Confessions Of A Sales Associate pt. 1

How a Girl Who is Not the Biggest Fan of Kids Started Working in a Toy Store:

I've had four jobs over the past five years and two of them were as sales associates, one in the Mecca of tweens everywhere--Hollister--dim lighting, overpowering perfumes, and overly priced, poorly made clothes. Now I have to admit, much to my chagrin, that I did in fact own my fair share of Hollister items, emblazoned with little sea gulls and inane quotes, luckily that phase passed sometime in middle school. As a high school senior, I was not tempted by the rows of mini skirts and jeans sized from 00-2 or the skin tight graphic tees with their noxious quotes. Other than learning far too much about my co-workers' and managers' personal lives over the course of the five or so months I worked there, few exciting events ever happened; or if they did, none stuck with me.

In December of 2010, I began working at a toy store called Learning Express, which caters to a very different clientele than Hollister. Most people that know me well are privy to the knowledge that I am not the fondest of children. Now, I need to qualify this statement; I have not had copious experience with children, being the youngest in my family. My few stints at babysitting involved very well-behaved children and my parents raised me in a very structured environment. I do NOT hate kids; I just strongly dislike ill-behaved children.

So what am I doing working in a toy store you ask? They pay REALLY well. (just kidding)

Over the course of my time in the store (I work whenever I have breaks from school and am home in Houston), I have had some interesting experiences with children.

Despite my afore-mentioned attitude, I do like kids and hope to have some of my own someday, but I have never been the person to which kids flock, especially not random kids. Maybe it is just the adrenaline rush of toys going to their tiny brains, but I have had more children come up to me in the six or so months I have worked at Learning Express than probably the rest of my life combined. It's even starting to rub off, apparently, because now kids in Target and bookstores are starting to approach me.

I began working during Christmas, the busiest time of the year in a toy store (Santa's got nothing on us, in fact I think he buys most of his gifts from us). As such, I was mainly hired simply to wrap presents and keep the store from being completely demolished by harried parents and grandparents. As I was tidying some things during a momentary lull, a small boy came up to me holding his shoes in his hands. Completely nonplussed, I merely stared at him, after looking over my shoulder of course, assuming he was looking at someone else. For some reason, this little boy decided I looked friendly enough to assist him with his shoes. Being a new employee, I was highly uncertain of what boundaries were laid out for me as far as actual interaction with the gremlins...er....children. Luckily, his mother reappeared and told her son that "he shouldn't bother the nice lady" and that she would help him put on his shoes. I also witnessed this same mother instruct her son to put back the boxes of toys he knocked on the ground, which he did.

Maybe he could sense my warm feelings for his mother that parents today aren't completely useless. Whatever the case, as the family was leaving, his mother instructed him to "thank the nice lady" which he did by running behind the counter and wrapping his arms around my knees.

You know that moment in the Grinch when his heart starts growing because of the Whos singing? Yeah, similar effect. I think I might have patted him on the head or something, too taken aback to do anything else.

Of course I ran home and informed my entire family that a random little boy had hugged me without being threatened OR bribed.

Working in retail always gives ample opportunity for people watching/eavesdropping and while this retelling wasn't funny at the time, since then there have been many other hilarious episodes that you must pretend to ignore at the time and laugh about later.