Working nine to five, what a way to earn a living!

I had my first real taste of retail on the weekend. Kookai. Chadstone. The glamour store, with the glamour girls of Kookai. Admittedly, I wasn't on the floor, and I didn't work with the public, serving customers either. No, no. I was at the back, cleaning the stock room, and hanging up excess stock. I've done the stock before, but that was just a few hours. This time around, I was there bright and early 9am on a Sunday morning. Winnii was opening and closing the store; Jen and I were her helpers. My first real taste of retail, from start to finish.

I've never been to a shopping centre so bright and early, BEFORE shops were open. Why would I? I expected to see an empty shopping centre. Boy. I was absolutely amazed to see people milling about, window shopping, even though shops weren't due to open for another hour. What madness.

There was plenty of drama happening that day, and it seemed to be run-of-the-mill everyday occurrences to Winnii. She took it all on board, so calm, and sweet to all the girls. First thing in the morning, her assistant comes in and breaks down in tears. Winnii consoles her, and sends her off to find a replacement so the girl can go home. I'm not sure why she came in in the first place, actually. And surprisingly, she didn't leave until about 2pm that afternoon..

After that drama, I witnessed the girls getting dressed to sell their stock. I know this strategy works, because the clothes look a lot better on, and everyone gets a nice visual. Sounds easy, right? Pick out an outfit, and there you go. A little more complex than that. It's a task in itself that two staff members must not be wearing the same or similar outfit, and each girl must fit into a category: street-wear, evening, casual etc.. Imagine girls running in and out of the stock room, looking for clothes, getting changed, rushing out, coming back in, changing into a different outfit. Some girls took half an hour to change into a suitable outfit. No kidding. The girl who was supposed to leave early took it upon herself to dress the girls, as if the girls couldn't dress themselves. I'm glad I wasn't on the floor, especially that day. I would never be able to pull off what she made some of the girls wear. One had on a halter neck microfibre singlet, underneath a teal silky evening dress. Whoa. In the end, you saw one girl in street wear, denim vest, cute white top, boots, looking every bit as the cool and cute cowgirl; another in an evening dress; another in cute pedal pushers; Winnii in a casual gorgeous print dress; one in a corporate skirt and work shirt etc..

I saw a bit too much flesh though as they got into their outfits. Imagine naked, gorgeous girls running about in a tiny stock room with hardly any space to move around. It looked like one of those modelling shows where the girls walk around in their underwear, searching for their next garment. I'm not used to seeing so much bare skin, but I was fortunately at the very back of the stock room - behind the racks of clothes. Jen was even closer to the action. Jen said later on she saw one girl changing her underwear. Right in front of other girls in the stock room. No shyness there. I was glad I didn't see that.

The girls do work hard, though. Extremely hard. Winnii has them pumped up, energised, and they work their butt off, selling, selling, selling. Some girls work so hard they forget to eat. Oh, I picked up some lingo too. I have never heard Winnii use the following kind of language:

'Try this outfit on, I think it'll look HOT, and when we put the accessories on you, you'll be HOT!'

'You've got assets, girl! I want you to put this outfit on, display those assets, look totally HOT, feel HOT, and sell that outfit today!'

'What do you think of this top?'

'It's HOT!'

'Can I wear this outfit today?'

'Yep, as long as you act HOT and sell it today!'

'What about the colour?'

'I love the colour! It's HOT!'

I heard it at least 100 times that day. From all the girls.

They were nice though. Gorgeous and really nice and friendly, yet, I felt so inadequate around them. I've met some of them before, so it wasn't unfamiliarity that made me feel that. They're so glamorous, and some even lead glamorous lives. One models, and another one is dating some millionaire.

I did learn something that day as well. I learned of the many different types of tops Kookai stocks, even the most basic of tops. And there were so many! There were so many styles of singlets that looked exactly the same, except for one minor detail eg. V-neck singlets could either be flat v-necks or slightly scrunched together at the neck (but only slightly). Singlets could also have one, two, or more buttons in different places. And then you had the fabric: you had the same style garment, but the fabric could be different, you could have the soft cotton, or the microfibre type, and they would be in the same colour. But they had to be stocked in different locations, because of the material.

Jen and I did a great job of cleaning the stockroom that day. Upon Winnii's instruction, we cleaned out boxes of stock one by one. In one box, Jen and I saw a yellow microfibre singlet together with a yellow v-neck long sleeve cotton basic. We both thought it was odd that it was in that box, because you shouldn't ever see a cotton basic in those boxes. None of the girls wear cotton basics on the floor - they wear the fashion line, not the basic line. We knew someone had been wearing the two together, and figured they just threw it in the box post-haste after finishing a shift. So we cleaned it up and thought nothing more of it.

On the way home, Winnii said, 'You know, I lost my yellow singlet and yellow top.. I don't know where it went. I couldn't find it..'

Ha! Yep. It was back on the floor. We did too good a job. Goodness knows what other staff items we found in there, because we sure saw plenty of odd-bits.

Winnii laughed. 'I knew you girls would know where it went! Same time next week?'

You got it, babes!