Mina's Department Store Stories

By Jessica Samuels

The customer is not always right! If you have ever worked retail then this is the book for you, department store style. The customers are crazy and the situations are hilarious. It will provide you with tips on how to make a retail worker happy with you. And show you what a day is like in a department store as well as show you stories of rude, crazy and even the stupid things customers say to retail workers. Some will make you laugh and some will make you want a drink. Get ready and let's dive into the wacky world of department store stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jessica Samuels
• Release date: Jul 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393037132

Jessica Samuels

Jessica Samuels is an author who writes young adult and new adult paranormal romance. When she isn’t writing about vampires, werewolves, witches and angels she is watching stream, reading and playing video games with friends to pass the time.

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Mina’s Department Store Stories

Mina’s Department Store Stories

Tips and Stories From a Department Store Worker

Jessica Samuels

Copyright © 2020 by Jessica Samuels

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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To department store retail workers and former ones this book is for you! You guys deal with a lot and keep on hanging in there!

Contents

Foreword

1. Opening Stories

2. Customer Service Hell!

3. The Trouble With Orders

4. Kids and Lingerie area stories!

5. The Trouble with Coupons

6. Sales Floor Stories and list of Cashier pet peeves

7. Fitting Room Stories

8. Why people Return Stuff!

9. The Trouble with Mannequins

10. Closing shifts!

11. Things Retail Workers Have No Control Over

12. Sh$! Department Store Customers Say and my Answers

13. Reasons Why a Customer Wants A Manager

14. Do you Work here?

15. Things I will never miss about working retail!

16. Black Friday

17. Thoughts a Department Store worker has During a shift:

18. How to be a Good Customer and not an Asshole to Retail Workers!

The End!

19. Tales from Behind the Counter Register Chapter

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Jessica Samuels

Foreword

Do you work here? a customer asked me while I was putting away clothes off a rack. I was also wearing my Nikki’s name badge with the name Mina. 

Yes, I look at my name badge so they can see how stupid it is to ask me that.

 She laughed oblivious to my joke. Can you check me out since I can’t find anyone to help me check out?

I look over at the few registers in the kids and intimate area. She was right. There was no one around. Of course my coworkers could be in the bathroom or putting away other clothes in different departments. This is why I hate taking returns in different areas. The register even had someone else panicking while waiting at the registers. 

Yes, someone is here. the customer in front of the register waiting at the counter said. And then she glared when she spotted me since it’s my fault I kept her waiting. Where have you been? I have been waiting here for ten minutes and haven’t been able to find anyone! 

Cleaning the area. We don’t just stand behind the register the whole day. I said. No need to be bitchy to me either since it’s not my fault. 

Well, maybe you should since I can’t find you anyway. Nikki’s has only gotten worse over the years, they hire idiots, and most of you can’t do your jobs. She said. Whatever. Impatient bitches happen all the time.

Okay, let me ring you up and let you be on your way so you can abuse someone else. I said. She was speechless. And I quickly rang her up and the other older lady. And they are why I drink. 

I don’t care if you complain to me about stuff I can’t control. I work retail at a department store where they don’t pay me enough to put up with bullshit. I am not a dumbass retail worker since I have my degree. My field is so competitive that I am stuck here until I find something else. I hope I do soon I graduated with my degree so I thought it would be easy to find something else instead it wasn’t. I have been working here for one year and seven months. I have spent countless nights questioning my life choices and wondering where it all went wrong. I have alcohol stocked up after work since after dealing with dumbasses all day I will need it to take the edge off. Something to dull the fact that I am a miserable retail worker who just graduated college and ended up in a mound of debt. I feel like a failure. Period. Stuck behind a register to be mocked at and laughed at by customers since they don’t think it is a real job. I was done with my pathetic life, and customers who treat me like I can’t read when they need help with their cards. The happiest day of my life is when I turned in my two week’s notice. The last day I worked and clocked out was the best feeling in the world and that is what this book is about. Me looking back on my time in retail, free of it and moving on. I kept track of all the mean customers, angry ones, and even have a few fun chapters, too. 

I work in a department store and it has crazy customers, long lines, and endless returns. Nikki’s is for people to afford nice shoes, clothes, and even stuff for their homes. I love the employees working here since they are close to one another. There is also a music track that doesn’t include freaking holiday songs instead it’s songs I can actually sing to and some I get sick of. But they do play holiday music in November, and having to endure music like that totally sucks.

There are actually interesting stories since a department store closes and opens. And special holiday hours, too. And then there are times when listening to the Christmas music will drive you crazy, and all the register lines are out the door. You don’t just sit behind a register all day either like people think we do. We have to clean up fitting rooms full of clothes no one wants, put up items from racks that people stuff clothes on, and make sure the entire floor is clean while answering the many questions we get throughout the day. Questions like where is the bathroom, if the coupon works with the item, and where stuff is on mannequins. A lot of stuff is going on and we have to deal with people complaining we aren’t there when we are right in front of them.  

Retail is not for everyone either, and you have to actually like people to work in this field. Bonus points for patience since some of the transactions can get complicated due to miscommunication, and people trying to make it more complicated than it actually is. Customers will also talk down to you as if they are better then you just because you have a job in retail. I get looked down on just because I work. And it’s so easy I can practically be drunk while ringing up people. I get comments like, Let me make this easy for you. And ones like, I feel sorry for you if this is what you have to do, a customer said while looking at the enormous pile of shit someone left me to clean up. I mean I get hassled a lot by customers to the point where I zone out. Sorry if I don’t care about your sarcasm or humor when I was yelled at for the eighth time over a coupon not working for an old lady on an item. 

Some days during the week can be slow like Monday-Wednesday depending on if it’s a normal day, and some days are so busy with constant register lines, full fitting rooms, and people who ask you nonstop questions will make you wish you had vodka to chug after the shift. Don’t even get me started on holidays since it will be crazy to be there during Christmas and Black Friday. Especially some days before on a good day I wouldn’t touch that with a ten foot pole. Those days will make you wish you stocked up on alcohol. 

There are days when I love working at Nikki’s, and there are days I would love to just walk out since everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Hell, that one dipshit manager made me want to walk out and not finish my shift at all. It is not easy by any means and the comments from the customers just suck since some aren’t exactly nice.  

Also, I have seen a lot of stuff here, too and it’s not easy either since it can be like walking into a flaming car.  I could quite literally see people setting themselves on fire since the coupons didn’t work. People also can’t read signs either.  And if you loved Tales From Behind the Counter you will love this book since it has stories from a department store this time, and not a discount store. Welcome to high end retail where there are expensive brand named clothes, no alcohol is sold, and the customer base has more money to blow then bachelors in a strip club. My name is Mina, and I have been working in a department store for a while.

This book will have stories, pet peeves, and some of the angriest and mean customers I have dealt with working in customer service and even working in the bra and kids area. I have also worked all over the store in different departments since when you work retail then you work everywhere. You also have to be pretty flexible if you want to work retail, and if there is a call out at the store they could call you to come in to work, which means there goes your only day off. And department stores are so short staffed they sometimes give away hours because they need all the help they can get. I have worked all over Nikki’s from Customer Service, Young Adults. Everywhere, and in that time I have accumulated tips, stories, and even some funny angry customer experiences to go with it. If you think the customer is always right then this isn’t the book for you. This book will show you they are anything but right, and some of these stories will have you go to your nearest bar ordering sympathy drinks. In fact, during the making of this while reading all these stories I have even drank in response to remember everything and all the shitty customers that stuck out. There are good points like someone giving me a card when I was going through family issues, and the managers who I liked were actually supportive when I went through a difficult time.  So, sit down and grab your drinks since these stories and tips will have you happy that you haven’t worked retail, and if you have, then you know the pain of having to walk a customer who can’t read a sign properly. There are some good to it like working at a department store means having some very close friends, and even some of the customers are friendly, too. Not all are bad, and it’s the angry, stupid ones that make these stories entertaining. I wish this was all I had to inconvenience my day. Not some of these customers; and some of them think it’s the end of the world since their item doesn’t work with a coupon. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy my stories of pain. And in the end, I left retail, and I am now in a happier place. Retail is also a thankless job, and something in between. It had moments where I was dreading to go in, and I wasn’t happy, so I got out of it and had something better lined up. It will also cause a drinking problem since conditions can suck due to understaffing, horrible customers, and the pay sucks, too. Retail jobs are minimum wage jobs, and it’s not enough to live off even full time. 

Chapter 1

Opening Stories

If you work at a department store, then it closes and opens. Sales people are there fifteen minutes early to listen to announcements, talk about the