Because I spent over eight
years as a
retail slave, I know what its like to do this. I'm not proud of my
tenure in
hell and I'm happy to say its over.
In
retail hell,
the holidays were
murder, especially during the
summertime. Here are
two reasons why.
Canadian Tire
It was a
frantic place normally, but Thursdays and Fridays before
long weekends were
absolute hell. Everyone'd come in and buy
camping gear,
auto parts and
home improvement materials to keep themselves busy for the
weekend, while we watched the
lineups get longer and longer.
Customers were always
irate due to low
stock levels and lineups. Us
part-time teens would be the ones to
deal with it.
We'd curse the other
staff who had managed to submit their
requests not to be
scheduled those weekends, but would be
rewarded on
payday for our
efforts.
Christmas and
Father's Day were two other
bouts of
trauma that I had to endure. Nearly every
Canadian man loves
Crappy Tire and their
friends,
wives and
children all know this. I've seen
housewives fight over tool and
fishing lure sales and I've been told to
fuck off on
Christmas Eve.
As a
cashier, I
feared these times.
Customers would bring out
wads of
Canadian Tire Money that were rolled up
tight and my
thumbs would
cramp up while counting 5
¢ coupons into 20 piles of
$1 each while I stared at the
lineups that were 20 people
deep.
It made me
bitter.
Business Depot Back to School brings hundreds of
thousands of dollars per day in over the course of two weeks. Its like
Christmas-and you thought those "most wonderful time of the year" commercials were cute...
The
company does not let anyone take any
time off during the last week of
August and the first week of September as the stores are
chaotic and
product arrivies by the
truckload faster than anyone can get it out onto the sales
floor.
My least
favourite memories of working at BD during this time include but are not limited to
Running around in polyester for
8 hours and dealing with the
parents of
children who attended
private schools with
prescibed lists of
product that must be
purchased.
They'd
find us (we'd usually be
throwing cases of
binders or looseleaf
paper on the floor) and give us the lists. They'd then throw fits of
rage when we denied them
service due to the fact that we were busy serving everyone else who was
shopping there.
Needless to say, I do not work in retail any more and I am
grateful for that. I'm sure anyone who works in the field can give other
tales of working the holidays in retail.