From roughly October 2004 to May 2006, I worked at a mall record store. It was one of the less dollar-intensive jobs I've had, but strangely, one of the most enjoyable. I was a manager, more or less, so I had a bit of responsibility and a modicum of authority, but not so as you'd notice.
We were a pretty tight crew. The difference between our store and others in the chain was, and still is, remarkable. Why? Most of us, especially management, really knew music. Between me and the other two managers, we had almost every genre (except modern country and gangsta rap) covered in terms of outright knowledge. What we didn't listen to we'd pick up on as people asked about it. You'd be amazed at how many songs we could identify without ever having heard them.
What we enjoyed was helping people find music, and sharing new music that we liked with people that we though would enjoy it. It made my day when someone came in and said they really liked that album we had suggested (and yes, you can still say "album." The medium on which the music resides may be a CD, but the collected body of work is still an album).
What I don't like about retail is, well, that it's retail. Retail, as most if us know, pays crap. And yet retail companies expect quite a bit from their employees. Dis-proportionally so, in my opinion. Companies stress good customer service, and going the extra mile, but will they do the same in relation to their employees? Will they pay them an extra few bucks so Joe Retail feels it's worth his time to go out of his way for a difficult customer?
Better yet, will they actually stand behind that employee if he's faced with a customer who is only out to scam the store? Most of the time? No. My managers were the exceptions. We always had each others backs, with customers and upper management.
Too bad the pay was so bad. I might still be there.
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