... Have a nice day!" Made me so happy. He wasn't but whatever. he doesn't buy much and complains the whole time.




Before I go, I want to let you know that there are good customers out there. I actually have quite a few who search for me to check out with. One couple is going to bring me cookies on Friday! I'm soo stoked.

Maybe I'll get pictures up soon.

[gutsrie]

Every type of work has its ups and downs.

I work in a restaurant and I deal with crap (not literally, like yours) from people all the time. And sometimes, it's the friendlier customers that make it all worthwhile.

[Jerr]

I feel sorry for those who work in restaurants... well mostly for the waiters.

I have a lot of friends who are waiters and they have fun and enjoy it but then there are those people who just complain and complain about everything. Funny thing is the waiter has NO CONTROL over the speed at which food is prepared. (Ok partial control but really its the cooks.)

Now I do have to say I get testy with my waiter IF and only IF I'm not kept happy with refills. I do drink A LOT when I go out. (7 refills is not uncommon.) I usually ask for two drinks and explain it will be much easier on them. Most get the hint and keep me happy camper but others just think two drinks will last 30 minutes... I hate doing it but I'm not afraid of leaving the 38 cent tip... But then again if you keep me happy with refills I give at least 15% and if you come off as a fun/good person I've left a 100% tip before.

[Joey]

Yeah... I feel you on the retail dealie. I worked in a uniform store for a ton of area schools and the parts where the customer was allowed to look through were absolutely trashed. And more times than not it was the mother type figure doing said trashing.... So incredibly annoying.
Although I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have been a cashier for that place because A) we were way overpriced, but what could you do? B) it took a loooooong time to find all the necessary clothes for a kid and C) they're uniforms! the kid is just going to outgrow them in about a year and they're dropping a ton of money on them. The cashiers got a ton of stuff on them because the customer was almost always pissed off. At the end of one shopping experience (yes, they were experiences) one woman even threatened to (this is a direct quote) "tear yo' tiny dick off and beat the sh** out of you!" of one of the guys working there. Needless to say, the customer (who was a woman bee-tee-dubs) was thrown out of the store, and the cashier went on break then.

[ScentedRegrets]

Hey Jerr! It has been a while since I have seen you online! Good to hear from you.

Oh my god! I never knew you worked for Belk. Before I joined the human resources team at my company, I was in their retail sales operations division. I handled the Belk, Macys, Bon Ton, Boscovs, and Ulta accounts. I had a very good relationship with our Account Executive in Little Rock. I absolutely love retail jobs. They do not pay as well as, say, financial service jobs or info technology jobs, but they are a fun living (except, I guess, when you find fecal matter in the dressing rooms?).

I have no good stories to tell, just wanted you to know that I think its awesome that you work at one of my favorite accounts! See ya!

[Noah]

I work for chick-fil-a (respectable fast food for those of u who don't know)
I have a great time, but we get the worst customers.....lol its made me even more cynical.

Jerr. I. Love. The. Way. You write.

Really.

in my opinion when u work with a job that is directly related to the public things will go wrong this ranges from dep't stores to where i work a Frozen ustard Stand to a Movie Theatre i love the public however here are a few exceptions as always

[SlickyPants]

That really does suck that you had to clean up . I used to work for a fairly large retail chain (originating from Arkansas if you can believe it!) and one of my co-workers found on the carpet that had been buried under a pile of towels.

I work in a Liquor Store right now and part of the job is refusing to serve intoxicated individuals. A couple of weeks ago a very inebriated older lady urinated all over our floor. Fortunately it wasn't difficult to mop up.