Gap

There are few people that I feel sorrier for than the poor souls working in the mall during the holidays. Having run through the gauntlet of working in retail during Christmas/​Boxing Day, back in the days of my misspent youth, I remember how soul crushingly painful it can be to deal with the crazy crowds lining up for Santa pictures and overly stressed and caffienated customers («My child’s Christmas is RUINED now because you didn’t find me the pink Tamagotchi!»). I get it, I really do.
So with that in mind, it was with as much patience as I could muster when I visited The Gap in Guildford, less than 10 days before Christmas, for some last minute shopping. The mall was a zoo as expected and the Gap was no different: there were at least 10 of us browsing in the store and a solid line-​up at the till, behind which the only 2 employees were working. TWO employees, at a mall during the week before Christmas, at a store that is a holiday favourite for picking up a scarf/​gloves/​sweater for random family members.
You couldn’t help but feel for the 2 of them, as they were doing their best to deal with the chaos and were extremely good humoured and pleasant given the circumstances. The store was a mess with clothes strewn haphazardly over displays at random, customers were getting frustrated because they couldn’t find anything but couldn’t find anyone to help them find anything, and one of the employees constantly had to leave the till to look for something in the back, pull another size from a mannequin, monitor the change room, call another location, etc. The only way any customers could get any help was if they lined up at the till to talk to the employees, but this also made the line go that much slower. Now during a slow season on a weekday, 2 employees is more than adequate to keep a store in good shape. But during the holidays? It makes absolutely no sense, and whoever was in charge of staffing clearly needs to have another look at their schedules for the next 2 weeks with Boxing Day looming.
**I should also note that The Gap on Robson was just as bad. Though they had 4 – 5 employees working, they were all behind the till as well and the Robson location is 10x busier on any given day**