Holiday Shopping List
‘tis the Season
By: Lydia Dodson
It’s beginning to look a lot like
Christmas. When you live in
the normal world this means
wonderful trees decorated
with lights, ornaments, and
tinsel, Santa’s magic allowing the possibility of anything
you could dream of, and Jingle
Bells echoing out of most radio
stations. When you live in the
retail world however, Christmas
means H-E-double-hockeysticks.
I was always raised that Christmas was a time of giving and
celebration. The spreading of
“cheer” if you will. Trust me
when I say, there is no “cheer”
being spread to anybody who
works in a mall or store of
any kind. Instead us innocent
cashiers get blamed for all the
“overpriced” merchandise, the
store’s inability to carry that obscure beige lampshade they are
searching for, and most of all,
they fact that we dared to make
them wait in any way shape or
Image courtesy of Footage Firm
form, let alone a line. Ironically
though it may seem, the holiday
season brings out the very worst
of shoppers (usually not a fun
bunch of people to begin with). have decided to compose a holiday shopping list for you all. Not
So, as a Retail Professional with a shopping list of what to buy,
a good amount of experience
but more importantly a list of redealing with such lovely cusminders of how to behave while
tomers and somehow managing you are shopping to make every
to keep smiling at all of them, I cashier’s life a little easier.
I have never understood why
waiting in a line makes even the
seemingly nicest mom of two
turn into the Lochness Monster.
I work in a semi large store. We
have three entrances and a total
of 8 cash registers in the building. Usually for staffing reasons
we have three of those open at
all times. With a store that size,
there are bound to be lines. But
put people in a line of only 3 or
4 people ahead of them? Watch
out. Something doesn’t have a
bar-code to scan so you have to
call for a price? They start to
loudly sigh, look around, and
complain. You can feel their
tempers rising and rising. To use
the cliché, these people become
boiling pots that threaten to
overflow. And you even DARE
to have computer trouble? Forget it. They will either put their
stuff down and storm outta there
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