Things I've Learned While Working at a Boutique

It might seem like working as a boutique sales associate would be a mindless job, however that has not been my experience. While it was mostly fun and admittedly easy, it also gave me the opportunity to grow. At the boutique, I’ve formed friendships with multiple women at least twice my age and even acquaintanceships with our regular customers (and their dogs who get to come in for a treat). Just as rewarding has been the opportunity to learn from the customers in our store. Here are three things I’ve learned from working at the boutique that I will always remember.

People are thoughtful

The boutique customers maintained my faith in humanity (I am not going to say restored because I naively always have faith in humanity). A good percentage of our sales are gifts and the trouble I have seen customers go through to find the perfect gift is inspiring.

One of my favorite customers spent at least 10 minutes on the phone with her mother trying to decide which pair of earrings would be the best ones for her sister to wear on her honeymoon. The most heartwarming experiences as a sales associate are when young men come into the store cluelessly on a mission to find a gift for their sisters or girlfriends. They always leave with such proud smiles on their faces after taking my suggestions of what to buy. Then there are the old ladies who will spend an hour looking around our 800 square foot boutique just to pick out two “$5 dollar jewelry” items off of our sale rack in the back corner of the store for their granddaughters.

The customers who leave with the perfect gift tend to be more excited than those who just spend a couple hundred dollars on clothes and accessories for themselves. People are not as selfish as we tend to assume.

It is easy to be passionate about something when the people around you are passionate about it

When I first started working at the boutique, I did not realize how passionate people could be about selling clothes. My coworkers quickly showed me how much there was to be excited about. Every shipment of new inventory, new outfit I put on a window display, and each individual sale we made quickly became a big deal to me too. I really cared so much about the success of the boutique and couldn’t wait to update my manager on how the store was doing each day that I worked there. I mostly liked doing this because I know how much my manager cared. She worked so hard to do the best job she could, and I know the success of the boutique felt like a reflection of her personal success. When we were doing well, she was happy, and when we weren’t she was not.

I’ve realized that passion is such an attractive trait in a person. I love getting invested in something when I know it means so much to someone else. Look for the things that make people the happiest and let those things make you happy too.

Everyone needs a hype girl

Shopping is so much more fun when you are feeling confident, and it is so much easier to feel confident when someone is hyping you up. Alternatively, nothing can bring you down like feeling ugly while trying on clothing in a dressing room. When women come into the store without a friend, it is my job to make them feel as beautiful as possible. There might not be anyone else in their life giving them compliments as often as they deserve.

I also find that people think so many positive thoughts about the people around them, though they never actually voice those thoughts. I always think about how much happier people would be if they knew all the ways we admire each other. Hearing that “blue is your color because it brings out your eyes” is the subtle kind of confidence boost that would put a smile on a woman’s face for the rest of their day.

I am so thankful for my time working at the boutique. I loved being a small part of so many different people’s days and truly enjoyed every time a customer would stop to have a conversation with me. I hope these life lessons were as uplifting to you as they were to me.