In my years of working, I have spent quite a bit of time in retail. Most of this time has been as a second job. I started at Montgomery Ward, as a lawn and garden salesman. I fell into disfavor with management due to my inability to sell service contracts. Personell decided to put me in a non commission job in the paint department. That worked out better for me, but I did miss those commission checks, but the pressure was off to sell those things designed to give the store 100% profit.
The Monkey Ward store where I was at closed their doors, but the Sears store in the same mall, Rolling Acres, hired many of the former employees. It was there where I started perfecting my routine at the "cash wrap" or registers. I was very entertaining as I would ring up someone's purchase. As the terminal would come up with the total. which took a couple of seconds(this was 1986), I would point my index fingers as to shoot the register and give the total. If there were Kids around, I would really pour it on. My time at Sears also included stints in the electronics department, and automotive.
I spent a whole five weeks selling cars. The less said about that the better. Let's just say I have too many scruples to sell cars.
From the car dealership, where I got fired, I went to Fretter Superstore. It was working there when I was introduced to Prozac. I spent 3-1/2 years there, 3 months as an assistant manager. I was probably one of the most knowledgeable salespeople in the Akron, Ohio area. But what did it make me? Probably the lowest paid teacher. When you have to push a Goldstar VCR over Sony, something is rotten in Denmark. I played the game for a while and was being groomed as a manager, but I couldn't reconcile being a Christian to some of the practices being done there.
We had a training session conducted by the district manager. It was about selling service contracts. He told us to take the customer, bend them over the counter. **** them, and break it off. And do it in a way that they will thank you for doing it. Is it any surprise that this company has been out of business for many years? I left there with no intent of ever going back into retail. During the last three months I was there I also worked at the K-Mart Super Center in Medina during night shift stocking shelves. I will cover this in a future post.
Once again I needed some extra cash, so I applied at Wal-Mart. This was to be very temporary and vary part time. I had originally planned to work there on Fridays and Saturdays during the Christmas season. I was assigned to the electronics department and my act was well received. A three month stay turned into two years. It was then that I perfected my public address skills(gooooooooooooood evening Wal-Mart shoppers).
The 2 years that I was working there, the store transformed into a Wal-Mart Supercenter. I will explain why I cal it the Evil Big Box Store, which is more tongue in cheek than anything else.
I can say that in my two years at Wal-Mart, I was able to now able to leave retail on my own terms, and that was to leave them wanting more,
The Monkey Ward store where I was at closed their doors, but the Sears store in the same mall, Rolling Acres, hired many of the former employees. It was there where I started perfecting my routine at the "cash wrap" or registers. I was very entertaining as I would ring up someone's purchase. As the terminal would come up with the total. which took a couple of seconds(this was 1986), I would point my index fingers as to shoot the register and give the total. If there were Kids around, I would really pour it on. My time at Sears also included stints in the electronics department, and automotive.
I spent a whole five weeks selling cars. The less said about that the better. Let's just say I have too many scruples to sell cars.
From the car dealership, where I got fired, I went to Fretter Superstore. It was working there when I was introduced to Prozac. I spent 3-1/2 years there, 3 months as an assistant manager. I was probably one of the most knowledgeable salespeople in the Akron, Ohio area. But what did it make me? Probably the lowest paid teacher. When you have to push a Goldstar VCR over Sony, something is rotten in Denmark. I played the game for a while and was being groomed as a manager, but I couldn't reconcile being a Christian to some of the practices being done there.
We had a training session conducted by the district manager. It was about selling service contracts. He told us to take the customer, bend them over the counter. **** them, and break it off. And do it in a way that they will thank you for doing it. Is it any surprise that this company has been out of business for many years? I left there with no intent of ever going back into retail. During the last three months I was there I also worked at the K-Mart Super Center in Medina during night shift stocking shelves. I will cover this in a future post.
Once again I needed some extra cash, so I applied at Wal-Mart. This was to be very temporary and vary part time. I had originally planned to work there on Fridays and Saturdays during the Christmas season. I was assigned to the electronics department and my act was well received. A three month stay turned into two years. It was then that I perfected my public address skills(gooooooooooooood evening Wal-Mart shoppers).
The 2 years that I was working there, the store transformed into a Wal-Mart Supercenter. I will explain why I cal it the Evil Big Box Store, which is more tongue in cheek than anything else.
I can say that in my two years at Wal-Mart, I was able to now able to leave retail on my own terms, and that was to leave them wanting more,
Comments
Have a Merry CHristmas if I don't get to visit again before then.