Whether you’re greeting customers as they enter the store or you’re checking them out at the register, a kind and courteous demeanor is the rule. In other words, lose the attitude and be sure to keep a mint in your pocket. (Yell at the mannequins if you need to blow off steam.) Patience: This isn’t a job for slackers. Eight hours on your feet folding, sorting, helping and chatting can take a physi
cal and mental toll. You will work with customers who need different clothing sizes, colors, washes, fits and patterns; and their personalities will vary just as much. Your job is to help them find what they need and make them feel good so they will buy the clothes. And when the answer to “Do I look good in this?” is definitely a “no,” bite your lip and recommend something else. Organization: At home you may be able to get away with tossing clothes around your room willy-nilly - and knowing the clean ones are beside your desk and the dirty ones are under the bed - but that system isn’t going to work on the job. A clothing store’s inventory needs to be sorted by size, color, brand, sale items, etc. And you need to know where everything is, including the nearest mirror, bathroom and ATM. Cash handling experience: Even though you will have a cash register that does the heavy lifting, a.k.a. math, previous experience balancing a register at the end of the shift certainly helps. Pumping iron...er...fabric: You’ll often have to fetch beefy boxes of merchandise and handle stacks of heavy clothing.
