My "Christmas Eve in Retail Hell" story

[GoddessOfGuinness]

It was Christmas Eve in Musicland, before Cd's, when most recorded music was vinyl or cassette, with the exception of a few last 8-tracks. I was working the floor, trying to assist customers, and watching out for shoplifters. I started the morning helping two nuns in the classical section, when the assistant manager calls out my name from the front of the store. I turn around to look, and he's standing there with an enormous poster of Prince in his underwear. Of course, the nuns looked too. My face turned redder than Santa's suit.

A little while later, I was taking a turn at the register, and paused to notice a guy standing in front of the R&B section as he unzipped his pants and proceeded to stuff a 3" stack of records in them. "Uh...exCUSE me!" I cried, incredulous. "Oh...You want me to put them back?" he asked.

Still later, back on the floor, I happened upon a couple of rather imposing characters who were opening up record jackets. I asked if I could help them purchase something, and one of them said they were just checking to make sure the record wasn't warped (they'd opened several already). I told them that they were welcome to open them in the store after they'd bought one, but company policy did not allow customers to unseal the product before purchase. To this, the bigger of the two guys said, "Oh we can't?" and looks straight into my eyes with a "What the hell are you gonna do about it" expression on his face, as he ran his nail along the jacket opening.

After calling the assistant manager to deal with them, I was back on the register, my brain was a mushy glob of goo, and a line snaked all the way around the store. This kind-hearted woman brought her purchase to the register, looked me in the eyes sympathetically, and said, "You look like you've had a tough day." and I lost it...had to get someone to come over and give me a bathroom break to mop up a flood of tears. I knew then and there that I was simply not cut out to work retail.

I raise my glass to anyone who can without going insane! :toast:

[skygazer]

1. Six years in retail here

And thanks for the toast. It's a jungle out there!

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. Thanks for the memories!

I worked at a Newsom's Music store in the early 70's and had many similar experiences.

One memory is of an assistant manager who decided to do a little sunshine before she got off work and had to help an odd looking gentleman find some really bad music.

She found the gentleman so odd looking that she started giggling which turned into a belly laugh which brought her to full hearted belly laughing to the point she sank to the floor, pointing at the poor man.

She is now an elementary school teacher and a damned good one at that.

And Jennifer, if you are reading this, thank you for the big grin I am experiencing as I type this.

[flamingyouth]

3. Twenty years in retail here

I'm proud of my record:

Number of customers told off: Three
Number of people served: Countless - in the thousands, for sure
Number of assaults or homicides committed: ZERO

Now I think that's something to be proud of. :evilgrin:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. Damn straight you can be proud!

:toast:

[The empressof all]

5. Retail has got to be the hardest work

Many customers feel they have every right in the world to be abusive and condescending. I know at our store it is not uncommon for people to ask "How much are you marking this Up?" That is the one question that just drives me over the edge.

I wish I could pay the folks who work with us more. They deserve it.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. I'll never forget one time

after Xmas, when we were doing inventory. A woman came to return something to the store, and I couldn't help her, because the store was closed. I apologized profusely, because I know it must have been a real pain in the butt to drive to the store and find out we were closed.

Apologies weren't good enough for her, however, and she harassed me without mercy. I told her I was very sorry, and that I'd be glad to locate the manager if she wanted to discuss it with him, and I was very careful to avoid reacting to her tirade.

She ended up leaving without talking to the manager, cursing a storm halfway down the mall. Interestingly enough, she returned the next day and made a point of apologizing to me. That's gotta be a rare event in sales!

[-..__...]

7. I used to work in a record store --- circa 1980 or so (not an X-mas story)

Back when records were on vinyl. B-)

About once or twice a month, this little old church going Granny type would come into the store and browse the Rock section, find a certain album and jot down notes about it. We never asked her about it or even asked her if she needed any assistance (our guess was that she was taking notes of lyrics or song titles for some sort of censorship campaign).

There's quite a few more late night at the record store stories to tell, but the one with Granny still sticks in my mind.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. That's about the time I was working

at Musicland.

I remember very well that Tipper Gore was pro-censorship, or at least in favor of a rating system.