Black Friday, which does not even start on Friday anymore, is only a few days away. There will be deals that you may not be able to get throughout the year. This may be a tradition in your house to patronize these sales by waiting in line and being one of the first in the store. Or if you are like me, you will go online to grab a couple of items. I like the deals but I don’t like waiting in line or the crowds. I have no real tips on how to shop on this particular day/weekend. I do however have a few tips for this day and the rest of the holiday season.
I worked for 7 years at Target. Seven holiday seasons. If you have ever worked in retail you know that it can be rough. No vacation days off from mid November to after the first of the year. Mandatory to work on Thursday/Friday of Thanksgiving weekend. Longer store hours. Less family time. Not really exciting for the workers. And yes we realize what we signed up for by working in retail. We even realize that customers are going to be a little rude. What we don’t sign up for is to be disrespected. So with all my ex-team members in mind, here are a few tips.
1. Team members, cashiers, sales associates, whatever you want to call them, are people. People with feelings.
2. Majority of the people you will encounter are probably working for minimum wage or a little more. They don’t get paid enough to put up with your shit. If you have an issue, ask for a manager. But they are also still people with feelings.
3. If an item that you want is not in stock, it is not the employee’s fault. We think that it is stupid as well to have items in the ad that we do not have. The ads are the same for all stores in the area but all stores don’t get the same stock.
4. If you waited to the week before or a few days before Christmas and the store will not have an item until after Christmas, your fault. That does not give you the right to cuss at or be mean to anyone who is working in the store.
5. Yes I know that you have stood in line, probably in the cold, waiting for that one special item. Once the doors open, please no pushing, fighting or running. It is not that serious. Let’s us be courteous and considerate.
6. This is a statement that doesn’t just apply in the holiday season but each and every day. We do not get paid to clean up after you. When you leave stuff laying around the store or a table of shirts totally trashed, we do have to clean that up. But cleaning up grown people’s messes hinders us from coming to the registers when the lines get long. Or keeping areas stocked with the items you want because we can’t put the product out due to you having shoved a bunch of items you didn’t want in that location. If you decide that you no longer want an item, just give it to the cashier at the register. Do not leave it laying all around the register. We have carts that are sorted out to go back to the departments where they belong. When you hand it to us, we can put it in those carts. Makes sense right? Yes damn good sense.
I don’t know when the holidays became strictly about buying things. And at this point I don’t care. What I do care about is how the holidays have become a time to be rude and disrespectful to workers and others. We should be treating everyone with the spirit of the season not the just the people we know and love. I always say you don’t know what that person is going through or how their day has been going. To acknowledge them with a smile and a kind greeting could mean so much to them. As workers, we are not asking for special treatment. We are just asking to be treated like human beings.
Let’s be better. Better people. Better customers. Better representatives for others to follow in our footsteps. You don’t get a pass because you are stressed due to overloading your holiday season. Or because the store doesn’t have what you are looking for. Don’t go to people’s jobs acting a fool. For the people who have worked in retail, share your stories. Have you encounter any rude and disrespectful customers? Do you have any uplifting stories of proper customer behavior? Please leave a comment in the box or feel free to email me at elsims27@yahoo.com.
Happy Thanksgiving.