How to Get the Best Response From a Retail Emloyee at Christmastime

For all of you who have never worked retail at Christmas, here are a few tips to help prevent that horrible experience with a mean employee.

• If we are wearing a uniform, with a name badge, stocking the shelves with merchandise, an inappropriate question would be "Do you work here?" A better solution would be to ask "Do you work in this department?" or "Can you help me?" Asking a uniformed employee if they work in the store is asking for a snide remark, bad joke, or what I do-look down at my apron and respond with "I believe so".
• Whistling at an employee, particularly a female one, to get their attention annoys them. We are not dogs, despite what you may believe. A better choice would be......anything. Heck, even a "Hey!" works better than a whistle.
• You should believe us when we tell you we are out of something. Especially if it is the hot ticket item of the season like an electric turkey roaster the day before Thanksgiving. Trust us, we are VERY aware of the status of that item.
• Please do not bring a Shopko ad into any store other than Shopko and try to convince us it is our ad. Just because you are mistaken about which ad you are holding and what store you are currently in, does not mean it's our fault.
• Please do not hide the shards of the cereal bowl you just broke under the shelf or behind the stuffed animals in the seasonal department. We really won't make you pay for it. Stuffed animals and broken ceramics just don't blend well.
• Unless you are opening a package of batteries as well, please don't open the digital scales to weigh yourselves.
• And last, but not least, we know that toy poodle is not a service animal.