Hey Dude

Retail for the most part is your hand being held until your capable. Because you are gonna be entering the job unaware of a lot of things such as the cash desk or the stock. it is all shown to you and explained. I was similar to yourself and have only been in retail for the last 8 months and I was nervous. Honestly its pretty straight forward.

The downside to being shown everything is that it leave little room for mistakes. Yes they will happen but they will be a bit more of an impact on you.

Another thing that can grind you down slightly is the constant "Motivation" to sell more etc , the first while it feels good to be boosted before a shift then it slowly becomes a nightmare constantly needing to be better and feeling like your letting the company down if you are unable to down something. Such as taking a persons details for the store mailing list.

Just go in and try your best and improve. Then you will be the trainer for the next guy in your position! Its a nice experience if you allow it to be :D

Best of luck!

Personally, going from an IT job to a retail position sounds like career suicide to me. I've done my share of retail and general service, and for me at the very least I found hell is other people and that in retail situations people will turn on you at the drop of a hat if you don't give them exactly what they want when they want it. I would definitely say it's not well-suited to somebody who is shy, but then no two people's experiences are the same. If you want it then go for it.

>>17350476
thank you for your motivating and honest reply man!

is there any "motivation" needed in a simple cashier-like job?
i mean the people bring their stuff and i charge them the amount due, if stuff is misplaced i think i have to also put it back to the designated storage space, but is there even "commission" in-house?

>>17350541
i´m by far no career guy, i don´t care about money that much, i wanna keep my lifestyle as in my apartment, car, food and some spending money - that´s all i need
getting depressed by your job at one point is a steep way down into the rabbit hole and i need change, i came home without energy for anything - i was leeched out because i hated every minute of it (in the last months i might add)
i´m not fixating to retail but i will apply and see how it goes, my final goal is sound engineering but for that i have to save up a bit and look out for parallel to my new job

Retail is a terrible career to get into because the hours suck (weekends) and the wages suck.

Also you'll have a shit day if you are quiet because you'll be bored stupid and your ass manager will try and get you to 'self start' and find bull shit jobs to occupy yourself with which is soul destroying and you'll have a shit day if it is busy because you'll be busy, but at least time will go quick.

Also customers are nuts and lie and generally act despicably even if you've previously had a decent long standing relationship with them.

Also career progression is slow to non-existent and typically is shit like team leader (same shit, but now everyone hates you and you earn a few pennies more), assistant manager (seriously the middle manager is like the worst position because you get shit and are used as an excuse by everybody) or manager, then maybe regional manager and sub manager for multiple sites.

Only the regional and multi-site roles will have transferable skills which will allow you to transfer into other industries which you'll want to do because the pay and hours will always stink even at that level and the political site of the job will wear you down as will the commuting and the fact you always have to be 'on' in order to set a good example.

Also you can't be friendly, because if you are friendly people get butt hurt when you ask them to do shit or call them up on poor performance. You've basically got to be hard right from the start because at the lowest level, retail staff are supposed to burn out and be replaceable because nobody chooses retail as a career. The ones who do want to make a career of it are basically vital to you, but you can rarely treat them as such because they are eventually after your job and are trying to prove that you are a tired burnt out old cynic and they can do so much more.

Source, 8 years working retail progressing from part time to full time to assistant manager to regional manager beneath two national area managers.

>>17350699
Also want to say I'm quite well qualified. I've got an undergraduate degree, a postgraduate arts degree and about three or four random qualifications at 1st or 2nd year university level which I've picked up over the years. I'm 33 and only in the last 5 years have I been able to buy a car and in the last 3 a house. Prior to that working retail meant house sharing, though I could afford to rent my own place, I wanted to buy eventually so chose to live cheaply and use a bicycle.

Also traditional retail is dying. The high street is dying. Everything is going online and very few people actually shop at a physical location now and physical locations are under pressure to turn into 'destination lifestyle experience centres'.

I'm very lucky, we sell a very high end product which is very nice to work with to very nice and well off clients in a very low volume bespoke market where we work with high end home building and renovation. There is a great deal of time and effort invested in each customer and project and there is a lot of skill and knowledge required to sell, but alongside that the place is still a fucking shop with all the usual shop bullshit like staff, stock, cleaning, maintenance etc.

I've seen the places go from 5 staff to 1 or 2. We used to have cleaners/maintenance staff where as now we have to handle that. We used to have a sizeable marketing team, now that is us. We used to have a show team for events, now that is us. Basically every year is do more with less for the same money because the nature of retail is changing and the job is becoming highly specialised.

I can only assume that other retail outlets are going the same way. You can't just stand on a checkout any more. You can while you need to use the check out, but once customers are out of the way, you'll be pricing, cleaning, putting out stock, putting away deliveries, ordering stationary, doing paperwork, dealing with staff issues, researching local marketing, setting up meetings etc.

>>17350699
>>17350741

thanks for your insight on this topic.
it does indeed sound like a terrible idea to me too after reading your experiences
think i´ll put that application at the back of my staple then - how is doing it short term for a few months/a year?

i´m not aiming for it mainly but i saw the offer and thought i´d ask a bit around if it´s worth a shot


guess it sounds fascinating because it´s new to me :/