When I’m not working at Y94 or attending classes at NDSU (Go Bison!) I occasionally pick up a shift at a local retail store. Now that Holiday shopping is in full swing, shopping bad behavior has skyrocketed! Here’s my list of things retail workers hate about shoppers!
The 5 Things Retail Workers Hate About YOU

• You Leave Products You’re Not Going To Buy Anywhere & Everywhere
  • So at the retail store I work at, it becomes a time suck for me to have to pick up after everyone. Now before you say, that’s your job which it is – think about your behavior for a second. If your kid tried on every piece of clothing in their closet and then just threw it on the floor for you to hang back up would you be annoyed? The answer is yes unless you’re in complete denial. The same applies to you, when you try something on, just take a second to hang it back up on the hanger. We’ll be forever grateful and have more time to actually help you with more important things.
• You Blame Employees For Things That Aren’t In Our Control
  • Sometimes as much as you think we have all the answers and can just make things happen for you, we can’t and have to rely on other people. I had a customer recently that was looking for a particular item that we currently didn’t have in our store. When I called one of our other stores to find out if they had the product in stock she yelled at me because they were taking too long…Really??? I could have just told you we didn’t have it and said, “good luck”, but I was TRYING to HELP you!
• You Are Rude
  • When you work in retail you learn quickly that folks with money to burn will often feel they’re in a higher class than those of us that happen to be working. This creates a problem, because a lot of times you try to rub it in our faces how much better off you are than us. We get it, it’s natural to want to show off – but keep the rude comments to a minimum.
• You Expect Us To Give You A Break…For No Reason
  • If I had a dollar for every time someone said, “…just this once” I wouldn’t have to work in retail anymore Here’s the thing, I would love to give you a break, but I would love to keep my job even more! Here’s an example: We regularly have coupons that people love to use, but as soon as they bring the item (the joys of handling returns) back they expect they’re going to get the coupon back – that’s not how this works! I would love to give it back to you, but I can’t because when you purchased your item I had to rip it up so it wouldn’t be used again. The coupon by-the-way came from the manufacturer of the product, not the store I work at…so it truly is out of my control. Deal with it, I’m sorry.
• You Think We Know EVERYthing
  • I know a lot of things about the retail store I work at, but I don’t know everything. I sometimes think that people spend a week trying to come up with the most ridiculous questions just to try to stump us. At the particular store I work at, I’m an apparel specialist – when you come to the apparel department and ask me about fishing tackle…yeah, good luck! Instead of getting upset that I don’t have every answer, understand that I’m going to try to find someone that can help you with your particular question – wouldn’t you rather get advice about an impending purchase from an expert anyway???

There you have it – that’s my top 5 list. If you work in retail I’m sure you have ALOT more, comment below with your own list. I would love to see them!
Lauren – The Y-Girl