I worked many retail jobs in high school and in college during winter or summer breaks. My resume of retail jobs includes accessory stores, a toy store and even a fishing supply store (don’t ask). One summer break during college I decided to apply to Victoria’s Secret. I LOVED to shop at Victoria’s Secret, so working there seemed like a dream. I had visions of purchasing discounted bras and ringing up fabulous purchases while chatting with awesome customers. It was not my dream to work in retail my whole life, but I really never had a problem with any of my past retail jobs. I earned spending money and was treated nicely by bosses and co-workers. I thought Victoria’s Secret would be the best of all: I thought wrong.

At first I was proud to work at Victoria’s Secret. It was fun to walk into work at 20 wearing black suit instead of the polo shirts a lot of retail stores make you wear. My dreams were shortly shattered. I wasn’t allowed to work the cash register because I was new. Is it really normal to be a sales associate and not be allowed to work the cash register? I had been working registers since I was about 14 and suddenly I was “not qualified” to touch one as a 20 year old adult who was half way through college.

So I was told to work the sales floor and ask customers if they needed help. That was cool. I was a people person and I loved bras and knew a lot about the products because I also purchased them. I was really helpful in finding women the right bras and customers would tell me how nice I was as they exited. My manager however did not care about niceness. She had one thing in mind: PUSHING CREDIT CARDS.