Looking Back

This was a chapter in my diary called: Highland Days.
During one of my "underemployed" periods in the early 90's
I worked at the now defunct Highland Superstore in Natick.
I think I lasted there for a few months...

". . . At least the Christmas shopping season will soon end.
Not much longer will I have to present my sensitive soul to
the terrors and rampages of Retail shoppers - or as we call
them, "tire-kickers, lookers, and other swine."  I have come
to dislike shoppers who take too long to make up their mind,
and are too fussy.  I have learned to hate the words, "just
looking..." and find ecstasy in the phrase, "I'll take this
one."

Nor will I be forced to endure the constant query of my
fellow sales "associates" as we stand, like sentinels in a
desert kingdom and ask each other, "So, are ya makin' any
money today? I'm dying here.) Somehow it seems more
palatable to be dying as long as everyone else is dying too.
If one salesman does better than the others, we all stand
around grousing about how he is a filthy customer-thief
or how silly he looks in a toupee, or why doesn't she lose a
few pounds and wear less make-up.

Hey, it's human nature.  We are commissioned retail salespeople.
The bottom of the food chain.  We feel superior to no one -
except the cashiers, even though they are smarter than we are
and make more money and get more breaks.  We salespeople
shamble through the store, like vultures in search of a
carcass.  When we find an unsuspecting victim, we swarm,
nipping at others who try to beat us out.  We get into
fistfights and shouting matches, while poor confused
customers flee from the madness, only to be pounced upon by
other roving gangs of salespeople.  I'm telling you, its a
jungle."