Camera Store - The Hell of Retail

Stress Is Inherent, UNAVOIDABLE

In retail, where any smart store hires fewer employees than would be needed for customers to not have to wait to be helped (i.e. In retail, where people HAVE to be made to wait as there are often more people than sales associates), the salesman must be (or at least look) stressed out in order for it to look like he's doing his job properly.

If I'm taking in someone's film order and there are people waiting, I HAVE to do it as fast as possible, even sacrificing being very friendly. If I'm showing someone cameras, I have to do it in an abbreviated way, and tell the other customers (during pauses that are hard to find or engineer) "I'll be with you in just a second" (which, to the person I'm talking to, will hopefully translate into "I'll be with you as soon as this customer here stops wasting my time"). If the phone rings and I'm with a customer, then I say so, but if it's an important call that I HAVE to take, then speaking calmly will offend the waiting customer.

In short, acting calmly while someone is waiting for you to help them is, well, practically rude. So, if there are more people than sales associates in the store at any one time (which is often), we all have to at the very least act stressed out, and talk and move fast, for the sake of those waiting.

We do have to. Trust me. I've had a couple customers wait until their patience ran out, and I suspect that on those cases, their patience ran out extra fast because they felt we were not hurrying and were doing things at too leisurely a rate.

Sometimes I wish I COULD be calm all the time, making sure I do things well and making sure I talk to people slowly and curteously so that they know they are important, rather than just someone taking up everyone's time. That's the way I act in real life. But in the store, it's just impossible, unless I want to really piss off the people who are waiting. How sad.

Commander Data would be very disliked if he worked retail. I can see someone getting all impatient, and him going, with all the calm in the world, "Forgive me, Ma'am, but I am currently occupied in helping this customer, and I am afraid you must await your turn if you seek my assistance".

I wish we had one of those take-a-number things, or (on really busy days) those restaurant pager thingies that buzz when it's your turn. Or at least a QUEUE, you know, a zig-zaggy line defined by ropes or something! Some camera stores DO have those. But not ours, sadly.

(For American readers: That's pronounced KYOO, by the way, not KWEE-wee or KYOO-wee).

posted by Remus