Retail Therapy

It's that time of year. Stores are crowded. Lines are long. From customers you hear horror stories of rude retail employees. From retail employees you hear horror stories of rude customers. I've seen both. It is within my job description to deal with rude employees and make them see the error of their ways. Rude customers, however, are a different story. My job, as I see it, is to first protect my employee from abuse. Next, I must win the game. The game is something I made up in my crazy head to make troublesome retail times tolerable. Here are the rules: 1. If my employee did nothing wrong, I must never apologize for their behavior ( because that is cheating and you will always win the game by doing this). 2. If my employee was in the wrong, I must promise to discuss it with them immediately and then do so. The object of the game is to have the customer smiling and thanking me at the end of the customer/store manager interaction. After the game is won, I say a little prayer for all those that will come in contact with this person later in the day and wish them well. Then I pile more wonderful books into the arms of waiting people.