When you become manager, you are typically given a lot of information. From learning what the process is for staffing or scheduling to what is being measured and tracked to how to deal with customer relations. There is a lot to know…and do.
Having worked with management, with managers and with curriculum development for a manager, I have found some inexplicable truths, some axioms (a self-evident or accepted truth) and some ubiquitous (always present) factoids about managing a retail store environment. Some “-isms” worth sharing.
The classic, for instance, might be a current and critical reality that no one stays in retail. Retail is not perceived as it once was and retention rates show that. The employees just don’t get it, right? No, it’s just they don’t want to necessarily “get it”. This is not their career. Even the word career is changing…the meaning and the intention. Very few employees today legitimately try to figure out the importance of the retail industry. Now that may be considered an unfair generalization. So allow me to say, this is my somewhat educated opinion based on 30 plus years in retail. One constant in my view over the years is the retail job was and still is a means to an end. One typically makes enough cash to support a desired “lifestyle”. And this doesn’t matter what generation you are part of past the 1950’s; which by the way would be a combination of the “Baby Boomers”, “Gen X” and “Whatever” (having been called Mellennials, Nexters and Gen Y). The very technology is also changing retail. Consider the use of an online store versus the typical brick and mortar retail store. The next generation (which some have penned either Gen Z or Gen I for internet) will dramatically change how people will exist in retail; both employee and customer.
Another truth or “-ism” is the goal in retail. The goal has always been to put the “rocks in the box”. I make no apologies to make this very clear, if you have a retail store, you must sell what you have…period. Sales are the defining factor of retail-savvy-ness. Did you sell something? Good, that’s what you are supposed to do. And by the way, we all want this to an extent that we make money. Why does that make us “the man”? Really? Come off your high-horse, mute your iPhone and please begin to lecture me about what exactly? People buy stuff. So do you. You are part of “they”. They want markets to buy their stuff. They expect people to be open to sell their stuff so that the stuff, which they want, is in stock. By the way, this has been a necessary and critical thing for…umm, let me see…like, umm forever. You may not like your retail job and you may not want to be part of this forever. Fine. I get it. It is still important to make money. And you signed on for the job.
OK, here is another one. You have to go to work. Someone has to show up. Can’t exactly put the rocks in the box if Skippy doesn’t show up. Couple that with the fact Skippy is not looking at this job as a career. Therefore, an extremely important issue any manager will face is they must hire the “right” people to work a shift. Sounds easy right? Now re-read the previous sentences…easy right? How many of you have had team members conveniently comment “Oh, I am supposed to work on Saturday. Yes, that is why I hired you.” You know what, I get it…life is short. Why work retail? Cuz you applied for the job! Sorry, this one is more of a rant than a calm tactic to employ with your team.
The next will be different. It is a question that allows you explore your own “-ism”, your organization’s “-ism”. Are you a (insert type) retail organization that happens to make sales or are you a sales organization that happens to carry (insert widget)? What is your answer, your truth? What is the easy answer? What is the hard one to realize? I believe this to be the singular most important question any retail organization must answer and then live.
The last, I will not cover. Instead it will be a bridge to my next post. It is simply the old adage, axiom, fact, truth and ultimate “-ism”…The customer is always right.
Cheers