Are You Being Served? Part 1

“What work I have done I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn’t have done it. ” -Mark Twain

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I’ve found a job!  It’s in retail… before Black Friday… and Christmas… oh my.

It’s not what I planned to do, but I look forward to learning new skills and seeing where this goes.  I enjoy having a job, and I may find I thoroughly enjoy this job.  I’m open-minded and giving it a chance.  I’m finally getting out of the house away from job applications and job boards I can now safely ignore without worrying about missing something.  There’s always some misery with any job, but the misery of unemployment far outweighs the misery I believe that come with this job and commute.  I know I can handle it, even on the bad days.

So far, one concept that has come up in my training is loss prevention.  This can be best summed up with:

Don’t steal from the store!  For the love of all that good in the world, don’t steal!  It isn’t worth it.  It’s a felony in the United States to steal from an employer.  They know what comes in, what comes out, and what is missing.  You may evade suspicion for a time, but they will find you.  Most are not even smart enough to try to evade.  They think they can just get away with it without consequence.  They will be found in time.

Oh, and if you do find money lying around in the store, that money belongs to the store unless it can be traced to a particular individual.  The store likely won’t care if you are a customer picking up small change you find, but they will care if they find store employees picking it up without turning it in.  To be honest, an employee picking up small change may not be challenged, but the risk is too great.  Whether a customer or employee, please turn in money to the main customer service desk.  Remove the temptation!  The loss prevention officer is watching… always watching!

All I ask is that when you see a retail worker, be kind.  You don’t know his/her life story and I know from looking online that people have bad impressions of retail workers.  It’s an honest job with honest work for honest money.  It’s odd hours and hard work to keep a store functioning.  We’ll work our best to make you happy and find what you need.  The customer is the ultimate boss and his/her decision to buy or not buy decides the fate of the store.  Customer service may not be like the way it was back in Harry Selfridge’s day, but we all know it is essential.  If I don’t know how to help you, I will find someone who will.  I was trained as a librarian and customer service in a library is no different than in a store.

Another piece of advice: order online.  My store will hold online orders for you and you can come pick up item with no shipping charges or worries of the delivery person leaving your package out in the rain.  You can avoid the crush of the crowd during the Black Friday and holiday madness for November and December.  Oh, and the retail workers get to live while the store gets a profit.  It’s a win-win-win!

Good luck to you all this holiday season.