As soon as I turned 18, I had one of my first jobs at Forever21 in a popular city plaza. Of course being my last year in high school having this cool, trendy job was a game changer for me in so many ways. But I soon learned that this part-time job was a full-time love and hate relationship. The job wasn't just about putting away clothes or cleaning fitting rooms, there was always some kind of drama. Don't get me wrong, I loved my job (I'll admit the discount could've been better)- but it set me up for all my following retail jobs. Just to quickly recap a majority of my resume, I was a shift lead at Children's Place, an associate at New York &amp; Company, a store manager in training at Kohls, a shift lead at CVS, and lastly an associate at Ross. Let's just say I discovered I had terrific communication with other people and problem solving skills but when I look back I always wish someone would've told me what to expect to work in retail- you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly truths. So let's dive in for those of you who are truly curious...

I always like to hear my bad news first, I can only speak for my own worst experiences at each place of course because other places could have been different. Some of it is a harsh truth that most people in retail already know about, but why not share that with the world, right? If someone told me any of these common experiences before I applied to all my favorite shopping spots, I probably would've been more picky sending my applications.
<ul>
 	<li><strong>You will <em>always</em> deal with people stealing.</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Part of every job training is learning how to customer service the heck out of customers (or "killing them with kindness" as I was taught) as a form of loss prevention. You are expected to always be on the look out for certain signs of stealing, like torn off hard tags or censors. Most of the time, you get regular shop lifters- they do the same trick every time. They may recognize you and even know what camera blind spots the store may have. You can't confront people either, even if you saw it happen right before your eyes. It could cause violence and really escalate- no one wants to see that.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">I think my most angering moment for myself was a time when I was cashiering (<em>at I won't say where or when exactly</em>). I saw a couple fill up an entire cart full of random items. I slowly rung up the whole thing- a whopping $500. In my head I'm like okay, they have a card ready but something is off- they kept trying to get me to walk away or distract me. They were both very talkative, very friendly. Not at all nervous or jittery, very confident that they are leaving with these items. Well little did I know was that their pony trick was heavy in motion. As soon as I bagged items one person immediately wanted to hold it, she wouldn't even let me add to the bag. Then when I bagged that last bag, the other person, he, distracted me and the person with the bags walked out before I even noticed. So then it's just me and him- he keeps trying his card. Decline after decline. Then he silently stops and walks out. I try to get a license plate as he is declining from my other coworker and they had blacked out their plate!</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Other customers will try to cheat the system, meaning people will try to bring back things they stole expecting full cash back for it or people will bring it back after wearing it down. One person bought a pair of shorts for their child, an hour later the kid peed in it while they were still in the mall. She came back with the smelly soaking shorts expecting a full refund.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">I mean you expect <em>anyone</em> to walk in, but it really could be <em>anyone </em>that day- a drunk person, a homeless person, a bunch of regulars who steal, teens who steal, moms who steal- and yes I've seen it all. It really can create this huge distrust for people and the public as a whole. It either bothers you and your entire shift because for me- that's my job, if people keep stealing while I'm on duty I must be doing something wrong. Or you really don't care about that, go about your day and the stealing keeps happening.</p>

<ul>
 	<li><strong>Some customers are racist, and sometimes your coworkers are too.</strong></li>
</ul>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Okay so this is going to be brief. I am a hispanic woman, I don't speak Spanish fluently but I do have strong hispanic attributes. Not that my background matters but since COVID-19, I have experienced much more blatant hate from both coworkers and customers for literally no reason. I don't take it to heart when hurtful words are being said- but it hurts and it still makes me cry in anger. For any of these occasions, I have always reported to corporate or HR. Sometimes problems get solved, but most of the time you never really see the consequence if there is any. I do know that one of my coworkers did get let go for reportedly being racist but it took more than 10 reports. That's more than 10 instances of racism. It can definitely bring your mood down, and I'm not going to lie I didn't want to work there or work with certain people. It should never get that difficult for you or anybody to work in such a hostile environment. It could really happen at any job you get but what really matters is how the workplaces handles the situation.</p>

<ul>
 	<li>Coupons and credit cards will tire you out.</li>
</ul>
Signing people up for credit cards or emails is the one of the biggest concerns for companies anywhere. Why?- because your hooking one time shoppers into becoming regular buyers. Not only that but instead of getting debit charges from different banks, you're directly giving the store funds. So for the big boss, this is main priority for all associates. There are usually daily goals and pep talks, managers usually listen in on how you're asking and what you could do better.
<ul>
 	<li>Stores will sell anything- even if it's broken or missing pieces.</li>
 	<li>Hours are ridiculous: You are expected to work every single holiday.</li>
</ul>
be okay with hours getting cut