A former employee went viral after posting a video explaining the quotas she had to meet while working in retail, saying the constant demands created a poor customer experience and ultimately led her to quit her job.
Haley (@professionalchitchatter) has racked up over 90,000 likes on TikTok, where she added the caption, “Retail is a long, boring shift.”
“It’s completely ridiculous that retailers require hourly employees to meet credit card quotas or sales targets,” Haley says at the beginning of the one-minute video.
She explains that the main reason she left her retail job was because it was hourly: “I was making $8.50 an hour and I was being intimidated.”
Do retail employees have credit card quotas?
Haley said her former manager threatened to cut her hours if she didn’t hit a certain number of sales.
“If I walk into a store and someone is overly intrusive towards me, I just want to leave,” she explains. Haley says this is something she feels “the big retail chains don’t get.”
“If you’re pushy, customers don’t like it,” she continues. “They’re like, ‘Oh, that person there is so pushy,’ and they’re not going to come back.’ And they don’t let the customer shop.
Haley then says that when it comes to making sales, the process isn’t based on “the more you sell, the more you make,” but rather solely on “how good are you at selling?”
She said there was “no profit whatsoever” from selling at retail stores.
Viewers in the comments section of Hailey’s video gave her comment more than 21,000 likes, when she asked, “Also, why do all the stores have credit cards?”
according to AmericolAccepting credit cards at retail stores is “an easy way for stores to build customer loyalty, collect data, and of course generate revenue from consumers.”
“Retailers are so focused on converting customers into private label cardholders that they often offer cash incentives to salespeople who acquire them,” the site continues.
Americor says using credit cards in-store is also a way to encourage customers to spend more money in-store: According to the company, “more than 60% of consumers shop more frequently at a retailer where they have a store card and are more receptive to communications about that retailer’s events and promotions.”
“I just… Ulta And they want me to push that credit card to all my customers. It’s really greedy.”
Professional chatter Retail shifts are long and tedious
“This Alta employee was basically forcing me to put a credit card on file, which as a retail employee I understand but I absolutely couldn’t do because it would make the customer very uncomfortable,” another added.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Haley for comment via TikTok’s comments section and email.
Grace Fowler
Grace Fowler is a Summer Press and Media Fellow at The Daily Dot. She is a recent graduate from Texas State University, where she studied Mass Communications.
