17 Reasons Former Retail Workers Tend To Be Highly Successful People

Clark Street Mercantile
Clark Street Mercantile

1. We know how to be patient, or at least how to pretend really really well. Retail is GO GO GO, but oftentimes the customers are not. We know how to put a smile on our faces and just wait.

2. We are hyper-sensitive to people’s emotions. Closing a sale or keeping someone’s business means keeping them happy. Over time, we became extremely attuned to people’s attitude to make sure we were on the same page.

3. We are literally the masters at finding lost stuff. Customers lost wallets, lost purses, lost babies  — we’ve heard it all, and we’ve found it all.

4. Need someone to talk on the phone? We can do that too. In this modern day a TON of people are anxious about talking on the phone. Not only can we do it, we can always tolerate REALLY annoying people on the phone too.

5. We know how to be polite to people we don’t like. We found ways to polite to our lazy co-workers; to our demanding bosses; to our insane customers who tried to return ticket switched items. We can deal with almost all annoying people that life throws us.

6. Give us a huge mess and we’ll find a way to organize it. Sometimes at the end of the day we would find a clothing table devolved into a clothing volcano. We cleaned it. And we cleaned it again the next day. And the next day. We can clean up messes like total ballers.

7. We are used to people not showing up, but we can still get the job done. We don’t have much patience for people who don’t show up and try; we’ve witnessed too many lazy people call off to not be #bitter, but we’ll get the job done because SOMEONE has to.

8. But we will always help people who ask for it. We are always willing to go out of our way to lend a helping hand to someone who needs it.

9. Also, we just don’t sweat the small stuff. We worked in this environment where there was a billion different things to do and if we only missed a few before lunch we were having a very good day. Mistakes will be made, screw ups will happen, we just pick ourselves back up and keep going.

10. But we always apologize for the big mistakes. We have no interest in defending our pride and souring a relationship. We own the big stuff and try to fix it.

11. Because we are “fixers” at heart. Retail work almost always involves “fixing” things. We fix the displays that customers mess up, we fix customer service issues, we fix everything. Or at least we try.

12. We don’t really care about mean-spirited insults at all. Constructive criticism? Absolutely. But our hearts have been hardened by many nasty customers calling us many nasty names. Trust us, we’ll be okay.

13. We also know how to communicate really well. Sometimes we just had to tell people how it is (Sorry, the return policy is 90 days!) and be respectfully direct. That’s how we are with our friends, with our romantic interests — with everyone.

14. We want people to be happy, but we won’t compromise our integrity to make it happen. Customer satisfaction was very important, but that customer who asked for a “special” discount or wanted us to turn a blind eye to ticket-switching bullsh*t never had sway over us.

15. Because we know how to stand up for ourselves. We’ve had to bring stuff up to our managers, and we’ve had to defend ourselves to customers. We know how to do it with tact (and with still keeping our job!).

16. We are extremely accustomed to working quickly. We really just don’t understand people who are slow? What are you waiting for?

17. And we always get the job done. Because our job depended on it. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

Jacob has written things @ Thought Catalog. Maybe Like him👍 and Follow him🙋?

Keep up with Jacob on Instagram, Twitter and JacobGeers.com

More From Thought Catalog