Can someone explain retail sales to me?

I'm no stranger to shopping, that's for sure. But I've never worked in retail, so I'm not sure of how people get paid (I always assumed hourly, plus commissions for cosmetics).

My curiosity was piqued this past weekend when my DH decided to return some sneakers at a store in the mall. He bought 3 pairs (2 of the same style, diff. colors), but I hated all three.

He went back to return them, and bought a totally different pair (which I approved ).

But when we went to the counter, the salesperson was highly annoyed, aggravated, even pizzed - and he made it known. He kept complaining the whole time. "Oh, of course - it's my numbers", "The main office is going to call and question this", "I can't believe $200 in returns - just great", etc.

While I found his behavior to be totally unacceptable, it got me thinking. Do they have to make quotas? Do they get commission off of shoe sales? Does the store have to reach a total number of $$ each day?

Quite honestly, if he wasn't so outwardly rude, maybe, just maybe I'd feel bad. But once he started complaining so much, I wish we had more to return!

So what's the story? Was this guy just a jerk, or was he going to get five lashings that day for not making his numbers?

Re: Can someone explain retail sales to me?

yes- stores have daily numbers they need to make, weekly, monthy, yearly

they have a sales plan

that is based on sales from the year before

if the person is on comission- then they have a sales plan to achieve personally

otherwise it's just for the department

everything is tracked from returns, damages

I used to spend all day monday pulling the numbers (running the sales reports) for my department when I was at macy's

you live and die by those numbers, people get promoted, people get fired