Updated June 15, 2019 1.9K votes 424 voters 39.7K views
Over 400 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Little Victories That Make Working in Retail Worth It
Millions of people all over the world work in retail. Often it's viewed as a job of necessity, just something to pay the bills while you get a degree or search for a job you want more.
But like it or not, plenty of us need to take work where we can get it and retail is a huge sector of the job market. Tedious as it may be, there are little things that can happen during a shift that make your day go better - or at least faster.
If you've ever worked a job like this, you may recognize and appreciate some of these small victories in retail.
Customers seem to never pay attention to the advance closing announcement and often treat the final closing announcement like a warning. But some nights you get customers who actually don't overstay their welcome.
We all have people we know and like better than others, that’s just how socializing works. When you’re on the clock in retail, it can make all the difference in the world to get along with your coworkers. Laughing at the cooler over coinciding breaks, having a department you’re both familiar with totally covered - we got this.
It’s hard to say which is worse, a hectic shift or a slow shift. At least at the end of a slow shift, closing is pretty fast. Not as much recovery to do, there was more time to get all the projects done during the shift, everybody gets to go home sooner and happier.
Plenty of people offer a polite "thank you" or "have a nice day," but sometimes a painless transaction or heroic customer service effort makes a customer’s day so much that they sing your praises to the people who matter: the management!
In retail you appreciate customers who do a bit of research themselves, or at least those who know that they’ve come to the right place for what they’re looking for. If they’re looking for a book, they know the ISBN. If they’re looking for a new phone, they know the exact model number. These are the kinds of customers that help retailer workers help them.
If you’re lucky enough to work in a retail job selling something you like, you’ll certainly appreciate an employee discount. Especially if it stacks with a current sale. Whoever said it’s a poor merchant who consumes his own wares never lived to see the retail sector in the 21st century.
