5 Things... I Hate About Working In Retail

1 - The fact that I have the early shift, which means I am usually out of bed at 4:30am, three days a week. I am a night owl by nature, and am generally asleep no earlier than 1am. I'm always tired. Always. I really don't understand why there is this need to open a grocery store/newsagents at 6am, seven days a week. My place has maybe half a dozen customers in the first hour on a Sunday morning, so it hardly seems worth it. Weekdays I get, what with builders and other tradesmen out and about, but on Sundays most people with an ounce of sense are still in bed at that time of the morning. Possibly my lack of understanding for opening at 6am on a Sunday stems from the fact that I am jealous of all those that get to have a lie-in, but still...

2 - When customers expect you to serve them when they are too busy nattering on their mobile phones to even bother to look at you. That really bugs me, it's the height of ignorance.

3 - The brevity of traditional holidays, which are sacrificed in order for most shops to be able to open so that they can squeeze a few more pounds out of the paying public. Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, Bank Holidays... these used to mean that every single shop on the high street was closed. Not any more. Not only are the holidays practically made null and void, the poor people who work in retail usually have no choice but to work on these days, thus spoiling any holiday festivities that they may have had planned.

4 - The general attitude towards people who work in retail. Just because we operate the checkouts or spend the day putting out stock, it doesn't mean we are brainless idiots who don't know how to do anything else. I've had customers come into the shop who are obviously business men/women, with their smart suits and jingly watches and mobile phones, and the way they sneer- yes, sneer - at me makes my blood boil.

5 - Rude, obnoxious customers. There are a huge range of these monsters lurking in the general public, from the people who practically throw their money at you, yet expect you to count their change back into their open hands, to the people who seem to think it is their purpose in life to blame you for the 'scandalous' price of a box of eggs. Then there's the bloke who thinks that if he rants at you for a few minutes, you may be able to magically conjure the newspaper that he wants, despite having been told that they haven't been delivered yet. The list is endless. Customers can be a horrible breed.

This was originally going to be a '10 Things' post, but I soon realised that most of my 'things' were customer related, so I was swiftly reduced to '5 Things' instead. That's still five more things than I'd like, though...

Still, it's job, and luckily I like the people I work with, so it's not all bad. Now, if I could just manage to get through the day without any customer interaction, I'd almost be happy.

Alarm clock image permission.