Voices of the trade: We once had a guest speaker address our class when I was a senior in high school. He was a nice gentleman who worked in the restaurant business.
Since our course centered around the food industry, we received double credit if we, as students, worked in the industry. Most of us worked evenings and weekends — some in hotels or retirement homes, while others worked at area restaurants as hostesses or servers.
I was the lone retail worker among the students, but we all had a lot in common.
The guest speaker touched on the advantages of us sticking to working in the food industry, as he had for some time. He agreed that you give up a lot when working odd hours, all right. However, the points he made in favor of the food industry made me think about why I (or anyone) should stick around. Among the points were:
- Yes, the hours are awful — Working evenings and weekend shifts are certainly the downside to retail. I worked 2 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. many times after school and on weekends as well. I also worked many 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. shifts. These cut into sleep and study schedules, but most students I knew never went to bed early anyhow. The good thing about odd-timed retail shifts was that these fit well into my morning school schedule. The work itself, stocking produce late every day, was physical but enjoyable. Once the evening rush waned, it was more methodical work, even peaceful as I got the department in shape for the morning crew.
- Retail is heavy part-time status — The good thing about being a part-timer just starting out is that our chain typically scheduled us as many hours as we could stand, making for a fatter paycheck — which, when you’re starting out and still living at home, is a nice way to save money to move forward in life. The downside of part-time work, of course, is that when business drops off, so do the hours. Still, I found that even a moderately motivated clerk could still work a lot of extra hours by filling in for other departments and being flexible.
- Split days off — I know, yuck. Most produce managers try to avoid scheduling people with a routine of one day on, another day off. Sometimes, however, it can’t be helped. I found that, as a person’s seniority built up, the less likely this occurs.
- Weekend shifts — The bane of the retail world. Customers shop heavily on the weekend, and unless you have decades of seniority, you’re stuck working most Saturdays and Sundays. The good news that our guest speaker touched upon is that when you work weekends, that usually means you’re off during the weekdays. Many of us clerks paired up with our retail friends, and this compelled us to head to the mountains for a day or two of skiing in the winter or spend time hiking or fishing together in the summer. Ever go to a movie theatre or anyplace else on a Tuesday? Weekdays are the least crowded for — everything. Whatever you do, you generally have better options, shorter lines and sometimes even find activity discounts.
- Holiday shifts — This was always the one that bummed me out. I can’t tell how many Christmas Eves I had to work or all the New Year’s Eves I spent doing inventory. It’s just the world of retail, and this only gets harder to deal with once you start a family. Again, once a person gets used to the odd hours and working on days that most people get off, you learn to plan your own holiday time around the actual day.
- Overnight shifts — Also affectionately known as “graveyard” shifts, this is also a part of retail, though not as common when it comes to fresh produce departments. I’ve done lots of stints “throwing freight,” as we used to call night stocking. Though I never could get used to graveyard shifts, many people found it worked out just fine for them, especially when it came to juggling childcare or coaching schedules.
There’s no doubt that it takes a special breed to work retail, as is the case for many odd-shift occupations such as foodservice, police, firefighters and many in the health care field, too. Most retailers (and most notably, nurses) I knew through the years found that the hardest part was at the onset of their careers, and as time went on, their choice of days off and shifts got progressively better.
Still, we all used to confide to one another at least once in a while, wishing we had a job with, you know, “banker’s hours.”
Armand Lobato’s more than 50 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions. He has written a weekly retail column for nearly two decades.
