I moved from a town of 230 people to Melbourne, with no prior experience working in retail/customer service, so it was a big shock for me when I landed the job at Woolies.
Initially, I hated it. I never knew how to properly strike up a conversation with customers. Sometimes I'd get a bit of stage fright if someone asked me something and I'd just mumble my way through some sort of answer, plus the long hours on my feet picking up and bagging items was tiresome and gruelling on my back (make sure you learn correct item-handling etiquette! Will save your body wonders).
But as I started to get more experience, I started liking it, and I gelled with the people I worked with (as I said, I moved to Melbourne and knew nobody when I rocked up on my first day). It sounds like you won't have that issue, and you might even be able to bounce ideas and thoughts off your friends if they also get a job there.
Now I supervise front end (registers) and enjoy customer interaction, I know how to talk to different demographics, I have regular customers that I can continue conversations with from their previous visit, I know pretty much everything there is to know about working front end (except tender swap
).
I would say go for it. It has improved my 'people skills' a whole lot, I used to be a shy person who would wait for a customer to acknowledge me, now I have no qualms with asking someone how their day was etc. Plus you learn so many more good skills, like cash handling, problem solving and whatnot. As someone who moved out of home and lives alone, it also helps me identify new foods that I might like to try. Quite often a customer will have something in their trolley and while scanning it I'll think "Ooh, haven't seen that before, I'll buy that when I finish my shift".
BTW, my base rate (21 years old) is $21.84 p/h. Guessing you are 17-18, so you might be around the $13-16 mark. If you work at Woolies, you'll start to like birthdays even more and more as well! The higher you age, the more you get paid.
Good luck with it.