How retail works in a shoe shop

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

Many people walk into a shop, buy the shoes and walk out but never realize what is going on in the background. I thought I would share this with you, because it was even interesting to me. And like I have mentioned before I'm working in a shoe shop for the holiday season to earn some extra money for 2014. 

Kgomotso and me working

There are so many things that it is even hard to know where to start.

If a customer comes with a shoe that was on the display and asks for a size, there is a sticker in the shoe. The sticker has a name on it and the bar code. Then we look on the boxes for the same name, then we have found the shoe! So next time, you're looking for a shoe, you can do it yourself ;).

Shoes sell so fast that everyday we have to put new stock in the empty spaces. Every second day we receive more or less 90-100 boxes, which can almost immediately be put into the empty spaces. A box contains more or less 12-20 shoe boxes. That means 1200-2000 shoe boxes that we get every 2 days.

Customers make it hard when they put the shoes back in the wrong places, because there is so many types of shoes. If a customer puts the shoes in the wrong place, we struggle to find it when it was supposed to be in the assigned row, but it's not there. The shoes can sometimes get lost that we only find it months later.

Also, because we sell so many shoes, the shop's shelves looks different almost everyday, because we have to make space for the new boxes and also fill in the spaces. It is hard work, because if you move one row, you have to move ALL THE ROWS! No spaces are allowed!

Tomy takkies

The photo above shows Tomy takkies. They are very popular and everyone from young to old can wear them and not look strange. Well, these shoes are so popular that they make 40% of our budget. Yes, that is how popular they are.

Customers love to ask if we have any more stock in the stockroom and they hate it if you say no, because you didn't even go and check, but what they don't know is that we work day in and day out in that store and we pretty much now the store in and out. But sometimes I can see that the people are not nice so I sometimes just pretend to go in there, wait a while and go out again, telling them there is nothing. I know it is wrong of me, but like people always say: "The customer is always right".

I always laugh at the families coming into the store. The dads usually goes and sits on the nearest bench they can find in the store. The moms usually run around and try to find shoes even for the husbands. And the children usually run around and play games. The best is when the wives asks how the shoe looks to their husbands, the reply is always: "It looks fine, honey, buy it so we can go." MEN DO NOT LIKE SHOPPING!

Customers also ask why we do not extend the mall's trading hours. Let me tell you why, You may be with your family in the mall, shopping. But, we have lives and families as well, so we would like to see them before 12 o' clock at night. The hours are there to accommodate the employees.

The next time you walk in to a store, please be friendly to the shop assistants. We really appreciate it to be greeted friendly. We are also people. We also have feelings.

Also, see my post For the love of SHOES!!!!!

Please feel free to leave a comment. Tell me what store has the best customer service and what you as consumer expect from people working in stores?