Retail Hell: How I Sold My Soul to the Store Confessions of a Tortured Sales Associate

Freeman has an interesting sense of humor, but I found him to be a little whiny. Cammie is his BFF, and he doesn't like Douche - do we need that every single chapter? In some ways it seems as if the book was cobbled together from blogs or columns so the info would need to be standalone. I see he's written another book - if it's brain candy like this I may give it a go, but don't expect any insight into the retail world.

Sigh... I worked retail for far too many years, selling lower-end shoes on commission, to have as much sympathy for this book as I wanted. I am always in the camp of the worker. Once you toil in retail, your sentiments almost always side with the sales clerk. But Freeman Hall, while amusing and interesting, tested that at times. It's clear "The Big Fancy" is Nordstrom and I have to wonder about the veracity of some of his stories because if the Nine West group would fire clerks for excessive use of profanity, I can't imagine what Nordstrom's view would be. And curse he and his coworkers did. The purse (oh, I mean hand bag) department at Nordstrom is pretty open. Even in sotto voce, it's hard to see how a few of those f-bombs didn't show more filter back to the customers.

I appreciated how Hall handled hard customers, like a thief who constantly returned bags for cash, taking advantage of Nordstrom's generous refund policy, but even that story did not ring true (he threw her keys in the trash). I did, however, cackle like a shebeast during the scene with the customer with a case of sprinkler system diarrhea who covered an entire dressing room as well as the ceiling in feces after a dreadful accident. It seems that no matter what, no matter what branch of retail you occupy, we all have shit stories to share at the end.

All in all, it was an amusing book that captured the sheer grinding horror of retail, from the terrible customers to the completely unrealistic work demands place on employees, but it lacked a certain something. You could do worse, I guess. This is a good, quick, airplane sort of read, I think show less

Fun easy read, read it in less than 24 hours. Freeman Hall works for a large department story that he calls The Big Fancy. He works in the handbag department, not purses, which is a lesson he learns early in the book. A loosely based biography of the authors actual experiences in working for a large corporate upscale retailer. Was very funny with his details about his numerous experiences. People wanting to return bags they've already used, or returning items from another store and people who just come in to chat and browse because their lonely.

Freeman Hall is a Handbag, not purse, sales associate at a store called The Big Fancy. In it, he describes the multitude of problems he experiences from co-worker and management to the annoying customers. He continues to slave away because he needs the money and loves the discount all while having dreams of writing his "million-dollar screenplay."

I really like this book and could definitely relate to it. Although I am a different type of sales associate, retail is retail. At a moment's notice your schedule can changed abruptly, there are no weekends off, there are no consecutive days off, customers are always right as are managers even if they give you conflicting information.

Freeman Hall is a Handbag, not purse, sales associate at a store called The Big Fancy. In it, he describes the multitude of problems he experiences from co-worker and management to the annoying customers. He continues to slave away because he needs the money and loves the discount all while having dreams of writing his "million-dollar screenplay."

I really like this book and could definitely relate to it. Although I am a different type of sales associate, retail is retail. At a moment's notice your schedule can changed abruptly, there are no weekends off, there are no consecutive days off, customers are always right as are managers even if they give you conflicting information.

Freeman Hall is a Handbag, not purse, sales associate at a store called The Big Fancy. In it, he describes the multitude of problems he experiences from co-worker and management to the annoying customers. He continues to slave away because he needs the money and loves the discount all while having dreams of writing his "million-dollar screenplay."

I really like this book and could definitely relate to it. Although I am a different type of sales associate, retail is retail. At a moment's notice your schedule can changed abruptly, there are no weekends off, there are no consecutive days off, customers are always right as are managers even if they give you conflicting information.

I can't say this is very good; it's definitely a case of the author finding himself much more clever and humorous than the reader is able to. The writing is self-indulgent, lazy, and the attempt to wring a memoir out of the author's experiences in retail is doomed to failure by his apparent lack of material--where's the titular "hell?"--and his hysterical exaggeration of the material he does have. It comes across as whining that he's been forced to do the job he's paid for--god forbid anyone be forced to sit through an employee orientation! Or climb stairs into work every day! Or wear an uncomfortable uniform! Or deal with demanding and cranky customers!

If Hall's experience qualifies as "hell," I'd like to see what he'd make of a job show more at, say, Wal Mart, or the Starbucks I worked at through high school. show less