The meaning of words if you work in retail....

Having worked in retail myself, albeit in a support office capacity, I can nevertheless totally, 100% identify with this Buzzfeed article!!

There are plenty of things which certainly do have a very different meaning to those who work in retail.  

Here are a few of my favourites:

Holidays, and particularly at Christmas, for most people means a time to relax, forget about work, enjoy yourself either with or without family depending on your circumstances, eat, drink and be merry and so on.  To the retail worker however the Christmas holiday period in particular is "the most horrific, exhausting time of the year....".  Many other holidays aren't far behind it either.

So what is a sensor?  Well, in retail it's a loss prevention device that helps prevent theft and protect merchandise.  To anyone who actually works in retail though they are constant reminders of the inherent dishonesty of many people who are intent on either stealing or destroying your merchandise.

Shrinkage in retail refers to stock losses ie a reduction in inventory, due to thieving customers and dishonest staff.   For a loyal retail worker it's a chance to stare danger in the face and protect that merchandise until doing so becomes distinctly life threatening, in which case you follow police advice and let the thieving, pilfering so and so leave the premises with his spoils.  You may end up having the seek the services of a shrink just to get over the experience.

Returns - this is probably my favourite.   The facility to be able to return a product that you no longer want for whatever reason is a fantastic deal for the customer.  For the sales assistant behind the counter however it's a character building opportunity to get yelled at by customers who don't like being told that the merchandise they have destroyed or damaged beyond repair is not able to be returned or exchanged.

Customer - technical definition from Wikipedia - a person who buys goods or services from a shop or business.  Unfortunately for the retail worker the term is all too often synonymous with people who assume that once you start work for the day you leave all thoughts and feelings of your own at the door and become a robot. 

And this one is a beauty - salary: a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee in return for services rendered.  If you work in the retail industry it pretty much means having just enough money for gas/petrol, maybe rent and some cheap fast food every once in a while.

Closing time - well it should mean that it's time for customers and retail workers to shut up shop and head for home but more often than not it means that if you haven't locked and bolted the doors bang on time customers will continue to wander in expecting to get served even though you're clearly in the process of closing down the cash registers and counting up for the night. 

Complaints are a great way to express discontent, unhappiness, disapproval etc etc etc and an equally great way retail workers can get to hear about every bad decision the company has made and over which they have absolutely no control.