What Working in Retail at Christmas means to me

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We are now at that point in time where our stores are beginning to look festive ready for the ‘mental’ season. I have already seen several chains with Christmas cards and tins of sweets on sale. . After 15 Years in the business I have come to expect certain things that will inevitably make me happy! but more than likely will make enrage me! here are my top 10

1. You will identify straight away the stock that you will be returning in January, as it is clearly not going to work. You almost want to tell the parents to avoid dissapointment, but instead you tell them you have bought one yourself.

2. There will always be the drunken dad/husband that comes into your store 5 minutes before you are about to close on Christmas Eve, He will buy anything that is left on the shelves, even if he knows it will not get him out of the dog house. He will be normally be your 1st customer at the doors on Boxing day returning what he bought. He will almost always be in the same clothes and smelling of stale beer, as he has spent the festive holiday on his mates couch

3. You will be able to sing every song of your Christmas CD word for word. You will find that you are singing them on your day off, and well into the new year. Your familly will think you are in the spirit of christmas but the reality is that you are thinking about killing Rudolph and all of his happy friends

4. You will have less staff than you had the year before, but your targets will be greater

5. There will almost defiantly be a be 2 or 3 key members of staff that will go off sick just when you are due to be visited by your boss and their boss

6. Just when you think your about to smash your sales figures and cash in a fantastic bonus! it will snow, and continue to snow until 6pm 24th December

7. A small child will accidentally hit your break glass and activate your fire alarms. Normally Christmas week. You will smile under gritted teeth and tell them its ok. You will even think that it is a welcome respite to the 434rd playing of ‘let it snow’

8. The Christmas promotion that you spent the whole night setting up will be changed 3 or 4 days later. Clearly the marketing department screwed up, but they will put it down to changing consumer needs.

9. The Christmas temporary staff that you took on will turn out to be thieves, the references you requested will come in from there previous employers in January 2013 stating exactly what you sacked them for

10. Your boss will come in on Christmas week to give you the support they promised, only for an ‘important phone call’ to come through meaning they have to jump back in the car 15 minutes after they have taken their jacket off.