JEDDAH, 11 November 2004 — As the Eid nears, malls and shopping areas are buzzing with activity as literally millions of shoppers seek the perfect gifts for their loved ones. It’s not unusual for a customer to roll his or her eyes when encountering a long checkout line, but on the other side of the sales counter the Ramadan shopping rush is an experience of a different kind. For salesmen, the Ramadan rush separates the pros from the rookies, and if they’re not careful, the salesmen from their sanity.
Bilal, who works in a popular shopping center, says dealing with customers needs experience and patience. He says he’s gotten used to the rush of the last days.
“The business this year is better than last year,” he said, despite the fact that this year people didn’t start shopping heavily until the end of exams.
“It is very busy now,” said Abullaith, a salesman at a Western menswear store in Heraa Mall. “We have to keep our cool and at the same time keep the customers happy, so it is very stressful.”
Those convenient shopping hours 1-5 p.m. and 9 p.m.-3 a.m. only are convenient if you are a shopper. Some companies offer overtime pay for workers to compensate for the long hours; other companies do not offer any reward to salesmen.
“We are supposed to work eight-hour shifts, but we are all here putting in 10 hours for no extra pay or bonus,” Abullaith told Arab News.
It’s easy to imagine it must be simple being a salesman — just standing at the counter collecting money from cheerful, happy customers, bagging their purchases and then smiling as they wave goodbye.
Hasan, who works in a watch shop, said the overload is hectic, but the problems he faces with customers also create a burden. “People do not respect order,” he said, referring to customers’ attitudes and rush to be served first.
At Mango, a popular women’s apparel store, clothes are piled on the center tables with salesmen at each one refolding the clothes neatly or hanging them where they are supposed to be.
“I’m busy here mostly doing this, refolding clothes and rehanging them, because the women just grab things and leave them here and there while making up their minds,” said Saeed Saleh, a young Saudi at one of the tables.
Saleh said they haven’t had any fights or arguments at the store, but it does get very crowded in the evening. Some customers might even get a little testy with the salesmen or other customers reaching out for the same item or trying to jump the line.
At Adam’s store for baby and children’s clothing, a salesman was emptying boxes of their contents and hanging them as customers immediately began looking at the new items.
“We get things almost every day throughout Ramadan, and we have to keep the store fully stocked,” said Mario, the store’s manager. “This is a very busy time for us. If we are running low on an item, we order it or get it from other branches because we want to keep the customer happy,” he said.
Although the last few days of the month are the busiest at many stores, in children’s clothing stores the business decreases in the last three days, according to Walid Adel, who works in such an establishment. He says people buy children’s clothes at the beginning of the month, and by the end the business gets slower. During the busy days he says the work hours can stretch from 2 p.m. until the wee hours of the morning with hardly any breaks. But as his company depends on a bonus system, he seems to content with the extra load.
So as the happy shoppers leave the malls with purchases in hand and slowly drive back home, the salesmen quickly lock up the shops so they can head to their beds — well, not exactly.
In a clothing store at Tahlia, Muhanad Al-Shayae says the most hectic task begins after the doors are closed — clearing the mess created by customers who take clothes off shelves and cast them on the floor.
“We spend hours after closing cleaning up the mess,” Al-Shayae said.
“Sometimes we close the store at 3 a.m. while customers are still waiting in line to pay for their purchases,” Saleh said. “Then we stay another 30 minutes to clean up and organize the mess.”
Of course, the Ramadan rush is almost over, and the salespeople will return to their peaceful lives behind the counter. After all, nobody goes shopping during Eid.
