Customers

 In retail you'll encounter two types of customers.

• Ones who come in, conduct their business in a respectful manner and leave.
• Everyone else.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, they train you on how to be cashier but they don't train you on how to deal with customers (maybe they do now, but they didn't back when I started.) And to say that I was unprepared for the different types of people I would encounter as a retail worker, would actually be pretty accurate.

Rude Customer

This is a given. If you have been alive for just under two decades and not isolated from the rest of civilization, then you know that people can be rude. You might have been guilty of this yourself, I know I have. This is one of the reasons why I never wanted to work in retail.

When I was a kid, my dad had given me and my sister and brother money to buy bubble gum that was on sale. And while we waited in line, the customer ahead of us was chatting with the cashier. My father grew impatient and cursed the cashier. This was one of my earliest memories of a bad experience in retail and I was only a kid.

Rude people are to be expected, but this is a very vague demographic.

The Entitled

When you think  of entitled people, you probably think of people with money and/or power. People with money and/or power can be entitled, but they're not the only ones. You might come across others who feel they are owed or deserving beyond the normal realms.

One great example of people who are entitled, but not necessarily wealthy or powerful are the ones who want to use a coupon that's expired or not applicable, get a discount, get the sales price when the sale requirement hasn't been met, or to have Mars renamed Earth II and to have a settlement built in their honor all because "they have been shopping at the store for years."

I wonder if that argument works in other places:

• "I've been paying taxes for years and on time! I deserve a bigger refund and I refuse to pay what I owe!"
• "I've been coming to the same hospital since I was born! What do you mean I can't get free liposuction?"
• I've been one of your regular Johns for twenty years now! Can't you give me a free Handy J?

Bet that goes over well.

These can also be the same kind of people who try to dictate you and try to talk down to you. In a way, this type can be considered a level up version of the rude customer.

The Con Artists

Depending on how lenient a company's refund policy is, there are people who will take advantage of it. They'll buy item for the sole purpose of obtaining a coupon then refund it later. They'll attempt buy sale items and then return them without a receipt for store credit. (Attempt being the operative word.)There are shoplifters try to refund their stolen items. Some pull receipts out of the trash while others just try to get store credit without a receipt.

The Crazies

This should be self-explanatory. There's no way around it, You will most definitely come across these. They range from the mildly quirky to the escaped mental patient. You'll learn to pickup which ones are harmless and which ones you should avoid even in the daytime.

One of the first crazies I encountered was a man in a black tracksuit and what looked like an honest-to-God fang instead of a tooth in his gummy mouth. I asked him if he needed anything. He just mumbled. I couldn't make out anything he was say. Except after my third or fourth attempt the man in question said, "If I see him, I'll kill him."

On a lighter note, when we used to conduct wire transfers over a phone (before they replaced it with a touch screen) one man came in picked up the phone and started flirting with what I assume was automated voice on the other end. (Or probably an actual representative which would be funnier.)

Beware. They're there and you're just going to learn how to spot them.

Well that's all i got for this entry. Maybe I'll do a part II for anything I missed or need to expand on.

For anyone who just starting or is considering work in retail, just do your best. Some people are going to give you shit, some will try to take advantage of you, and others will try to bring you down for no other reason than that the fact they get a some sort of perverse pleasure out of it. Just roll with the punches and don't take it seriously. And if it does get to you, then definitely try to find someone to talk to about it.