I’ve worked in retail long enough to tell you that not everything is as it seems. In all seriousness, I’ve worked in retail for almost 10 years so I feel like I have really grasped the reality of retail plus a handful of stories. But that’s a blog post for another day. Here are 5 misconceptions about retail that you might not know!
All stores get commission- the store that I work does not offer commission to their employees. Which has its pros and cons. For one being that we get to be very honest without it hurting our paycheck
Retail is just a dead end job- you can make a successful career out of retail. I know of someone who started as an associate and is now the store manager. I’ve also been promoted to sales lead. Although that is as far as I’m willing to go. Point is, it can be a good career if that is what you want
All we do is fold clothes- the most common misconception!! I mean yes it’s true we do fold a ton but it’s so much more. Inventory is done by us. There are markdowns. Signage changes. Cleaning procedures. Mannequin changes. Store set changes. The store is constantly changing and there is always a task to be done
It’s not a labor intensive job- like I said above, we do more than just fold. Often times we don’t even have enough time to get these tasks done. We have stayed late and/or came in early to get a head start. Shipment alone is the most labor intensive but combine everything else and we are on our feet all day. Makes for a pretty hefty day. I mean my back is always feeling it
Cleaning companies take care of the store- this used to be true back in the day. Pre covid but nowadays that’s not a thing anymore. However even back in the day, we still have a honeydew list of cleaning tasks throughout the day. Again, the list goes on
Let me know if any of these were surprising or not! Or if you can relate!
Until next time
-L
