Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Wonderful World of Retail

Justin and I were watching SNL last night, and this skit had us laughing SO HARD!



Don't ya just love those obnoxious commercials promoting "huuuuge sales events!" and "blowout savings!!!"? My friend Marta arrives this Tuesday (Eeee!) and we are pumped and ready to hit the Black Friday sales at 4am.. We'll definitely find some good deals, but more than anything we're anticipating some real psychotic-freak-action with the 'doorbusters' and mass chaos - all just to save a few bucks. I can't wait, it's gonna be pretty entertaining!

Of all my memorable moments in the years I've spent in cosmetics, I will never forget the times I've spent with my good friends (and co-workers at the time) Jade and Misty. Misty and I would bend over backwards for our sweet, yet scatter-brained boss, unloading boxes and boxes of products.. Jade and I would crouch behind the counters and sing LOUD and off-key along with the Christmas music playing over the store on repeat, watching people's reactions.. Pretty sure we wet ourselves laughing! Ohhh, I'll be sure to share more cosmetic department memories later.

It's nice to finally be able to enjoy Christmas now that I don't work in the retail world anymore. No more cheesy/overplayed music, no more redundant tinsel and customers asking for gift receipts after the transaction completes, no more ugly "complimentary gift-wrapping", no more gifts-with-purchase, no more annoying customers asking for "free samples" with no intention of buying. Ohh, so sweet. All this Black Friday anticipation reminds me of when I worked in cosmetics at Herberger's back home.. Not only did I have to be to work by 3:30am, but I had to park and ride a bus, which shuttled all the mall employees from 10 miles away, so all of the parking spaces could be free for the super-shoppers. I will never forget that morning.. Adults screaming and pushing and shoving, fighting over who-got-in-line-first and debating that they can use coupons in cosmetics (what do you think this is people, Wal-Mart?!). Then, of course, all of the registers were overloaded and the entire store slowed down to snail-pace, ticking off the customers even more.

Can't WAIT!


xo

1 comment:

  1. OOOOOH, how I remember this!! I would complain that we didn't get paid enough for all the things we had to do (since we didn't make commission).

    We would unload boxes of fragrance, potpourri, and strivectin stretch mark cream! We opened box after box of Herberger's brand shower gel and lotion that smelled AWFUL and always seemed to leak during shipping. Of course we can't forget the baskets full of cheap nail polish and random spa products that they would stick in our area and tell us "They are considered fragrances."

    Why do you think I created so many bingo games for us to play so we could win product?! I think after 6 months I had 12 full-size fragrance testers. Dang I'm a good bingo player...

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