Looking for work in retail is a big mistake

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I've been on jobseekers now for almost 4 years, and I haven't had a job before so whatever job I will finally get will be my first ever paid job, so I want to start off with something manageable and suitable for my needs.

But for all this time I've been looking for retail work. I just thought it was something I wanted to do. It's common, a lot of people look for retail for their first jobs, and it was just something that I thought interested me. So I had some experience doing retail work in charity shops, and I have benefited from it, but as I've got a bit older I've come to realise that retail is not for me, even after having experience and completing a customer service course. I just can't cope with dealing with customers, especially if I'm left on my own with them. I found it too stressful, there were too many expectations from me, I had to deal with people and interact with them nearly all day, and it wasn't something I was real good at. And I couldn't concentrate with the noise of babies screaming in the shops, and teenagers coming in after school, and aggressive customers (you get a lot of them around this area where I come from). And I think some customers knew I was quiet and wasn't fit for retail, and they exploited it. They made life harder for me.

So now I've realised that looking for work in retail was a big mistake. I know all jobs involve a challenge and effort, but I think interacting with customers all day will be the biggest challenge of my life and it's no good looking for work that I already know will make me unhappy. So I'm thinking I could perhaps change my search to something that will suit me a bit better. I'm thinking of perhaps working in a kitchen in a restaurant, just being a part-time kitchen assistant. Not cooking so much, but just preparing food, filling the dishwasher, and those sorts of things. Even if it still involves effort and perhaps even multi-tasking, I can still deal with that better than dealing with customers all day.

I'm just currently worrying about it all at the moment.

I hear you. I could never do retail. There are lots of jobs where you don't have to deal with people other than your coworkers, which I find much more tolerable than dealing with the general public. Kitchen work (which I've done) is exactly like this. It's informal, and the people are too busy to indulge in petty workplace politics. Competence is what's important, with little room left for subjective social stuff. The servers have it very hard though, the worst of both worlds - they have to navigate the social field but they also have to focus on the objective side (speed, competence, etc). So if you do take a ktichen job, be nice to them, they have it hard.

Kitchens aren't for everyone either, though. It gets really hot, although, I don't find it too bad myself, its not an oppressive sort of heat like a muggy summer day. I kind of like it to be honest. But some people can't take it. And you have to be alert and safety-minded, if you're easily distracted or a bit absent-minded, you're dangerous in a kitchen.

I've just left my retail job at the now in administration Gamestation and I used to run a kitchen. I was good at the retail job even though the stress became too much and I was excellent at the kitchen job but it's just so hard because my standards were so high and other's were not. Both jobs carry different types of stress (social and personal).

I've worked in retail before, and was yelled at by rude people, and in one case yelled back and nearly lost my job. I could talk all day about cheese or jewelry, but I cannot cool down a passive aggressive having a tantrum. I am actually okay at sales if it means learning about a subject and then talking about it. I don't get personal, I just compare one item with another item. This seems to be easy, and very aspi-freindly. But the problem are rampaging customers who have had a bad day and now who want to unload on the little shop clerk.

This is the one area where I can honestly say I have made some real progress in my life.

Remain calm, don't panic, then say "I appreciate your issue (whatever it is) I am going to call our manager and see if you can be served better, in the meantime, is there something else I can do for you?"

Honestly, if a customer is really bad, most everyone can see it. I've seen customers tossed out of stores and banned, and warned never to return because of their attitude.

Working in retail isn't the greatest career in the world, I'll grant you that, but I ask: where would the non-retail workers be without the retail workers? They can't buy food, can't buy clothes, can't buy petrol. Society NEEDS retail workers, regardless of how suitable it is as a career.

I've worked in retail for the past two and a bit years. Having to be sociable is not fun, nor is having to be on your feet all day. But, it's work. It pays the bills. If I didn't have my retail job, I wouldn't have work at all. And that's the worse option, in my humble opinion.

Heh!! ! Retail is the last place almost anyone wants to work. I was once told by a customer that "You can't act like that in this country, You should go back where you came from". Joke's on her, my family has been here since the 1650s.
Another customer sent me a 20 page, typed explanation of why god doesn't exist. Complete with his phone number, just in case I wanted to meet for a drink sometime.