Customers

I haven't written about it in my life story yet but I have been working as a women's shoe salesman at Macy's for the last couple of months and I find that there are really only a few different types of customers.

1. The elderly buying the same pair of shoes they are wearing.

I just assume that they have tried enough different pairs to know what they really need out of a shoe, it's really awkward when we stop keeping inventory of the shoe they want because they are out of style. Explaining it to them is one of the most painful and uncomfortable things I have gone through.

2. The people that ask for several pairs to try on then end up convincing themselves not to buy any, please note that these people do nothing but waste my time.

Often times it is someone with kids too, which actually makes it way worse because kids love to play around on the foot stools and to grab the sparkled heels. What's arguably worse than this is when they look at multiple expensive pairs then end up purchasing a shoe that is on clearance and look nothing like any of the other shoes they were looking at, not only did they waste my time but they also essentially spit on everything I said with regards to what they were looking for.

3. The people that are in a rush and just buy the first pair they see that we have in their size.

I had a woman come in looking for black heels, we only have about one hundred different pairs of black heels so I made a couple suggestions. She asked for size 8 in two of them and upon me delivering them to her she told me to just ring them up. I wouldn't have been so surprised but considering she didn't even look at the box to see if it was the right color/brand/etc. it was pretty sudden.

4. The one's that expect me to everything about the shoe they are interested in.

If I don't know the name of the chinese man that crafted the machine that wove the base of the shoe then why even bother buying it? These customers will come in and ask me such odd and specific questions that have nothing to do with whether or not the shoe will work for them it is absolutely absurd.

5. The splurgers.

These people will walk in (it was especially common when everyone was getting tax returns) and buy a wide variety of styles and colors talking to their friends about how they have an outfit for each pair they touch. I have no problem with them though and most of the time they are really friendly and apologetic for making me retrieve so many shoes for them, which further strengthens my idea that they do not typically make purchases like this.

6. The ebay sellers

Some people will come buy mass amounts of the same shoe in varying sizes because it is on clearance or has a really good sale price, they will then go home and post the shoes online at a higher price. I have no problem with this until they try returning several of them because they weren't able to sell them and it takes the commission from whoever sold it to them out of the person's next paycheck. I'm also fairly certain that this practice is illegal but I'm not positive.

Now, don't get me wrong there are some that don't fall into any of these and there are a few categories that are just very seasonal; an example would be high school girls all coming at the same time for prom shoes. However, the groups above probably categorize at least 87% of the sales I have throughout my week.

-Umar