Work Thoughts

One thing that kind of bites about working retail is the late nights. When I worked at Hobby Lobby, a closing shift would usually be from 2:00 to 8:00. Six hours isn't an abnormally long shift, but it's a long time to be on your feet. At my new job, a gift shop, we don't close until 9:00, so if I'm on the closing shift I'm usually not driving home until close to 9:30.

All sorts of people come into the shop. Well, they're all tourists, or nearby merchants looking for a discounted soda, or, once in a while, someone looking to sell their products to the store. What I mean is, there are a lot of different types of customers:

The friendly, jovial type. They'll chat you up about the weather or what song is on the radio, and they usually buy something.

The opposite of those above: people who don't acknowledge you when you greet them, who may not even look you in the eye as they silently skulk around the shop. Maybe they'll buy something, but it won't be much.

Then there's the customer with a clear purpose. They know what they want, and they're not going to waste time browing. I had one man come in who, before I could even say "Hello", said to me, determinedly, "Pins that you put in baseball caps." He skipped the normal social graces of a greeting or a smile; he didn't even phrase his desire in the form of a question, that's how important it was. It was a simple, direct statement, and when we didn't have what he wanted, he left to seek elsewhere.

Some tourists are so, well, touristy. They don't want to spend money on anything that's not made in New Mexico. We carry small stone trinkets that are made in Peru; a little girl told her mother she liked them, but when mom noticed the "Made in Peru" sticker, she said, "Oh, put that back, we want something from here."

Of course, customers come in all shapes and sizes. Girls my age chatting about wedding plans and who seemed to pretend that I didn't exist once they got to the register. They wanted to talk to each other, buy their things, and leave, without making small talk, or much eye contact, with me. Excited kids, bored kids, kindly middle-aged couples, or angry parents, perhaps exhausted by walking in the heat. A mother asked her daughter to pick out a gift for someone; a friend or cousin, perhaps. The daughter responded in a murmur I couldn't hear, and the mother bent down and nearly shouted in her face, "I don't care!" I resolved on the spot to never shout in the faces of my children, unless it is truly for their benefit.

I'm working today for nine hours, and again tomorrow, which will make two Fridays in a row that I've closed. I'm hoping that Friday night closing shifts won't be a consistent trend.