{"id":28925,"date":"2024-12-21T20:13:23","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T20:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/21\/im-one-of-millions-working-in-retail-this-christmas-dont-ask-how-we-are-or-we-may-tell-you-andrew-herrick\/"},"modified":"2024-12-21T20:13:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T20:13:23","slug":"im-one-of-millions-working-in-retail-this-christmas-dont-ask-how-we-are-or-we-may-tell-you-andrew-herrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/21\/im-one-of-millions-working-in-retail-this-christmas-dont-ask-how-we-are-or-we-may-tell-you-andrew-herrick\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m one of millions working in retail. This Christmas, don\u2019t ask how we are \u2013 or we may tell you | Andrew Herrick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So far today I have dealt with 200 customers. I have smiled 200 times, but that\u2019s getting harder. Consider me a checkout robot<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Get our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl\">breaking news email<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/app.adjust.com\/w4u7jx3\">free app<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/series\/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl\">daily news podcast<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You decided to do it differently this year. You usually buy online, with high-minded principle, from a company owned by the least-loathsome billionaire you can find. Instead, this Christmas you gritted your teeth and drove in a hot car to a local business where you (finally) found a park. Then you steadfastly hunted down the gifts that your family members simply must have, worked your way up the cattle race to the counter, upon which you triumphantly spread your purchases. With luck you\u2019ll be out of here and home before the roads get too busy. That man behind the counter doesn\u2019t look happy; who cares: as long as he\u2019s efficient.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019d be me. I\u2019ve been standing in one spot for the last six hours (OK, one toilet break) and have another three to go. I\u2019ve worked in retail for 14 years, and so far today I\u2019ve dealt with 200 customers. I\u2019ve smiled 200 times, but that\u2019s getting harder. I\u2019m so tired it probably looks more like a grimace. Sorry, but consider me a checkout robot, carefully rationing my battery charge by using muscle memory to hit the right keys and move the mouse cursor to make sure each of today\u2019s 500 or so products (so far) is correctly entered and paid for.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2024\/dec\/22\/im-one-of-millions-working-in-retail-this-christmas-dont-ask-how-we-are-or-we-may-tell-you\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So far today I have dealt with 200 customers. I have smiled 200 times, but that\u2019s getting harder. Consider me a checkout robot Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast You decided to do it differently this year. You usually buy online, with high-minded principle, from a company owned by the &#8230; <a title=\"I\u2019m one of millions working in retail. This Christmas, don\u2019t ask how we are \u2013 or we may tell you | Andrew Herrick\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/21\/im-one-of-millions-working-in-retail-this-christmas-dont-ask-how-we-are-or-we-may-tell-you-andrew-herrick\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about I\u2019m one of millions working in retail. This Christmas, don\u2019t ask how we are \u2013 or we may tell you | Andrew Herrick\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}