The Perks of Working Retail and a Few Other Tales

Today I thought I could put a little post together talking about some of the perks I've discovered with working as well as share some fun stories I've experienced while on the job. We'll start with the perks if you don't mind. :D

• You get to know where the keys are. (That's really strange. Actually being the person that gets asked to open the locked cases. I still remember the first time I opened a case, I felt so guilty like I was stealing. Yikes! Haha.)
• You're the one that changes the displays. (I'd never actually considered who actually changed window displays and such. Now that I'm the person I find that oddly, funny.)
• You get to see everything ahead of time and therefore you get first pick. :D
• Employee discounts (They're a mixed blessing because I'm sure I wouldn't buy as much if I didn't have the discount so I'm not sure I'm actually "saving" anything with the discount. ;P)
• Because you work there, it's almost like you own some things so you don't have to buy the lot. (I've played with some of the toys as demos and with all the Jim Shore figurines, it's like I own them. Money saved!)
• It's like Christmas every day because as an employee, you can open all the packages addressed to the store. NICE!

Now for a few tales from the store.

1) There are so many stories I could tell about the fun experience I have while keeping coupons in my pockets for special customers. As my employee discount is a better than the coupons, I'll keep the coupons that I get and wait to use them for "special customers". It's always fun to surprise those who aren't expecting the coupon rather than have to admit there is a coupon to those who are just expecting us to have extras.

2) We have a candy drawer under one of our registers. It's meant to be there to keep your sanity when you aren't taking your official break. I've been using the candy, however, to try and help in the customer service department. I'll reward the good little kids who are patient with their siblings or parents or I'll do it just to win customers over when they are giving me a rough time. Well, I'd seen a woman come into the store and I couldn't quite place her. As I see so many people and our store has its own army of "regulars" I moved on. As it happened I was running the registers when she came up. I greeted her as I always do and entered her rewards card information. It was only after I saw her name that I remembered her and again complimented her on her name. She smiled and asked if I'd remembered her. I was nervous now because I couldn't exactly remember, I just knew I'd commented on her name before. She seemed to sense my hesitation for she quickly reminded me saying: "I was in here a few days ago and I told you I was having a bad day. You then gave me some Kit-Kats, that was so nice of you." We finished the transaction and conversation and I smiled for the rest of the day.

3) One morning, I was on shift by myself (no, that was not by design and I was hoping I wouldn't be swamped with customers), when a gentleman came in. He said he was looking for a birthday card. Because he was the only one in the store, I struck up a conversation with him. In our conversation, I found out that it was going to be his wife's 70th birthday and she was not happy about it. Therefore, he was trying to do something special. He had decided that he was going to give her gifts every 70 minutes to try and make things special for her. He had chosen a gift and a card and knowing his mission I offered to wrap the gift for him. Little did I know that such an offer would produce several more transactions from him once he found out I could only wrap items from our store. I wrapped many gifts for him but I didn't mind. The story was so sweet, and I hope his wife knew how sincere his intentions were. (Oh, he was also a customer I secured coupons for. He still spent over $150.)

I made myself this fairy tale one...
How many fairy tales do you see?

4) I am really good at juggling kids, did you know? We will get customers all the time that want to make one of our bracelets. They are super cute so I don't blame them. However, the case and the small beads are very tempting to little fingers and most of the time, the moms don't care what their kids are doing in the case so long as their bracelet designs are left alone. That leaves me to both help my customer and engage the kids in other activities. One special day I was having a lot of trouble with a particular set of kids. I was hurriedly trying to check-out a customer when she leaned in close to me and said, "you're doing really well. I used to work retail. Frustrating, isn't it?" I laughed it off with a knowing smile, claimed all was well and eventually returned to the case feeling much better with my efforts.

5) We have some chocolate for sale at our registers. Just in case you need a little munchie with your card purchase. You never know. Well, I was preparing to check one of our regulars out when she said, "do you like these?" Thinking she meant in general I answered yes. They're chocolate, need I say more? She then said, good and plunked one down on the counter. I'll get you one then. I protested and told her if she was going to purchase one she should enjoy it for herself. She agreed and so grabbed another chocolate and said, that one's for me. This didn't end until she had bought one for me, my fellow employee, and herself. I lost that battle. Hahaha.

6) One fine afternoon a kid came in and brought one of our huge stuffed dogs to the counter asking if we could hold it for him. We asked how long we'd need to hold it for (as we can only hold items for a few days). Looking a little worried he ventured, "two hours". We smiled encouragingly assuring him we could hold it that long for him and asked for his name so we could keep the dog there for him. He gave his name, beamed, handed the dog over, and left quickly. Normally we will place items that we have on hold in bags with the customer's names stapled to the bag. But in this case, as the animal was a dog I made a little collar for him with the boy's name on him. Sure enough, several hours later the boy returned with his father in tow. He came up to the counter and couldn't stop smiling at his dog. I made conversation with the father as he checked-out. As I was preparing to bag the dog I asked the boy if he wanted me to remove the makeshift collar. The boy looking surprised shook his head and simply reached for his dog. CUTEST THING EVER!!! Perfect end to the night as they were our last customers for the day.

Well, I HAVE prattled on. Good grief. I hope you found something entertaining to read here.

Yours truly,
Cordy