Stuck up or just prioritising?

The Company sells smaller, cheaper items as 'add ons' like accessories. The latest craze is socks and men's undies. Fair enough, you see this at many boutiques. 'Expensive cashmere socks with your extravagantly overpriced wool suit, sir?' - But our socks and jocks are cheap. VERY cheap. Competitive with your chain department stores like Kmart and Target.

When customers walk into my store and head straight for the sock/undies stand, I may greet them but that's as far as it goes, in my concern. Honestly, how much help do you want me to offer picking out your undies? I am saving not only myself embarrassment, but you too. Appreciate that I have your best interests in mind when I let you look at the undies alone. I'm not a 'hoverer' or 'stalker' salesperson.

My apparent ignoring of selected customers goes against The Company's strict-when-it-suits-them customer service policy, where we are expected to assist and reapproach each and every customer after an initial greeting. But really, I have no interest trying to assist people with colours and sizes of undies. In my opinion, it's not very hard. They are sized S, M, L, XL. Really, it depends on how you want them to fit- loose, or comfortable. So provided you know what size pants you wear (a shocking number of men don't), it's not that difficult, really.

Ever seen this ad? I cracked up laughing when it aired in Australia.

My reluctance to assist in the fitting of underwear is similar and related to my reluctance to assist people only looking at the sales racks. In my experience, the customers who only ask for sales items don't spend much. And often pester you with asking annoying (to me) questions: if this (pick up current season item received 2 days ago) is reduced. Or this one. How much is this reduced to? What else have you got on sale? And why aren't they reduced? So the list goes on. I know it's my job to be there and assist the customers, hence the title "sales assistant". But hear me out, I am also interested in SALES.

Small sales mean no commission. I am not completely driven by commission, I am also interested in the daily and weekly store budgets as well. I know small sales also count towards reaching our sales targets, but really, when you break down the budgets as well, we are only allowed a certain number of hours for staffing for a set budget. So if I've got a store full of people and have a gentleman looking to buy a whole outfit and a few pairs of work shoes, and another customer puzzled by the colours, sizings and fittings of the underwear and socks, who do you think I'll spend more time with? It's not that hard to pick out a few cheap $6 tshirts in several colours and sizes and try them on yourself, is it. It is much harder to find sizes and styles of shoes for different needs.

I've had ladies stay in the store for almost an hour trying on plain tshirts. Can't decide between different colours and the sizes available. I was aching to go to the toilet and go on my lunch break, being the only person on all day, I had to shut the store for any break. So Ms Indecisive is having a major dilemma choosing between COLOURS of some STUPID tshirts!

"Which colour do you think is nicer?"
"Do you think this colour looks better against my skin, or this one?"
"What do you think of the sizes of this tshirt/singlet?"
"Oh, you have more colours! (Yes, we have about FIFTEEN) I'll go try this one on as well"
"I think this one is nice, I already have another bag that will match this top nicely. But I like the other size better. I'll go and try it on again."
"Oh, I just can't decide. What would you choose?" I'm thinking, who cares, just buy them all and come back and refund them tomorrow, I really don't give a stuff. But of course, I can't verbalise this. Which just leads to our frustration. Bottling up all that rage is not very helpful.

Ms Indecisive stayed for at LEAST 45 minutes. Total spend on cheap (price and quality-wise) tshirts? About $50. And the amount of assistance required was mind numbing. Thank you Ms Indecisive with the Gucci handbag. I don't think I ended up being able to have lunch or even go to the toilet until about 3:30 that day. That does NOT make for a happy sales assistant.

So my sister says I'm stuck up, and have become increasingly more so since I started working at The Company. But I say, I'm just prioritising, and trying to keep sane in this company, which seems to attract the most chemically unbalanced people I've ever had the misfortune to encounter.