It's Hannah: 7 Reasons To Be Nice to Retail Employees

I'm writing this completely exhausted, mentally muddled, and just plain tired. Let me begin by saying it's Homecoming season, which means an endless amount of teenage girls running into my store trying to find 'THE perfect dress'. Now, this is not the average amount of 20 or so girls a week that just try on dresses for dressup. No. It's twenty or thirty times worse. This is incredibly long lines to the dressing room. This is scattered clothing, a constant flow of dresses being pushed in my face, dirty looks, and many rude people.

Now, let me say that I really truly love my job. I love helping girls find their sense of style and give my input on such things. What I love even more is that we carry plus sizes. Being a plus sized girl I know how that feels to literally find nothing that looks even remotely fashionable. Most clothes that come in plus look and fit like tents - if I'm being honest here. But when Homecoming and Prom season comes around I want nothing to do with my job - in fact I'd rather be anywhere else.

So based on the weekend I had, I've come up with 7 reasons to be nice to retail employees, sass included. Some completely true, others just because.

1. We want to help you.

I know it may not seem like it when we're flustered with 20 dresses in our hands, but it's really true. We want to help you find whatever it is your looking for and more, but sometimes we just don't have time. Sometimes there's not enough people on the floor for me to drop everything and help you find something. Sometimes it's just me trying to handle a huge group of girls trying to fit into 6 dressing rooms. Have patience or ask someone who looks less busy. I promise they will help.

2. We're not perfect and forget things.

Remember that time I completely forgot to find that red, sparkly dress in a Medium? Yeah that happened twice yesterday and three times today. It's going to take me a long time to find that dress for you. You may even have to remind me a couple times. But if you see that I have a line stretching until the register and you're in a rush, your best bet is to ask your friend. I'm sure she'll grab it for you, if not then you need to find new friends.

3. We have to listen to that favorite song of yours over and over and over...

Believe me One Direction and Selena Gomez get sickening after a while. When you work in retail you don't even want to hear your favorite song outside of work if it's on that playlist. Not even a snippet preview of it.

4. We have to put away every single thing you try on.

Yeah, those 8 dresses you have in your hand? We have to put every single one of those away. Oh, the ones you also put in the wrong spot just because? We have to take even more time going through the racks to put those away too. Believe me it's 10 times easier if you just let me put away all of them.

5. We work long shifts with what seems like not long enough breaks.

Ever worked an 11 hour shift completely on your feet before? I have. Not fun. Even an 8 hour shift seems treacherous on a weekend. A half an hour never seems long enough.

6. The longer you stay, the longer we do too.

When the music goes off and the gate slowly starts to close, that's your cue to leave. We still have a million other things to do after we close and 95% of them we can't do unless you leave. So staying until 9:45 when we closed at 9:00 makes it so much harder for us to get out at our scheduled 9:30, actually it's now impossible.

7. We just want someone to talk to.

The dressing rooms are a scary place away from everyone else in the store. So making a small conversation with someone in line makes my day go by faster, and it makes me so much happier to just have someone to talk to. I don't care if you're talking to me about how you thought you were a size 5 but now you've put on weight and are a size 9.

I really truly love my job, actually about 99% of us do. Being nice to retail employees makes a world of difference during stressful days. About ten times in the span of six hours I felt like crying because of the amount of people swarming around me or giving me rude comments. I've been in retail for a year now, and it's taught me so much and I really do love it a lot. I want to meet as many people as I can, I want to hear about their life and stories. In some ways I'm able to do that. I can brighten up someone's day with a simple hello or lend a helping hand when getting a dress down. It's a rewarding job and so great. But days like today wear on you, making the good days, really great ones.