I'm sick of working retail.

[FreshStart1]

I'm 26 and going back to college so I can actually get a real job.
I've worked retail, in various places since I was 16, off and on between that and selling on eBay.

One of the biggest things that pisses me off about retail, is the closed loop way CEO's and upper management runs a company anymore.

You see, back then, I noticed a lot of stores had little comment cards people could fill out and put in a bin. Some stores actually read these, if enough people asked for say..a certain flavor of cheese, soda, etc, the store would obtain some to sell.

Feedback in retail seems to be absolutely dead, I've witnessed countless times how a store quits selling a flavor of something, or a fast food restaurant discontinues a particular sandwich, despite TONS OF PEOPLE getting pissed off they did that.

Just try leaving feedback anymore. It's usually buried somewhere at the bottom of the page, and you will get a nice little "we will pass these comments along". Hate to break it, but no one reads these. They are just a form to feel out to make the customers feel like they did their part.

Anymore, the store THINKS it knows what people want. This never works. This is why countless businesses have gone bankrupt. All thanks to the stubbornness of upper management.

I've actually have held conversations with district managers and regional vice presidents. I will say something along the lines of "a lot of customers wish we had this, or did this". It falls on deaf ears, 100% of the time.

Retail has turned into a very toxic work environment because of how bad the culture is anymore. People are highly replaceable, and as such, get treated with little respect. There is no loyalty unless maybe your a general or district manager. I noticed a lot of places have done away with the pins you get when you have worked there so many years.

Stores are no longer investing in their employees, taking advice from customers, or really doing much in the way of improving. They try to get away with paying people as little as possible and countless large corporations have ended up under lawsuits for violating labor laws.

If you factor in how many people get paid less than $10/hr, and how rent has doubled not keeping up with inflation, and how people live paycheck to paycheck, it really is no more or less than legalized slavery.

Tons of Americans have very little left over after paying their bills. Maybe enough to go out to eat somewhere. Nothing to save, nothing to invest.

[Throck]

1. Retail is slavery 2.0

[Upthevibe]

2. Big time frustrating...

I worked retail years ago and HATED it - but I'm not a shopper and never have been. I thinks it's GREAT that you're going to college. PLEASE stick with it. Getting an education is a life saver (regardless of what the right wing would have people believe). I went back to school when I was 36 years old and graduated when I was 41. It was without question the best thing I've ever done.

[dweller]

3. I dunno, but

maybe decide what you could offer in retail and use the feedback loop to improve and provide a niche service that is market driven by what the public really wants?
could be the next big deal

course you'd still be in retail, but making your customers loyal and happy, and perhaps yourself wealthy ✌🏼️

[eleny]

4. I'm glad you're going back to school

You're at a good age for it. So study hard and apply for every scholarship or money that you can find to help smooth your way. And good luck every day!

[reACTIONary]

50. +10 !!! nt

[SimpleC]

5. Keep Moving forward

You're of an age where you haven't quite figured out what it is you want to do when you grow up.. I don't mean that as an insult. Rather you're at that age where you know you want to do something and retail is not where you see yourself in 20 years. Your schooling decision is very important and I recommend you choose something you are passionate about as you will be happier in whatever road you choose.

[Eko]

6. One of the main reasons that retail sucks is because of online sales.

Like Ebay and amazon. Ive been working in retail since 2002, and before the online giants came along we all made good money. Now, pfft, I cant pay anyone a decent wage because of them and keep the store open. Y'all root for unions far more than retail, retail unions make no sense now because people expect a store to carry everything like them but don't want to pay for them. You would rather order online and expect a brick and motar store to have it for you but you dont want to pay for it and then complain about it. The economy is what you choose, so choose it and don't freaking complain and blame us for trying to help people in our communities with jobs and benefits. Maybe support us instead of using online sales to juice your income and things will slowly start to turn around, or order from Bezos and amazon and ebay and support their businesses model where they dont even offer sick pay to their part time workers. Your choice.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. Maybe it is a better allocation of resources.

Save in person retail for where it counts, such a personal fit in clothing or where actually seeing and touching an item makes a difference to choice (produce and meat, for example).

There is a societal benefit if driving to malls is reduced and replaced by trucks delivering dozens of packages for the same expenditure of fuel. Suppose for example the mall is four miles away where the car occupants buy three items; compare that to a delivery truck that spends four times as much fuel (lots of stops and starts) but delivers a dozen items in one mile. That might be 3 items per tenth gallon for the car, but 12 items per tenth gallon for the truck.

Many times people just go to malls for entertainment and to bother retail staff with little intention of buying.

I don't need to drive some number of minutes to see and finger a disk drive box in a store to be able to purchase one, and in fact on line there is a much vaster selection and choice for me to get more exactly what I want. I recently bought a disk drive and a 32 inch monitor online. But I do drive once a week to a grocery store and once a week to a farmer's market. If I lived in a huge city of 10 million people, there might be a single store with that large a selection of disk drives that I selected from, but odds are it would be a median distance of a half hour drive to get to.

It is probably better that fewer people sooth boomer egos in retail stores and more sooth boomer bodies in assisted living facilities. There is a declining need for the former and a rising need for the latter.

[Eko]

19. Robots doing all of our work

would be a better allocation of resources also, sound like something you would like?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. I'm not going to debate a blanket bald terse straw man statement. . . . nt

[Eko]

22. But you are happy to make one.

"Maybe it is a better allocation of resources."

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. My five paragraph discussion is not a single terse bald straw man statement.

You don't seem interested in discussing, so I have little interest in debating you.

[Eko]

24. And there it is.

Im not arguing that history moves on, that it changes economies, that happens. But we have a choice on how that happens, and obviously you have decided on a course that on most levels is against what the democratic party is for. I cant say if that is right or wrong, only that I am fighting for the people that we say we represent. You, are not. I am fighting for those I can, each and every day. You, you are fighting for capitalism. Not for people. I am fighting for capitalism to help people. You aren't. Maybe if you had to look these people in the eye and say why you can or cant offer health insurance because of their status you would have a different view, especially if one of them was really really really sick. But ya know, better allocation of resources or some crap.

[Eko]

26. I dream of a world where allocation of rescources

didnt mean a person will loose their job, their health insurance, their life. I dream of a world that takes care of their family, their coworkers, their team. That if things have to change there is support to enable this change. That if this change take place the people don't then blame the ones suffering for this change, These are simple thing but seem beyond some. Lastly I believe in a world of support, one where assholes who order online dont say a thing about lost jobs. Maybe this seems such a daunting task for some, to me it is a core belief.

[Honeycombe8]

21. My sister worked in retail for a few years many years ago. It sucked then.

It sucked even back then, w/o online stores. Low pay. Having to wear dress shoes while standing on your feet all day. Rude customers. Low pay. No chance for advancement because they hire degreed people from outside. Little say in the hours you work. Physical...standing, stocking.

I would advise any young person not to work retail. I think it's fine for part time jobs for seniors, or even full time jobs, if money isn't that big an issue. Or for summer jobs for teens.

[Blue_true]

7. Although you can find better paying jobs by going back to school.

That won't solve the issue that you have with being listened to by higher ups. The problem happens in every profession, and there is a pecking order and job politics in every profession.

Once you pick a field, try to get a job interning for a company that hires people with the skillset that you are training for. That will provide you with some good insight about the workings of the profession.

You are still young, don't be afraid to change majors in college if you have to.

[smirkymonkey]

8. But Trump says everyone is doing great and wages are rising and we're all happy at our jobs!

Oh, and he's completely full of shit. I have long suspected that most people feel the same way that you do about their jobs. Good for you for going back to school! As long as you work for someone else there is always a certain amount of crap you will have to put up with, but there is also a chance you will get a better job with people who treat you with respect.

I have had some great jobs and some not so great jobs in my career, but I am at a place now where I am content and feel respected. Just don't give up and know that you deserve better. I wish you all the best!

[elmac]

9. these trillion dollar companies are a big part of the problem

economic inequality is spawned by so much wealth in the hands of just a few dozen corporations. Capitalism breeds greed and things will not get better under such a system.

[appalachiablue]

11. Truth

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. No. The distribution of wealth & income is the problem, not the company size.

It is concentration of ownership that is a problem, not ownership. If the shares were more widely distributed, the companies would be the same size but there would be fewer people worth $100 million and many more people worth $100 thousand.

The top-heavy disparity in wealth and income is unsustainable. Such situations tend to end in:

* Economic collapse / crash, possibly accompanied by or precipitated by violent revolution

* Peaceful redistribution by higher taxes on corporations and/or rich and ultra-rich people who have benefited greatly from infrastructure and social expenditure by governments.

Ultra rich people are not lacking in money for corporate investment. Those kinds of opportunities can be increased by societal spending. When you give the rich and ultra-rich a huge tax give-away, they park the money in things like art and real estate which inflates the prices of those things but does not increase production or productivity.

[braddy]

10. Will you be changing your DU name to FreshStart2?

[Aristus]

12. Welcome to DU, FreshStart1.

It was the same when I worked retail twenty-five years ago.

I worked in a bookstore. (That shows you how long ago that was. A bookstore!) I knew where every book in the store was and could take you right to it. I could shelve an entire cart of books in just an hour or so. I was good at what I did. One might not necessarily think that was important. But did you ever patronize a bookstore where the clerks were obviously not readers, and were just there doing the minimum to get paid?

Anyway, I had to slave my heart out just to get a dollar-an-hour raise after one year. I actually had a manager say to me: "There's more to this than just knowing where the books are, and shelving stock rapidly". Really? I think that that was entirely what the job was about.

I lived paycheck-to-paycheck for almost two years. I loved the work, but the job atmosphere was draining. There was no upward mobility. The store clerks like me were never the ones promoted to store, district, or regional managers, despite the fact that we were the ones who knew the customers, knew what they bought, and knew what they wanted that we didn't have.

Like every other business, the upper levels were staffed by know-nothing ass-kissers with MBA's. Trust-fund college kids who didn't know anything about anything, but took it upon themselves to barge into our stores and tell us everything we were doing wrong.

I applaud your decision to go back to school. I got out of the retail gulag and into a real career. I have a rewarding, fulfilling, well-paid career now. I shudder sometimes to think what my life would be like if I was still in that line of work. Retail workers will always have my respect and good will.

[nolabear]

13. Welcome to DU! What do you plan to study?

I hear you about the frustration of retail. It's been a long time, but I never liked it much myself.

Glad you're here.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. There is hardly anything worse than working at a job you hate.

You might want to inquire around and see if any other store would be a better place to work.

Here's another possibility: hotel desk clerk. I suppose it will still be minimum wage, and co-ordinating with your school schedule will obviously depend on your boss or the chain you go to work for, but again, talk to some people who do that, and see if it makes sense.

I have considered that job, and occasionally, when travelling, I'll sound out the front desk staff about working there, and I always get a lot of encouragement. I haven't pursued it because I am retired, and while I could certainly do with more money, I'm not at present willing to give up the freedom of not working.

And good for you for returning to school.

[LittleGirl]

17. I wish I was 26 again

I would go to trade school. Something in the medical field because us older folks need more medical care in our advanced years. Maybe a x-ray tech or something of the sort. They can make decent money and work in a small doctors office or clinic or big hospital. I don't think I could be a nurse and considered it but the site of blown up body parts doesn't thrill me in surgery. (you know, gun shot wounds etc).

good luck with whatever you do. I finished college at 45 and it was really hard to work full time, be on-call 24/7 and take care of my home and kitty.

Welcome to DU

[phylny]

27. Our niece is doing just that.

She never graduated from high school, but I urged her to get her GED and she did. We talked extensively about her next steps and I recommended that she look at job listings in her area that required schooling, and that would give her an idea of what marketable skills she could learn in school. She decided to go to school for ultrasound technology and so far she loves it.

BTW, I also went back to school for a second bachelors and a masters degree. I started in 1993, when our youngest was 18 months old. I went part time at night. I remember before I started saying to my husband, "I'm going to be 41 years old by the time I finish!" and he responded, "You're going to be 41 whether or not you do this." I did and in six years became a speech-language pathologist. It was hard and I only did it part time, so bully for you!

[LittleGirl]

32. well done!

I didn't have a family so no kids, just me and the house and kitty. I did have to have a hysterectomy as I finished my last quarter but only missed one class and one month of work. That helped to keep me up to date on homework and papers I had to write.

Good luck to your niece. I didn't know what I wanted to do when I was in my 20s either.
Shoot, I'm nearly 60 and still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. ha ha

[Glaisne]

42. kitty is family

[LittleGirl]

48. yes she was. eom

[KT2000]

18. Costco reads them

One time I suggested a mirror be placed in the clothing area and it was actually installed!
Another time I showed the manager how the cart with returns contained food products and lawn chemicals - never saw that again.

Costco is an exception in many respects though.

[LittleGirl]

33. If all retail operated like Costco

there would be much more successful businesses.
I don't have costco here so I really miss them!

[rusty quoin]

25. I hated Walmart decades ago. They ruined my hometown.

They put business out of business. And now I’m suppose to feel bad for them because Amazon?

I do feel bad. The people who suffer are regular people. This is not the same world of the past. We all get treated like shit. Unions were there for us.

[KT2000]

43. same here

our somewhat isolated area has two towns that each have a walmart. The only small businesses now are artsy type stores.

[Laffy Kat]

28. Like restaurant servers, everyone should do both for a while to appreciate how hard it is.

It would also help us become more considerate consumers.

[LittleGirl]

34. Absolutely!

did both when I was much younger and it taught me team work and who to identify that is a drain to the team.

[VOX]

29. Been there, and I hear you. Welcome to DU, FreshStart1.

Did the same thing, retail, college, retail, college, etc. Finally got a job on campus. Didn’t earn the sheepskin until I was 28.

You’ve got some time to work with, get that education finished if at all possible. You’ll think better of yourself for attaining that goal. It’s not a key to the executive suite but it’s a start. Hang in there.

[rownesheck]

30. For me,

retail has always, and will always suck. That's all I've ever done and I'm flipping 42 years old! I hate people though, and the customers give me massive anxiety. Maybe that's my problem. I'm in the wrong line of work.

Another comment mentioned robots, and i think it would be awesome if robots took over all the work, and businesses were forced by law to pay out of work retail workers the wages we would have made if we were working. I would love to sit at home and do nothing! Maybe we could be trained to repair the robots every now and then when they broke down. My vision for the future! Vote for me in 2032 and I'll bring about the world in which we all get paid to do nothing! Seriously.

[handmade34]

31. best of luck

let us know your course of study if I could go back I would study science- to get involved in scientific research


welcome to DU!

[raccoon]

35. Thanks for posting that. Whatever you decide to do, best of luck to you! Nt

[Javaman]

36. retail is a real job, thank you very much. nt

[cwydro]

37. What will you study?

[sinkingfeeling]

38. Hate to break it to you, but it's not just retail. We tried to convince

a CIO not to dump in-house written and maintained software for an out-of-the-box, with customized features, package. Ended up the customization cost about 5 times the estimate and then the whole thing was deemed a failure.

[CrispyQ]

39. Service industry jobs suck.

Management abuses you. Customers abuse you. It's some of the most thankless work out there, not to mention they are low paying jobs, now.

When I worked retail, I was in the union & we had good pay & terrific benefits. Because of union rules, management couldn't "abuse" us. If you got scheduled to work until midnight one day & had to come in at 6 AM the next day, the first two hours of your morning shift were paid at overtime, until you reached the 8 hour mark since your prior shift. Any time you worked over an 8 hour day was paid at overtime, even if you only worked 24 hours for the entire week. And because the company didn't want to pay overtime, they were usually more cognizant of scheduling, unlike today, where workers are often times expected to be "on call" for a shitty fucking job with shitty fucking pay.

Choose wisely! Don't forget the future impact of automation & AI. I read an article yesterday that stated a lot of medical & law jobs are at risk due to computers now doing the first level of diagnosing/evaluating a patient/client's situation. Jobs that traditionally could not be outsourced, may be automated instead.

Good luck!


First they came for the autoworkers jobs, but I didn't care because I wasn't an autoworker...

[Glaisne]

40. It isn't just stores

but a great many workplaces where workers are treated like that.

[FreshStart1]

41. Observation

It seems kind of interesting the circle of the post-war economic boom is now totally backwards.


Back then it was:


Pay people more= more people buying stuff = more people needed to make/sell/distribute that stuff = more people hired.

Now it's.

Pay people less = they buy less= stores make less money = less people working.

That makes sense...how?

[hunter]

44. 90% of everything is crap.

Sturgeon's law.

This thing we now call economic "productivity" is a direct measure of the damage we are doing to earth's natural environment and our own human spirit.

Years ago, my brother was in upper management of a major retailer, one of many vice presidents. He'd achieved the position by hard work, but also by some morbid good fortune -- his own boss had dropped dead of a massive heart attack and my brother had managed to hold down the fort, earning him a field promotion of sorts.

My wife and I were working in hospitals at the time, and were on call for literally life-or-death situations, two o'clock in the morning stuff. (One of my duties was working with transplant teams. Sometimes I'd carry the Igloo cooler containing body parts to the operating room... don't drop that!)

I think my brother was jealous, even though he was making about ten times the money I was. I remember him complaining about an "emergency" trip from California to Florida he once took, business class, and he saw nothing of Florida but the airport and limo rides to and from dull corporate meeting rooms.

Soon after that he started answering his own two o'clock-in-the-morning calls with, "Is anyone going to die? No? Call the office in the morning."

He left the retailer a few months later. The retailer is still around, and I'm guessing it's still managed as if everything is a crisis to be dealt with by white hero bosses who work eighty hour weeks and are always on call. This management style is actually just a way of controlling people, nobody in management ever has time to think "what the hell are we doing here?"

In such an environment everybody is kept hungry. The people working on the retail floor can be literally hungry, maybe even qualifying for food stamps, while everybody in management is competing in unhealthy ways, clawing their way ahead, never seeing the big picture.

If I was emperor of earth I'd impose a thirty hour work week, a minimum wage that is a comfortable living wage, and steeply progressive income taxes approaching 90% at some multiple of the minimum wage less than twenty.

I have this radical idea that we should pay people to experiment with lifestyles having very low environmental footprints with the goal of creating a truly sustainable economy.

[FakeNoose]

45. I agree with so many things you've written here

I'm retired now but over the years I've worked at several different part-time or seasonal retail jobs in big-box stores, fast food, and other establishments. You're correct that customer service is almost gone now, and completely unappreciated by the store management. Managers and executives have no clue how important the store employees are to customers, and their knowledge and feedback is invaluable. But nobody listens, meanwhile the execs get their bonuses and everybody else can pound salt.

The only thing that works is when customers contact the CEO to complain. They have to either call the top guy (usually it's a man) or email him and let him know what the complaint is about. Customers usually don't get through to the CEO directly - there are several toadies that take those calls. But those toadies report to the big boss and they will tell him what the complaints are about. When I worked in retail I used to tell customers who had a complaint, they should call Mr. "X" at headquarters. Many times I even wrote it down for them, along with number and email address. Most customers at a big-box retail store understand that part-time seasonal employees have no contact with the top management. But a call to the correct person will usually get action and resolution.

[lovemydogs]

46. I used to work in retail and know

alot of the reason for the changes from customer service and even treating employees well are for 2 reasons:

1. It's just a crap place to begin with and the culture has been awful for along time.

2. Or the store is going downhill and they know it's only a matter of time before it closes. Usually due to internet sales.

The reason they probably do not have cards for customer remarks is that most do online. So few comment in store that they just have the comments for customers online. Tell your customers to visit your online site.

[crazycatlady]

47. I worked retail for many years too

I know this is super seasonal, but many Democratic campaigns are hiring paid canvassers at $15/hour. This might hold you up for the next 2 months.

[democratisphere]

51. 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

America has been a mess with respect to employee pay and compensation for quite a while.

[Nitram]

52. Whole Foods reads them.

[optrwh]

53. Good for you

Go back to school for a marketable degree. Always invest in yourself, don't expect others to pay for it. Don't listen to complainers, it never helps improve your situation. Don't ever complain about your boss or another co-worker to another co-worker because it will always come out sooner or later. The salary/per hour rate you are hired in at will be basically what you make until you advance in positions or find a new job (commission sales is an exception). Every year during "raise time", owners/upper management give bosses a set amount total amount of money they can give out in raises. Never complain to your boss about a problem unless you have at least 2 solutions to fix it. Degrees get your foot in the door but performance will keep you there. Experience and performance will help you move up or to another job. Jobs that require a few of weeks of training are a beginning salary job, not a living wage. Expecting a raise because you have been at a job for another year is not a reason for a raise. There is a top salary for any job (would you pay $150 to have your lawn mowed if you could hire a kid to do it for $20?). Never stop increasing your educational knowledge- in today's world, technology will move past you if you do not. FYI, with all the possible media posts, Facebook, etc. never post something that you would not put on your resume or hand to your boss. Me? Experience from 50 years of working. Good Luck!