From the 1970s farce of Are You Being Served?, with jokes about Mrs Slocombe’s, erm, pet cat, to the recent PhoneShop, TV sitcoms have managed to get more than a few laughs from the experience of working in retail.
The prospect of dealing face to face with customers isn’t one that will appeal to everyone, but for those brave few who put themselves in this vital frontline role, it can prove to be a shrewd and satisfying career choice.
Despite recent news reports of the grocery giants cutting staff, people are buying – with the Office of National Statistics reporting the 24th consecutive month of growth in March 2015.
With so many part-time jobs there are opportunities on the frontline for students bored with daytime reruns of Countdown, and parents who must fit work around childcare commitments.
If the time comes, however, when you are looking for full-time work, or desire to move up the retail career ladder, a solid background that shows you’ve had your boots on the ground will boost your CV.
As we all know, life would be great if it wasn’t for other people, and what’s certain is that frontline sales assistants see people at their best, buzzing from their retail therapy hit, and worst, not hearing the answers they hoped to, such as: “No, sorry, the 50 Shades of Grey DVD is out of stock.”
The customer might not always be right, but they need to be listened to and treated with respect – no matter how unreasonable. Those skills, generally termed soft skills, are invaluable and ironically can be the hardest to come by.
This ability to be calm under pressure can be learned as the first point of contact. Anyone who doesn’t become flustered when they see a Christmas Eve queue snaking as far as the eye can see, will learn to apply that same calm when they are dealing with the front end of the impatient queue from behind the till.
Conversely, when the checkout area is quiet, taking the opportunity to write reports, make sure the sales area is tidy and attractive, or being willing to help a colleague will show the ability to make the best use of down time rather than having a crafty half hour on Facebook under the desk.
These are qualities that win the battle on the frontline of retail: they are also the skills that will benefit anyone who hopes to progress up the ladder into retail management and needs to motivate their own team to perform at their best at all times.
Far from being the drone, the shop assistant is the crack commando, getting the job done. Have you got what it takes? Search for a retail job now.