Between early November and New Year’s, I work at the local shopping mall, as a way to draw in extra money for my own Christmas shopping. A lot has changed in the world of retail, between the time I worked in a mall full-time and now, when I do it just to make extra money, but one thing, at least, has remained the same: retail employees work their butts off, especially during the holiday season.
It may be easy, as a shopper, to vent your frustrations of the poor man or woman standing behind the cash register: you’ve spent all day at the mall; you waited for hours in different lines; you haven’t found half the gifts you need to purchase; and the cashier who accidentally gives you twenty-five cents less than you’re owed in change is an easy target. But something you should remember, is that the cashier himself is just trying to make it by, is just trying to make enough money that his family, his children, his friends, don’t have to suffer through a Christmas with no presents under the tree.
You don’t have to take small presents with you to the mall, and hand them out to all the cashiers you come across. You don’t even need to smile and wish them a happy holiday, if it’s too much work for you. All you really need to do is remember that they, like you, are people, just trying to make it through another Christmas shopping season.