So I'm sure there has to be at least a handful of people on the site that have had a hand in retail work. That being a person who works in a store, or someplace that sells something, that deals with the general public on a semi-daily basis. I'm fairly new to the working world, since I am only 19 going on 20 in about 2 months. I've been working at general goods store located in the town where I live since I currently don't have a drivers license, and I've worked there since I've been able to work basically, so about 2 years now.

Now I feel like I should go on about the topic I have made for this thread. For all of you who have done something in the retail, whether be recent or a long time ago, I have some general questions about your time. How long have you worked in retail? As what position? What was your general outlook on your customers? Like, Were they hard to deal with or easy to get along? What was something that generally annoyed you that customers did? What was something that generally made you pleased with customers? Do you agree or disagree with the statement "Everyone should work in retail at least once in their lives"? Why or why not? Do you have any stories, good or bad, that stick out to you from your time serving customers?

Now for questions to the people that might not have gotten the chance to work in retail, not that I overly think people will respond that haven't but I can always try. What is your general outlook on employees that work in retail? Is it good or bad? Are there any stories that may stick out to you while being in a store that have to do with the employees? What about other customers? Is there something you wish all stores did to make your experience better? Could you ever see yourself working in such a setting?

Now if I were to answer my own questions, I have already answered the first question. I have worked 1 year as a cashier, and the rest as a lowest form of manager in the store. Both being only a part time position, however I have gotten nearly full time hours at times. The general public that comes into our store are usually friendly. But also not exactly the smartest people on the planet. I have my few favorite regulars and my few *least* favorite regulars, but they make the experience.

There are 2 things I wish that some people would do. One being walking the extra 5 feet to put carts back to where they belong. Like instead of leaving it at the door, or very close to the door, why not take the extra 30 seconds of your day to put it back inside. The other being putting things back to where you found them. Granted, people bring their very young children in that sometimes grab things without really thinking about it, the parents telling them to put it back, I don't think the children overly know where exactly it goes without wondering too far. But something as ignorant as leaving ice cream left on a shelf is a bit much, because that's just common sense. I would even be happier if they brought it up to an employee to put away.

There are really nice people that exist in the world. I absolutely love to see when one customer helps out another with a bill, may it be a couple pennies that they just don't have or maybe $10-$20. I don't get to see it often, but it just makes me happy with people want to be nice to a complete stranger to make their day that much better when there isn't much I can really do as the cashier since I would generally get in trouble with my boss for doing so. Not that I exactly have the money to be spending but that's besides the point.

I personally agree that everyone should work in retail at least once in their lives. I feel like having to be sociable and serving the general public could open the eyes of some people on just how difficult it can be at times. Sure, its not the worst thing in the world to do, but constantly keeping products stocked to keep customers happy, and other people breathing down your back to get so much done in a small time frame can be stressful.

There aren't any stories I can think of currently, I'm kind of forgetful like that. But it is always something else every day.

Hoping to hear everyone elses' thoughts on the subject ^^

Fyredove : out of the 32 years I have been working it will be 17 years this september that I have spent working in retail counting the store that I work at now so I have a lot of experience when it comes to dealing with the public down at the store where I work we do have some regular customers that come who are always quit friendly and then there are some who can be pretty rude I work as a cart associate where my job is to bring in shopping carts and help customers with carry outs and while sometimes there are 2 guys doing the job especially during the christmas rush and on the weekends other times there could be just 1 depending on who is scheduled to work or if someone calls in sick one of the things I like is some customers when they see us collecting carts they will bring their empty carts to us rather than leave them in the parking lot or by the doors also sometimes when we do carry outs there are customers that will help us load their merchandise into their vehicles but the one thing I don,t like is the amount of garbage that gets left in the cart corrals and throughout the parking lot I have even found things such as a microwave,lawnmower bag,propane tank and an old coffee maker that have been left in either the cart corrals or the parking lot me and the other cart associates are always picking up garbage from the shopping carts as well as the big items of garbage and throwing them in the store,s compactor except for cardboard which we throw in the baler the store where I work also has a big problem with shoplifting and because of that along with having a door greeter at both sets of doors they also have to have security guards who ask the customers to see their receipts when they are leaving and while most people don,t have a problem showing their receipts there are some that yell at the guards and act as if they are trying to steal something in fact there are times when they have caught people stealing such as a man the other day who tried to steal $200.00 worth of merchandise but based upon the experience I have the way I see it is no matter where you work there will always be some good and bad people especially if you work in a place where you deal with the public on a daily basis and just because you might run into some bad people off and on it doesn,t mean that everyone is like that  there are also good people and they are the ones who will not only make your job less stressful but are are always a pleasure to be around since they know how to treat other people with respect