Holiday Shopping Tips for 2008
Since I've been working as a retail sales associate for the past four years, I thought I'd offer you these tips on surviving the holidays:
1. Please be patient with sales people! While most stores stress customer service, they do not staff the sales floor adequately due to two factors:
A. No one can predict the store customer traffic other than to say Saturday and Sunday will be hell and the week before Christmas will be worse,
B. Management typically gets performance evaluations and bonuses for keeping payroll down. We just get more work to do and angrier customers, while they get the benefits of working us like dogs.
2. Sales people do not control the ads or even the pricing. We can't help that you saw something cheaper on some unknown web site.
3. Every store does run out of product. No one has an infinite supply of anything and no amount of fussing, cussing or threatening will make product suddenly appear. We try to find and offer substitutes whenever possible.
4. Please don't open product packaging. The pretty pictures and description on the box accurately reflects the box contents 99+ percent of the time!
5. Related to 4 above, if you do open the box, don't ask for an “open box” discount or ask us to find an opened box of product for you. If you opened it and decide you want it, buy it as is or just go away.
6. If you get a telephone call while I'm assisting you, please don't expect me to stand around for four or five minutes while you have a conversation with your husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend. This time of year is just too busy for you to waste my time like that!
7. Keep a close eye on your children, or better yet leave them at home! With as crazy as this time of year is at the stores, it's very easy to lose track of your child. We all have “Code Adam” procedures, but would prefer to not have to use them!
8. We know you're stressed and we're stressed too. Being angry at sales people doesn't accomplish anything. Sales people have many tasks to do with their jobs and being your verbal punching bag is not in our job description. If you want to be mean or angry at the world, that's your business. Just do it somewhere else...
I hope this list is helpful and doesn't strike too close to home. Unfortunately this is based on four years of sales experience in a field I did NOT got to college for! But at least I have a job.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
