People who work in retail, as sales clerks, have one of the most stressful, least appreciated, lowest paid jobs that exist in the United States today. Those of you who choose to do your shopping on Black Friday need to remember to be kind to the sales clerks. There are plenty of good reasons to treat them well.
This is the time of year when retailers hire some extra part-time workers. According to the National Retail Federation, retail stores have hired about 500,000 seasonal employees this year. Most of them are part-time workers, who are hoping to somehow transition into full-time employment after the holiday season ends. It is highly unlikely that this will work out for them.
This year, retailers have decided to start their Black Friday sales on the afternoon or evening of Thanksgiving. This increases the store’s need to hire some seasonal workers. These workers are getting low wages, and about 35 hours of work a week (at the most). Retailers do not offer seasonal workers, or part-time workers, health insurance benefits.
The sales clerk who is ringing up your purchases, or helping you find the item you want to buy, might be working while sick. Most of the Americans who are not able to get employer sponsored health insurance cannot afford to buy private health insurance on their own.
Sales clerks who call in sick during the weekend of Black Friday are probably going to get fired. Retailers know that they can quickly replace that worker with another applicant who doesn’t have a job, and who is getting unemployment insurance benefits, (or who has had their unemployment benefits run out). This, plus the demanding nature of retail work, puts an undue amount of stress on workers. Stress leads to illness. The cycle starts over.
People who get severely sick, but don’t have health insurance, are still going to require treatment. Stressed out sales clerks, who get really sick, could end up in the ER. Since that person can’t afford to pay for the health care he or she received, the bill gets pushed onto the hospital. The hospital pushes the cost to the insurance companies, who push the cost to their customers. The clerk you scream at on Black Friday could end up making your health insurance premiums rise.
Most sales clerks are required to “encourage” customers to purchase membership cards, or store warrantees for the product that they are buying. This is because the stores know that this is an easy way for them to make a profit.
Most of the people who purchase the warrantee think it is an insurance policy, (and then are surprised to discover how little it covers). If you are kind to the sales clerk, he or she might “forget” to try and push you into buying something that isn’t really going to benefit you. You could use that extra money to make another Black Friday purchase, instead.
Image by Casey West on Flickr