Dear Retail Customers,
Working
in retail has its perks like becoming more assertive and the employee discount.
I hope your time shopping is very enjoyable. I will do everything I can to make
it the best it can be. There are times when customers make it very complicated.
Please know that if we don't have an item in stock that there is only one thing
I can do about it. I can order it for you, but do not expect it to arrive in
the store in the next fifteen minutes. This letter is not about all customers.
Some are really nice. This is just about the few that aren't.
I
understand that sometimes certain pieces of clothing don't fit, and I am sorry
about that. I don't set up the rules of the store I work in. Don’t expect me to
be able to change the store return policy for you. I only follow my rules. There
is nothing that I can do beyond that. Yelling at me will not help the situation
at all. The store has to be cleaned up at the end of the night.
This
entails folding everything, picking up things from the floor, hanging up
hangers, and making sure that everything looks neat and presentable. It isn't
appreciated when a customer comes and looks at a shirt and just throws it on
top of a pile of other folded shirts. The fact that you look at me, and do it
while I'm looking away is not appreciated. I still see you.
Cleaning
up the store at the end of the night can take 3 hours after closing, which
means that we sometimes end up getting out of the store anywhere between 11pm
and 12am. Please be considerate. Don't try on clothes and just leave them all
scattered inside the fitting room. If you decide you don't need something, give
it to an associate (or hang it up). It makes much more work for us. Trust me
when I tell you it makes a big difference.
I love
being nice to customers. I believe that customer service is an important part
of being a good employee. I do that as much as possible. There are things that
are not my fault, and they cannot be fixed by getting angry with me or giving
me an unkind look, I cannot solve the long lines at the register, or the
discount that you clearly misunderstood. I don't have the ability to do that so
please stop fighting me on it. We are just people working in retail. Some of us
are students who are working part-time job to pay for college. We don't need
all the negativity. So the next time you go shopping. Please treat us with
kindness.
Sincerely,
A Retail Worker
“Working in retail:
Customers cannot read sales signs…They assume that the sign for any item near
the sign when it clearly says on the sign what is on sale.” (Somee Cards)[i]
[i] Adapted from: “An Open Letter to Retail
Customers” by Yesenia Perez
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