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Working In Retail


PaRtZ

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Ive just had the worst day so far at Blacks outdoor shop and its made me ask myself, "why the hell would anyone want to do this for a career?" Im only their currently as Im waiting to go to uni, and engineering firms wouldn't take me on as an apprentice so it was easy money

In all seriousness why? Having a false niceness around a shop winds me up more than anything else (I do it myself and I hate it, only when Im genuinely happy am I ok with it). And having to apologise to customers for a faulty product when its not your fault in the slightest, or having to adhere to company rules when its not what the customer wants...and then they get aggressive etc etc.

Why do it? And why cant shops be allowed to just be honest and tell people to shove the mark of dirt up their arse without the fear of "trading standards" or similar putting pressure on them.

Id imagine that people on here work in multi-million turnover shops and I just want to know what you think about it. Why do you do it? Would you want a career in it? and if yes, PLEASE explain to me why.

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Why? Because thats what you get paid to do. Only way out of it is to work for yourself, you'll ask yourself the same kinda questions in any job working for someone else 'why should I make YOU money?' etc.

well currently im doing a supervisor job with sales assistant pay, but thats not my point here.

I can understand thats what im being paid to do, but am i being paid to take abuse from customers when Im just following company policy? And I'd NEVER be aggressive to members of staff because I know how it feels...

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All jobs have their downsides. At least at Black's you can go home and forget about it.

It's now 2.5 hours since I was supposed to go home, and I'm stuck at work wresting with the biggest bitch of a SQL Server database ever. The responsibility of the job, and the fact that some very important clients need it tomorrow morning means that I stay here until it's done. Even if that's 7am.

When I worked at Tesco as a kid, I'd leave at 5pm sharp. If nobody came to my checkout to take m off, I'd tell the queue to go elsewhere and walk away. I simply didn't care.

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Id imagine that people on here work in multi-million turnover shops and I just want to know what you think about it. Why do you do it? Would you want a career in it? and if yes, PLEASE explain to me why.

My shop turns over something like 700,000 a week or something insane... just take the shit put on the fake smile and get on with it... if someone says something to you that outside of the store you would beat the shit out of them for... just smile and ignore them.... this is why people get qualifications and have ambition becuase if not youll be there for the rest of your life! good lesson for me going in every week to remember why im at school

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All jobs have their downsides. At least at Black's you can go home and forget about it.

It's now 2.5 hours since I was supposed to go home, and I'm stuck at work wresting with the biggest bitch of a SQL Server database ever. The responsibility of the job, and the fact that some very important clients need it tomorrow morning means that I stay here until it's done. Even if that's 7am.

When I worked at Tesco as a kid, I'd leave at 5pm sharp. If nobody came to my checkout to take m off, I'd tell the queue to go elsewhere and walk away. I simply didn't care.

awww that does suck. I guess your right though, least i can go home and chill/ride etc

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dont appologise, i use to appologise for people having trouble, but i got over that the first time i tried to go out of my way to help someone and they got shitty with me cause i was 30mins calling them back, i now tell customers to f**k off and do basically little as possible to help unless they are genuinly stuck, then ill help get their issue fixed/booked in to the repair centre, and be polite about it, ive not appologised once to a customer who didnt honestly deserve it. in nearly a year and a half. Fortunately i work for a manufacturer, so i can tell anyone who is spouting sales of goods act at to basically f**k off, as we dont actually sell anything direct :D

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Half of you young uns are so naive, get over it, like someone up there said, its your job, your paid to do it.

Working in a shop is one of the shittest jobs ever, thats why the pay isnt amazing, its the bottom of the rung. Thats where everyone starts, get on with it, you will one day get better and probably get a better job, hence why its suggested you stay in education to gain yourself a career......

Edited by ben_travis
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I work as secretary in the holiday and although I find it better than a lot of jobs, I can't comprehend for a minute the thought of doing it for the rest of my life at all. Another 40+ years? No thanks. I've been here two weeks and I've already got my work down to a fine art (allowing me extra TF time per day), I could do this for another 40 years and nothing would change at all...

Luckily I'm not going to be doing this for the rest of my life :)

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Right, had to reply to this one

A lot of people have a negative view of Retail, and this is through their own personal experiences. Here's mine and for once it's positive;

I was employed as a Retail Manager at 23, and my 1st store was the newest store in the McArthur Glen Shopping Outlet near me. It was targeted for a turnover of £87K Per Annum. Doesn't sound that much, but it's a small store so it's consistently busy, and one of the leaders within the center. I was competing against store's 3 times the size (Over 75 Stores in the Outlet!), and I worked hard to keep these figures high. A lot of people have had negative experiences within retail - What about the positive?

For me, I managed a team of 12 people, all of whom were great people. I enjoyed managing the store, and seeing it become successful. I enjoyed watching my staff become more successful. I enjoyed being asked to open new stores and train new staff. In regards to complaints, my view is I was getting paid to take these complaints, not m staff, and if any one had a problem, I asked my staff to point them to me. I stood up for my staff.

Retail for me is now a career I chose not to continue, as I've worked to the level i want to, and now I want to experience different things.

Just because one person has had bad experiences, doesn't mean everyone has.

Darren

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I think everyone else in this thread is on about being on the bottom rung of the ladder, though. Managerial conditions are obviously slightly different - for example 23k rather than 12k! You might have responsibility and pride in your work, but these people don't.

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I have a few mates that moan like f**k about working in a factory.

They do it souly for the money, and who can blame them; after all no one enjoys work but its something you have to do if you want a decent weekend, girlfriend (usually), bike, car, life in general.

They're all 19/20 years old; smart intelligent people who can simply go on a £2000 course for a year and earn about £30k a year if they put the effort into it; it's very easily done but they just cannot be arsed.

Work isn't all bad; if you don't like it, do something about it. You have 50 years of the f**king place; would you rather have 50 years of that monday morning feeling every single day; or do something you enjoy in a high paid job and a promising career?

Its each man for himself I'm afraid; if you don't sort it no f**ker else will.

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turnover of £87K Per Annum.

I managed a team of 12 people

How on earth does that work..? Not questioning your involvement Darren, you obviously worked well, but I can't get my head around those numbers... Edit: Unless the existing stores were supporting the new one? That's probably it... would still lose a LOT of money though, madness...

Oh, and on subject... working in retail is great apart from the customers :P

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Oh, and on subject... working in retail is great apart from the customers :P

Got to agree with that statement. I don't call it work because I just do it in my spare time, but I've been dealing in Monty components for a while now and the only thing that is stopping me from going any bigger (as in stocking different manufacturers) is the customers. Roughly twice a day a conversation with a customer ends up with me having to walk around the house a few times to calm down - not because of an argument, but the sheer stupidity of some people and the fact one has to control oneself and answer every question politely. Talking about something much worse than NMC here, in fact if you threw the whole NMC into a blender and then boiled the mixture for the water to evaporate, that's what you'd face - a lump of annoying questions, lack of basic logic, grammar and spelling.

I truly envy those who have enough self control (or large stocks of valium) to able to burst into laughter instead of having to smash something. I guess if you're running a shop with good mates, you can all have a laugh at the emails you receive.

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You kinda have to be nice to customers.

If you were rude/ignorant to a customer, then they wont come back to the store. If they're women ( :P ) they'll tell other people how rude you were, then more people wont come to the store.

S'all about customer relations and whatnot. (Y)

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How on earth does that work..? Not questioning your involvement Darren, you obviously worked well, but I can't get my head around those numbers... Edit: Unless the existing stores were supporting the new one? That's probably it... would still lose a LOT of money though, madness...

Oh, and on subject... working in retail is great apart from the customers :P

dont you love each and everyone of your customers adam?

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