Podcasts

YR via RSS

For Educators
Teach Youth Radio
Curriculum

Youth Programs
CORE
Outreach

Teen Retail Psychology: Playing the Popularity Game at Work

"Part of my job is to make it a genuine conversation."

Listen to this commentary!

By Sophie Simon-Ortiz

With the economy in trouble, adults are settling for jobs teens used to monopolize — like flipping burgers and scooping ice cream. It’s no surprise youth unemployment is on the rise, and youth prospects for summer jobs are bleak. But there’s one kind of job adults can’t get — in teenybopper clothing stores, where the sales people have to look like the customers. Youth Radio’s Sophie Simon Ortiz reports on how the social structures of high school are replicated in the workplace…on purpose.

“Hi!”… “Welcome!”… “Love your boots!”… Come on. Teenagers have to deal with phony people at school all the time. And isn’t shopping an escape from social stress? But at every teenybopper store I’ve ever been to, it seems like the sales people are trying so hard to be my new best friend. I guess marketing experts have done their research. They’ve figured out the power of your girlfriend saying how cute you look in those 90 dollar jeans. Check out Rachel, who works at a mall in San Francisco.

Sophie: Do you have a lot of genuine conversations with people?
Rachel: Definitely. Yeah. I think that in particular tends to work in our store. (turns to customer) Those are too big? (talking to customer - laughter) That’s good? They look cute! It looks darling.

Woo – let me give you a replay. A customer walks out of the dressing room with pants obviously too big. Rachel offers her the pants in a smaller size, but when she sees the customer likes the big pants, she tells her she looks cute, essentially lying right in front of her face. What’s up with that?

Sophie: How genuine do you feel? Is it a scripted thing?
Rachel: No. Part of my job is to make it a genuine conversation.

Genuine conversations are part of her job? You know these sales girls can’t like everyone. 18-year-old Leea Burns works at Wet Seal. It’s a trendy clothing store. And the bosses there give her training cards telling her how to talk AND dress. Leea ends up spending a big chunk of her paycheck on Wet Seal clothes she’s required to wear to work.

Leea: You can only wear what they call fashion denim, and that’s no regular jeans. Any jeans that you wear have to have glitter on them, or some type of design cut… Then you feel like a mannequin instead of an employee.

Tannock: A lot of companies will go out of their way to hire young people who they think are good looking young people.

This guy proves my point. He teaches at U.C. Berkeley, where he studies young people in the workplace.

Tannock: And they actually call these young workers not sales clerks but brand representatives, so they’re almost like walking advertisements in the store.

But it’s even more than that. You’ve got to create a full-blown believable character. Jessie started working at 17 and pretty much supports herself, selling clothes she can’t afford.

Jessie: It's kind of annoying sometimes when it's like a 14 year old girl who has, you know, their mom or dad's credit card and they have no concept of money, no concept of what it's like to work for what they get...No concept.

It bugs her, but she’s a pro at hiding her true feelings. You can see why the UC Berkeley guy calls this kind of work emotional labor, which means manipulating your own feelings and other people’s reactions.

This approach might turn a profit, but it feels like a mind game. As a customer, it’s creepy to get pushed into instant friendships just so a store can make the sale. The popularity game is hard enough on a high school campus. I wish retailers weren’t using the same tactics.

In Berkeley, I’m Sophie Simon-Ortiz, for Marketplace.

Back Announce: “Emotional Labor” is part of a special series, Young Bucks, produced by Youth Radio.