Anyone work Retail?

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Retail is always one of those things I thought I would never do as a kid, considering how poor my people skills are. I can't help that fact that I am good at it though. I really don't understand how I can be #1 in sales for my district when I can't even go on a date? Anyone else work retail? Maybe when I am able to pay attention I will go to college.

I work in a restraunt as a kitchen hand, hey i cant pay attention aswell, i just passed the first part of year 12 JUST.

Last edited by zombie on 23 Apr 2007, 1:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

No retail here.

Tim

I worked music retail for many years -- from the lowly ranks through management. There were two keys to success for me. First, the conversational requirements were narrowly focused, and so they could be learned, rehearsed, and repeated. There were rules I could learn. I learned to successfully "turn on" the ability to approach people ("Can I help you find anything?" is one of the most effective phrases). Customers come into places looking for something, and they either know what it is or they don't. Sometimes they'd have questions; sometimes not. Either way, if they have questions or they're shy or intimidated (or Aspie) then my approaching them forced an option in a polite way, and I knew in advance that they want some kind of music -- so it would be a narrow conversation about genres, artists, recordings or locations of same. That leads to the second point: Working in certain kinds of retail is great for obsessives (like me) -- I memorized catologs of music and books (read, listened, compared, critiqued, etc.) endlessly and knew every new thing that came in and knew things that weren't available anymore. Granted, music stores are a little more antiseptic now, but back then, eclecticism and depth of knowledge were one of the things that made shopping in record stores worthwhile.

That reminds me of myself.... I started out in the music section at a big box electronics retailer was transferred to home entertainment. Once I learned everything about the product I was able to out-sell the "smooth talkers"

I work retail! and have for almost 2 years! Its been since June 17, 2005 as a bagger and just got promoted to cashier at krogers

Oh gods, I SUCK at retail jobs. I had to do it when I was younger because I couldn't find anything else, and at that time I didn't know I had AS and thought I could just "think" my way out of my social problems. That failed. The last time I worked retail, I had a meltdown and quit 2 weeks before Christmas. I remember smiling a lot the day I turned in my 2 weeks notice.

The thought of ever going back to retail makes me want to throw up.

I worked in retail for a while. But I really didn't like it much.

I had a really hard time of it at first. Not so much because of the social interaction, but an honesty issue. I kinda felt like selling people stuff, that perhaps they didn't want to buy, talking them into it, and out of their hard-earned cash, was akin to lying and/or stealing. It just didn't sit right with me, took me a while to get past that.

I worked retail for ~5 years.

It definitely is challenging at some points, but if you are able to get an angle where social interaction isn't too hectic, it can work.

I began as a floor clerk, then floor security watch (walking around a store watching for 8hrs a day plain-clothes); and had a chance for a good promotion (semi-managerial, not quite supervisoral); which I refused due to the fact that I was going back to school.

Honestly, I wouldn't go back to retail even if I was forced to!

I worked door to door (which I sucked at) and telemarketing, as well as business advertising.
I was pretty good (not the very top - but good enough to make a decent living and blow off
days that I didn't want to work without getting fired). But, the stress of interacting with people
got to me. I ended up going completely off the deep end at one job. After that, I was constantly
chewing valerian root to keep my calm, and my productivity dropped. Pretty classic burn-out, but it happened fairly fast (less than 5 years I'd guess).

When I "sold" music, I refused to sell. I would never attempt to make people want things they didn't want and I think people were responsive to that. I could make suggestions on things that people might like (based on what I knew of their taste) but it was always more of a conversation, and I was always leery of people who wanted to be sold on something. I found out later that some of my co-workers saw this as "squandered opportunities." But I was never interested in whether people bought anything, and was more interested in whether they were curious about new things, or if they had the critical capacity to listen to something and make a determination about whether it was something worth listening to. I had a lot of repeat business with people who responded to that sort of thing.

Since I worked mostly with classical music, I'd always be fielding the "which recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons is best?"* question and I'd always say, "if you're asking that, buy the cheapest one you can find. You won't be able to tell the difference. If you like it and want more, come back and we'll talk. If you want to find something challenging, let's talk." Sometimes they came back. Sometimes not. Importantly, I thought that honesty (despite being blunt) was worth more to both of us. I still can't imagine why people would do things differently, but I guess they do.

* The real first question would always be either "Where can I find the Four Seasons?" or, later, "Why are there so many versions of it, and what's the difference?" Or, (My Favorite) "Do you have any one's that, uh, Vivaldi played on?"

Very interesting...

I started a thread yesterday, because I am applying as a job to sell string instruments. My custom rank may have already given this away, but string instruments are one of my focused ASpie interests. However, I didn't know if my knowledge/focus in this area would be overshadowed by my ASpieness... Seems that the general consensus in my thread was that ASpies do quite well in selling within one of their areas of interest...

Here's a link to the thread.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... ic&t=31136

Gobi, where were you when I needed you for Beethoven's sonatas? I stood there in front of a huge selection, stunned, having no clue why one collection was more than another. So, yeah, I did buy the cheapest one, and I think they recorded directly from someone else's scratchy albums. It's AWFUL. It's not even stereo.

I played piano (badly) and I liked to read the music along with the recording. I found it unbelievably annoying that there were scratchy sounds that did not show up on my sheet music AND that the high notes were not properly on the right side as they should be. Aspie nightmare.

Then there was something a former instructor played in class one day, and it was lovely. I found out it's name. But NOT which one of the gazillion people on the planet had recorded it. That matters. I'll probably never find that one version.

And those classical composers. Somebody couldn't have come up with better names than the type and key? Arg.

I have worked a lot of retail jobs. I like working. I like helping people. I don't like people yelling at me or picking on me. I don't care who is doing it. Customers or employers. I will just leave. Panic and leave.

In a couple of the retail jobs, where I wasn't well liked by the EMPLOYEES but was dearly loved by the customers (who would bring me food or drawings their child had made just for me), on leaving the employees would say "Who will do all the work now that you are leaving?"

They never did like me much. I didn't want to do social NT things. But I loved to work. Arranging things and cleaning and tidying. I still do that in the stores. Not at home though. LOL! Well, if I HAD display cases and racks for all my stuff, I could probably keep my home clean. Maybe I should just live in a retail store. Or design my next living quarters to be a faux storefront.

Oooh, oooh, I want a mannequin for my front window too.

I can relate to the "honesty" issue. I had real problems trying to convince myself of the worth of the items I was selling. It's not like *I* set the price or that *I* was the one ripping them off, but I felt that some things were too expensive and that I was indeed ripping them off. Taking their money for something that wasn't worth that amount.

I do not like that feeling.

And I'd get in trouble for talking to people too much. "Stop making friends and start selling products" But I don't like those kinds of people that attack for a sale. Again, I'll just leave if I feel like I'm being rushed by shark salesclerks.

I like the idea of the knowledgeable person to guide me through the maze of items to help me find what is right for me. Whether it's the least or most expensive item. Or somewhere in between. A guide would have been helpful in that Beethoven fiasco. Someone who could have said "You will be very unhappy, it's all scratchy and it's not stereo!". "Oh. Okay, which one is good for me?" and that helpful guide would have asked what kind of equipment I had to play the CDs on, and which point I could have said "A crappy portable boom box, but I have kind of good headphones."

The guide could have said "Ahhhh, the crappy boom box stereo non-scratchy version of Beethoven for you is right here." Maybe $15.00 more would have made the difference between "OOOOH, that's awful!" and "OOOOH, that's lovely!"

Retail people, you ARE a guide. Use your Aspie powers of memorization for all the details. I'd go in cold and before you know it, know more than the rest of the employees. Because I read boxes and packages and looked things up.

That is what you can do in retail, is to become the "expert" at whatever you are selling. You won't even have to do as much people type stuff, like greeting or making chit-chat (although aren't we all chit-chatting here, and what is the difference?). You can find out what they need, and take them to it, describing all the good parts and why it's good for them to get.

Just the way I could have used someone to be the expert when buying my Beethoven.

I ended up workin' retail the majority of my life! i started when i was 12 years old. i worked for a nursery that was way out in hippy vill. im a city boy and this was a big change for me! but as i got older and back in the city I still was working retail. i started drinking heaver too. my anxiety would get so bad that i spent most of my mornings throwing up. i always tryed to stay as a full time grower but i always ended up on the retail floor. i guess i was great at it. i think because of the anxiety i learned everything there was to know about plants so i didnt get anything wrong. i used to walk around with a little face reading and body laugauge book and started useing it on who was going to be a nice person and who wasnt............it worked most of the time. im great at reading people now but cant stand being around them........so i do my own thank growing flowering baskets and now i never have to work on the floor anymore

I've worked in retail on a till for three years (Saturday job, although my hours have changed around and I used to work on Sundays as well). I really dislike it in some ways but in other ways it's okay.

The customers can be nice and my boss is nice and there is some kind of structure (I'm always on the same till, I just have to scan, get the money, sort the change, bag the items) but there's too much socialising necessary (when people do try to hold conversations it's draining and I never know what to say back) and I can't stand it when the customers interrupt you or are too demanding (if they ask for a bag instead of waiting for me to offer and disrupt my routine, or if they get on my case about something that I have no control over like deliveries etc.).

I only work for four hours but often feel sort of unwell for the rest of the day (very tired, and my ears feel funny). I have no idea what other kind of part time would I could do, though, and it is very familiar in there.

I did only recently get my diagnosis, so I'm debating whether to tell my boss. I'm not sure that there is much point at the moment, although I am wondering whether it would be better to let him know incase in the future it becomes relevant.

I would want a different job if I was working full time or doing considerably more hours, but at the moment I can't whinge - it's only four hours on a Saturday morning.

I work retail at the moment. Mostly it's not so bad - there's a faily set degree of communication required, that generally follows a basic pattern of greet, then a question/comment/answer sequence which is fairly easy. If you know the products, it's usually fine.