True confession: I used to be one of those sales clerks. I took everything personally, and usually saw customers as a source of frustration and an unwelcome interruption in my day. You know the type. The ones you dread dealing with. Yep. Guilty.
Part of it was my age. I was suffering from a typical case of post-adolescent narcissism. Part of it was lack of training. There aren’t many retail jobs that provide the kind of training that gives you a sense of pride or professionalism. The crap wages didn’t help much, either.
I don’t recall how I landed there, but around the time I started university I got a part-time job at Mark’s Work Wearhouse. That was back in the day when they mostly sold serious work wear, before they went upscale and focused more on fashion. I somehow ended up as product manager for boots and shoes. I was about to become the resident expert on work boots, which also meant I was responsible for ordering thousands of dollars of inventory. I got some basic product information from another staff member and one of the regional managers, and I was off to the races.
I didn’t feel like a generic sales clerk anymore.
