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29th Sep 2016

21 ways working in retail makes you want to scream and cry every single day

Retail workers, you're our heroes.

Rich Cooper

1. Customers arriving five minutes before the shop shuts:

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Photo: Warner Bros.

 

2. Getting blamed for price increases as though you have any control over anything in this infernal place:

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Photo: LucasArts / Disney

Oh no, sorry, overestimate. I meant overestimate. I can’t do shit.

 

3. Carefully arranging a display, only for it to be destroyed 10 minutes later:

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Photo: @TiffaanyJohnson

 

4. People asking for a 50% discount because the item has a tiny scratch on it and therefore is literally worthless:

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Photo: @fyrsyryn

Ah yes, of course. You know what, here’s 90% off.

 

5. Customers not understanding the difference between what they want and what is available:

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Photo: Comedy Central

You see, what you want is something that we don’t have. Do you see the issue we’re having here?

 

6. *no price label on the product* Customer: So that means it’s free then? Hahahahaha.

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Photo: JustEat

 

7. Giving your biggest, cheeriest “Hello sir/madam” and getting this in return:

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Photo: Getty / Craig Barritt

Good morning to you too!

 

8. Holding out your hand for the customer’s money, who decides to just dump it on the counter:

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Photo: NBC

Oh good, you’re paying with all your loose change too. This won’t take a moment.

 

9. When a customer’s total is €0.02 more than they were expecting:

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10. Customers trying to return something that’s soaking wet, slashed up and covered in jam, claiming that it’s “faulty”:

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Photo: 20th Century Fox

 

11. When the phone rings and rings and rings, then you answer and it’s, “What time do you close?”

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12. “It says everything’s 50% off”. No, everything’s UP TO 50% off…

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Photo: Mark Morgan

Check the not-so-small print.

 

13. Customers asking you to check “The Back” when you know there’s nothing there:

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Photo: Roland Tanglao

What a surprise, there’s nothing there.

 

14. Getting a whopping 15 minute break on your 10-hour shift because work is crazy busy:

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Photo: @grace_bentleyxo

 

15. Parents treating your workplace like a creche and basically letting their children destroy everything:

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Photo: Natalie Greco

Petition to have one of these installed in every shop ever.

 

16. “I have a voucher, but I left it at home.” Well, you don’t really have a voucher then, do you?

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Photo: Coca-Cola / Wired

Also I’m fairly sure that voucher is from 1883.

 

17. When a customer seems to know more about your store policy than you do:

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Photo: Paramount Pictures

Really? Tell me more about how we’ve always stocked this product that we’ve never stocked.

 

18. When it’s 9am on a Monday and the first thing that happens is a customer yelling at you for something that wasn’t your fault:

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19. “Oh wait, here’s 30p.” But I just pressed the £10 button on the till…

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Photo: Warner Bros.

 

20. “Smile!”

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Photo: TriStar Pictures

 

21. When you think it’s been four hours but you’re only 10 minutes into your shift:

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Photo: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Feature image: @iEatBears 

Topics:

shopping,work