Confessions of a Sales Associate

I've only been working as a Sales Associate for a month now but that has given me enough time to see the ups and downs of it. It amazes me how people act when in our store. Granted it is a children's store but still. I would like to give you a few tips of advice for when entering any store. I'm not asking you to take all this in and follow it, just enjoy it from a sales rep's point of view :)
okay..maybe keep some of it in mind.


1) Cleanliness and Organization
We strive to keep our floors clean all day. Free from trash; free from clothes you dump on the floor after looking at them. By the way, there is ALWAYS a trash can somewhere in the store. That means you throw your McDonalds cups away, not shoved in the back of some clothes along the wall.

Understand that we are there until 1 AM, seriously..we are! It doesn't matter that the store closed at 9. We are there until our go-backs (the stuff you leave at the counter or in sections they don't belong in) are back in their proper places. It helps us out a lot for you to put things back where you got them.


Please, please, please...try to put things back WHERE YOU GOT THEM! It does not help us in the end to have to walk half way across the store to put something away you got out of the girls section and set down in the boys. And don't try to make it blend in either. A bright pink flowery shirt does not blend in on a rack with t-shirts of blue and green monster trucks. Just try to put it back where you got it; maybe not on the same rack but at least somewhere in the same section.


2) Do you have this in a size...?



Stores only carry a certain size. I understand that we may not always have the size you want and you will most likely be told to check online. As I mentioned above, we try to keep things in order. That includes sizes. We are also going to put the largest size we have out front first, then start with the smallest to large order.

Let's be realistic: the largest size is bigger and has more design to it. That is why we put it out first. We aren't trying to be mean! We don't do the same on our table displays because we wont have room. I wear a XL and it pisses me off that I have to practically crawl on the floor to get the size I want off the rack. I know it's annoying, but..it's just the way it is. It's easier to stack the XL

on the bottom because it looks better to have a "small to big" stack on the table.

Again, please put clothes back where you got them. If you just throw it on the table, fine.
I will most likely refold it anyways.

It takes me longer to sort through and fold the clothes than anything. Allow me to give you a little tip: If you pick up a shirt that's a size XS, chances are that the size you actually want from that pile has the same exact design and price tag as the XS you picked up. Don't mess through the pile to grab out the size of your choice until you actually want that size. If you happen to see a table or wall display that looks like someone just dumped their laundry, don't step back and think "what a mess!" step back and think "wow..I'm sorry for who ever has to clean this."

3)How long have you been waiting in line?

Ah yes...the long lines. We know it sucks. Wanna know what helps? Take off your hangers! It's not that we are going slow or we don't have enough registers open, it's your damn hangers that you left on that takes what seems like forever to take off. (It could also be the person that has 4 store bags full of clothes).
Just for the record: if you don't think we have enough registers open it's probably because we don't have enough people to help and someone didn't show up for work.
We try to keep things speedy and moving along. Understand that more people are likely to be in the store on either days of tax-free, weekends, or around holidays (including Black Friday). I've been at work where we had all 10 registers open and people still complained to me that we needed to get more registers open.
Also, understand our Return/Exchange policy when we tell you it. We can only offer what we can. It's not our rules, it's the company's. Sorry :)

We appreciate your business. We will take your complaints. But honestly..we ourselves can only do so much.



4) Thou Shall Not Steal!
Last week when I was working I stopped 2 shoplifters within the same hour.

DO NOT STEAL! It doesn't matter if it was on sale for 99cents.
Not much I can say here but: Don't do it!
If you can't see a camera, what makes you think it's not there?
The sales people on the floor aren't just keeping their sections cleaned and organized. We know how many items we put out, how many are in the back, and where they go. We have headsets for a reason people. So that when you ask me for another size and I go check in the back, I tell my buddy across from me and they watch my section while I'm gone. We watch our doors and our sections like a hawk. We are even scanning other associates sections. THOU SHALL NOT STEAL!



To be continued...