Retail Therapy

We’re heading into the last shopping week before Christmas. If you’re one of the organized few who finished buying presents ages ago, good for you. Those of us who didn’t plan quite so well will be braving the masses and wishing we’d been more on top of things.

We dread Christmas shopping. We grumble about how much we hate the mall at Christmastime. Wrapped up in our petty problems, we forget about the people on the other side of the counter, who have sacrificed time with their loved ones so they can work long hours while listening to all of us grumble and complain about the checkout lines, prices, and crowds.

The first year I worked in retail I told a coworker I loved Christmas, and she answered, “You’ll feel differently after you’ve worked the day after Thanksgiving.” And after standing behind that counter for 12 hours, listening to customers grumble, she was right. It’s no wonder many employees in the service industry end up sounding like Ebeneezer Scrooge, “‘If I could work my will,’ said Scrooge indignantly, ‘Every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart’” (from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens).

Some of the people closest to me got their start in retail, and among all of us, we could share story after story of rude customers—like the mega-church pastor who, frustrated at an employee for mis-ringing an item, angrily fumed: “Why in God’s name is it taking so long? What the heck are you thinking? I don’t have time for this crap.” Why was this pastor so angry? He was late for church. In the words of Alanis Morissette, “Isn’t it ironic?”

But I don’t want to make us all feel guilty about the way we treat people. I also don’t want us to simply sit around justifying our actions. As Christians, we’re Christ’s hands and feet, but our attitudes—especially at Christmastime—often say otherwise.

This week, as we rush off to finish our shopping, let’s bless others. I’m not talking about anything earth-shattering. I asked my friend Heather, who worked in retail for years, how she wished people had treated her differently, and here’s what she had to say:

“I wished customers would realize that what a store carries or doesn’t carry or what they have in stock or don’t have in stock is not the cashiers or stockers’ faults. Don’t yell or be rude to them because of it. Someone much higher up makes that decision. Also just because you (the customer) procrastinated and waited till the last minute doesn’t mean you can be rude to employees who are working long hours, nights, and weekends during the holidays to serve you.”

So smile. Say please and thank you. As my great-grandma used to say: Be sweet.