I don't know what it is about clothing that's gone on sale, perhaps it thinks it doesn't have to work as hard to be sold anymore, but it seems to be obsessed with falling off the hangers. No matter how perfectly it hung day after day in full price, put a red markdown sticker on it's tag and you're just asking for a mess.
While I like to think that the mess in the sales section is entirely because the clothing's non-existent feelings have been hurt by being marked down, in actuality it's mostly because of rude customers. Not only are sales racks gone through more frequently than any other because people are trying to get their hands on a bargain, but there's this odd mentality about sales clothing. The same person who can be seen reverently admiring that $200 dress over in full price, is the same one who is leaving that marked down leather jacket and sequin dress in a messed up pile on the change room floor. It's almost as if a markdown sticker means that product can be manhandled, because it's now not worth as much as the full price items. Remember, we still have to sell that at the end of the day in order to make revenue. Just because that sequinned dress has been marked down from $400 to $150 doesn't mean that it isn't just as delicate as before. And when you ruin it by pulling off a line of sequins because you weren't being careful, you have still just cost the company $150, which is a lot to be lost on one item.
My workplace has a constant area that is dedicated to sales items. We're a fashion retailer with a high turnover of stock. If something isn't selling well, then it's waisting valuable floor space and it needs to be moved out of store ASAP. As a result of this, about a third of our store remains a sales area year round. A sales area that needs to be cleaned year round. And if you have the misfortune of being assigned to the sales area for your shift, well all I have is a well wishing of, "good luck" and, "it will all be over soon".
Most of the time, sales stock duty is left to newbies. Call it some cruel and twisted form of retail initiation if you will. It's not a hard job at all, it's just really really frustrating. Because when you see that top that you had just tidied for what feels like the fiftieth time that hour on the floor again, believe me when I say that you will want to backhand the woman standing closest to it. Oh and don't expect her to offer or even make to pick up the mess she made. Haven't you heard? Most customers are completely above that sort of thing.
Now that I have explained in depth the horrors of the sales section, imagine the panic attack that I had when I realised that was my assigned area for the day. Sales section can turn an otherwise pleasant shift into one straight from the depths of hell. This one was a particularly interesting shift.
About an hour in to my 9-5 shift, I was approached by a customer who had perhaps the oddest request that I've ever heard. She pulled a crumpled receipt out of her pocket and began her story. She had purchased a sale dress about a month earlier for $39.95, and said dress was now marked down further to $29.95. Now while she goes on to explain that she loves the dress and she had worn it many times during this month, she also announces that she wants the difference in purchase price back. This lady was basically saying that since the dress had been marked down further, and even though she purchased it weeks ago and had worn it on numerous occasions, she wanted the $10 difference that we allegedly owed her. Now excuse my language but ... what the actual fuck?! I honestly though she was joking at first. Lets just say that you paid the extra $10 to secure yourself the correct size and be able to wear the garment for that month. Now stop being silly and get the hell outta my store!!
There is also an odd mentality amongst some of the more ... well i'm just going to put it out there ... bogan people of society. For those of you not from Australia, I guess you would call bogans (bow-gans) either hicks or white trash. Regardless of what you call them, they seem to have this mentality that if items get further reduced, we were obviously attempting to rip them off at the previous price. Uhhh, no that's not how it works. The reason items get reduced is because they aren't selling at their current price. Simple right? Yes that silk and hand beaded dress is worth $400, but if it isn't selling at that price point then it's taking up valuable floor space and should be reduced in order to move it out of the store. I have been yelled at before because people have purchased items at full price and then seen them months later at a reduced price, you know as if they shouldn't have to pay for owning it in those few months. I've also been yelled at for the original price being too high, as if I marked it up because I saw them coming and thought it would be funny. It's a tough job.
Seriously though, it isn't that bad all the time. Today for instance I played hide and seek in the sales racks with a little toddler while her mum tried on clothing, and then had a philosophical chat with a little 9 year old girl about how she was going to grow up and live in our store. But we agreed that it would be better if she changed it into a candy store first. Kids are the best.
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