Anyone her ever worked in retail? Any horror stories?

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Because of my inability to speak up, I'll probably let the shop get burgled one of these days.

It's all very well for people to say, ''just try your best to speak up, blah blah blah blah'', but isn't very helpful because I do try, and sometimes it has worked - just a bit. But I always sound unconfident when I do speak up. It's just something that ain't in me. I'm too vulnerable, always have been, always will be. I can't become what I'm not.
So now I'm giving up the ghost with retail. I want to work in an office, or anywhere where I don't have a big responsibility of customers. It's just not a good idea for somebody as shy and vulnerable as me. I'll better steer clear of employment in public places.

Plus I suffer with social phobia, so it is just common sense not to work in retail.

Stockrooms are good too. Lots of hiding places in there!

I think I'd prefer to deal with wild animals, than to be dealing with THE PUBLIC. I know animals can eat me - but people can eat me emotionally, if you know what I mean.

My 2nd job was cleaning floors at WalMart & I did that for 25 months. I liked the job I was supposed to be doing but I was pulled off a lot to assist with special projects. I was originally hired to do stocking but I have a tremor disorder & sometimes shake when doing things with fine motor skills & I'm also very nearsighted & no one really took any time with me to show me the ropes with stocking. After two days I was tranfered to floor-crew. We wer kind of the reject department. People who couldn't cut it in other departments wer sometimes transferred to us. I had lots of problems catching on in the beginning but my supervisor & a few others saw that I was trying & they wer willing to take time to teach me. I couldn't do the advanced stuff like stripping/waxing & using the machines cuz I'm nearsighted & my vision was a concern but I was pretty good at assisting after a while. I was kind of the unofficial backup to my supervisor by the time I left. I cared & tried the best that I could & I was working 6 days over 55 hours a week when they let cuz we wer shorthanded & I also had good ideas on how to strategize.
Anyways we had gotten very shorthanded because people had left or transferred & they wer not replaced. We had some major changes in management & managers kept using our department to help out with other things instead of letting us do what we wer supposed to be doing. A contract crew was hired to assist us by stripping & waxing the floors but they kept screwing up stuff & causing some safety concerns that we wer told to correct. We wer very shorthanded & I had been working over 55 hours a week for over a month around Christmas time & between X'mas & NewYears things hit the fan. A manager had ordered me to move some stuff back in an office that the contract crew had just waxed & the manager told me to ignore all orders that did not come from her. I started getting some pages to go to garden center & sweep & that was on the other side of the store. I didn't respond cuz I had been ordered not to & a manager was NOT making the page(another associate was). When I was done moving stuff back the co-manager witch was higher up than the other manager chewed me out for not responding to the page & didn't give me a chance to explain. I was so stressed out that I could not deal with it anymore & I went in to personal & quit after I finished my work that morning. A couple weeks latter my former supervisor was transferred to another department & another person quit & the few remaining in the department wer transferred to other departments & the contract crew took over full time. Looking back; I think I was forced out because I would of had problems working in other departments & I think management was worried about firing me cuz of the disabilities act.


The 3rd job I had was working as a custodian in a sporting goods store. I only stayed there about 3 months. I didn't fell safe doing certain aspects of the job because of my tremors like handling a box-cutter or climbing ladders at times. I saw a doc & started taking meds & the 1st med made me feel like I was having a stroke while I was at work so I left. The docs scheduled test to be run but everything came back OK. After being out 2 weeks; I was told I was fired due to company policy but they said they would definitely take me back if I reapplied. I kept having bad side effects cuz of the meds & after a couple months I quit seeing the doc. I liked that job & the company was very good to work for & they appreciated me. I don't have any horror stories about that experience.


I would NOT recommend that most Aspies get in those professions but some mite be good for it. WalMart doesn't really care about customer service much so working over night cleaning floors or stocking mite be OK for some Aspies if management does not give em conflicting or mixed orders, they are not super rushed, they are working with good people who are willing to take the time to help em out, & if they can force themselves true the initial anxiety issues; it mite could be a great learning experience. The sporting goods store was good for me(excluding my safety concerns) but I was a custodian & had some previous experience in retail & I did not work in one specific department there. When customers had questions & I couldn't assist em or wasn't sure; I found associates in those departments to.

I've never been to Walmart because there isn't any in Britain. But I think Tesco is a bit like Walmart - although I wouldn't choose to work in Tesco

my work history has been in retail/restaurants/customer service.
i have had only 1 desk job at a call center and figured out in 3 months that i hated it.
i worked for one retail company for almost 3 years after being stuck at the head cashier position and not getting any promotion and or reason to stay any longer. i worked elsewhere over the next year and a half then returned to the same company as before mainly out of desperation brought on by the recession in 2009. im a supervisor for this company and my experience has been mixed. the company has changed and definitely grown in areas i used to complain about during my first years with them. and i am thankful for the job being available at exactly the time when all my other options were spent. however i feel im going nowhere with the company and will be severely underpaid with this company until if possible im considered for a store management position. the company does not actively promote nor are the opportunities readily available/given to the veterans of the company. im just not sure if i want a career in management.

i talk very easily and mostly relaxed at work because i figure if i dont talk to people at work, im not going to have a job. so i put on my professional face and talk about all things related to work, helping customers, and doing my work for the company. i have a good understanding and a good talk about all the different products the company sells. but at the end of the day, i know im a college graduate who is in the wrong career working with people who most of them have no degrees and i always end up thinking at least weekly "what am i doing here?". my first manager with the company was an easy going guy however i later came to realize he also never wanted to make anyone angry or confront anybody including customers. he would basically give away the store if the customer asked for it without very little hesitation. my current manager with the company definitely keeps me on my toes (negatively/positively) as we have had some heated discussions at work about my behavior, my reactions, my viewpoints on policies and other work drama stuff. she also stands firm with company policies for the most part at least more than the first manager. the majority of the staff are high school/college age part time employees with 6 full time employees.

i have had moments of noticeable frustration, anger and poor stress control while with this company. some days i love working there. other days i want to burn the place down (figuratively) not literally. i would love to be working in a science type of job without all the customer hassles and the mundane, stupid things that i have to bite my tongue about and put on a happy face knowing that this company is not interested in my long term personal or professional goals.

McDonalds. Horrible, horrible job, treated like dirt and sacked after about two weeks. Never ever again.

So far I've been working for nearly 4 years in a supermarket in the deli section. A third of my duties is serving (a set routine of "hi what would you like? ... is this much ok? ... is there anything else today... have a good night/great day!"), a third is stocking the case and a third is cleaning. As I work nights I tend to predominately clean. I'm hardworking if I have an incentive (money in this case) and since I was well trained (and have a good memory) I know what to do, how to do it and when. I also have some drama experience so with customers I created a customer service girl character that I play. Everyone who works long term in my department are nice and hardworking so it's all good. They've looked after me and treated me nicely so I cannot complain.

Horror stories... There was a guy (on drugs) who swore at me and a workmate at a former store and accused us of cussing at him, but he got kicked out. I was pissed and wanted to kick him in the you-know-what. we were assured by the store manager (who was on duty) that we did the right thing by refusing to serve him in the first place. I can't think of anything else, mostly just grumpy customers. There's also been a lot of nasty customers which I didn't know about until my workmates pointed it out (am a bit oblivious in that area due to being aspie), but I think that if they have to express it so subtly then it's obviously nothing worth complaining about and it's just them being bitchy idiots.

9of47

I worked for a watches company (as a vendor) at a Macys. It was during semester breaks while I was in college. The pay was good. But I can't stand retail. I didn't use the cash register since I wasn't a actual mall employee. I represented the brand of watches. I had to keep track of how many watches of that brand I sold. I had to have a Macys employee sign my timesheet too. I had to communicate with customers and answer their questions which I just hate. I had to work during the holiday seasons too. I did for 3-4 years but only around Nov-Dec and around May. I didn't work every day since the position was part time. It was mainly Fri nights and weekends.

I worked in Coles, Woolworths and Bilo in Australia. I did not like Retail one bit and found the managers poorly trained and quick to criticize you if you did not conform to their standards. I remember one supervisor constantly putting me down and giving poor instructions. I would advise that Retail is not an Aspie area.

I'm working on a program to help aspies navigate through retail with help from several other people in the know. I've had some success and some struggle as well as a little bit of failure. Whenever you see me post, give it a read if it interests you.

People complained that I was behaving as if I was on another planet. If I can help it, I plan to leave my number of retail jobs at 2.

People complained that I was behaving as if I was on another planet. If I can help it, I plan to leave my number of retail jobs at 2.

i never worked with retail. i only work with detail.