 |
| 10/19/23 Costco customers |
My first experience with getting to know the general consuming
public was working at the Woodland Park Zoo concession stand. Hair stiff with
sugar from the cotton candy machine and clothes smelling like popcorn grease were
nothing compared to taking money from customers all day. At 16, I wasn’t mature
enough to consider the day those parents might have been having with their
screaming kids (though I often wanted to advise them, Why don’t you just let
them run around in the park like they want to do instead of forcing them to
look at animals?). All I could think about was the bad day I was having.
 |
| 11/13/23 Costco self-checkout area |
On one particularly bad day, I couldn’t force myself to
smile anymore, and I nearly slammed the hotdog down on the counter as I
grumbled her total to the customer. Speaking very quietly and gently so that the
nearby supervisor wouldn’t hear, she said, “I know you’re having a bad day. But
don’t take it out on the customers – they might be having a bad day, too.” With
compassion instead of anger, her admonition stopped me in my tracks. Her
comment changed my attitude that day and the rest of the summer.
Decades later in my 40s when I was making a career
transition, I worked part time in a bead shop. For the most part, bead shop
customers were relaxed, happy people who made jewelry for themselves as a hobby,
so that retail experience was very different from zoo concessions. Still, it’s
always the unpredictable public on the other side of the counter, whether the
goods are beads or popcorn.
 |
| 10/17/23 outside Macrina Bakery |
One day I was explaining the store policy to a customer that
products couldn’t be returned without a receipt. Her volume increasing rapidly, she
argued with me as I continued repeating the policy. Finally she threw the offending
product at me and stormed out. A bad day for both of us, for sure.
Several weeks later the customer returned. Approaching me
directly at the counter, she apologized very sincerely for taking out on me the
bad day she had been having then.
Though I’m relieved that I have never worked retail
again, I believe that everyone should have the experience of working
retail, if only for a few days. In a short time, it will teach you more about
the general public than you ever wanted to learn. It will also teach you
compassion for anyone who works retail, especially this time of year.
 |
| 10/31/23 PCC display |
 |
| 11/28/23 Green Lake |
 |
| 11/29/23 patient in a sketchwaiting room |
 |
| 12/1/23 Maple Leaf neighborhood |
 |
| 12/2/23 Capitol Hill neighborhood |
Great story about compassion. (I believe that deep down, we are all angels having a human existence.) Loved the Maple Leaf pickup truck line drawing. -Roy
ReplyDeleteI'm grateful that I had that opportunity to learn compassion early in my life. Thanks, Roy!
DeleteNice sketches of the people you encountered shopping. Working retail for any amount of time teaches you a lot about people. In college I worked in a department store which was an eye-opening experience. lol I also worked for a dentist as a receptionist and assistant. (Yes, I was the one helping to suck out the saliva with that lovely tube.) Imagine people having a bad day and then enduring some horrid procedure in their mouth.
ReplyDeleteI worked in a dental office, too -- right before college! Yeah, nothing like sucking saliva out of someone's mouth to give one a different perspective! ;-)
DeleteI so agree with what you've said about working retail and having bad days on both sides of the counter. I worked several different retail jobs and although I did have some enjoyable repeat customers at the last one, in general I soon realized retail was not for me. I went back to secretarial work and then retired early (that particular job turned into a real nightmare that very nearly caused me a nervous breakdown). Seems a nine to five day job with managers looming over me was not for me either. Many years later, a quilting friend and I experimented with dyeing our own fabric, and I was horrified the day she showed up on my doorstep announcing that she had decided this was what she wanted to do with her life - hand dye fabric and sell it - and would I help. And there I was, suddenly foisted back into retail, as we found shows where we could vend our goods. It just confirmed how much I hated retail even though I loved producing our product. Even in the quilt world there are nasty customers and otherwise nice people having bad days. So glad those days are forever behind me. Indeed, even a short stint behind the counter should make anyone more understanding. And didn't you love the judge who sentenced a person to working in a fast food restaurant for two months after throwing a burrito bowl at a Chipotle worker?
ReplyDelete