The portrayal of retail in films
Posted on July 6, 2007 - Filed Under manmachine201 | - Author: Lil' Mephisto
There are fewer places retail workers are better portrayed than on the silver screen. Zoe De Chanelle’s role in the Good Girl was nothing more than a comic interlude of a jaded retail worker deliberately ‘accidentally swearing over the Tannoy system when she should have been promoting the latest buy one get one free offers on the tinned fruit in isle 3. Jack Black was also hilarious as the angry opinionated record shop worker in High Fidelity, there is nothing funnier than making someone feel 2 inches big for buying a really crap album.
(Thank you by Duran Duran was voted the worst album of all time by Q readers and does not reflect the opinion of us here at retail hell.)The tragedy is, people who act like this in retail generally last about 3 days in the job. I once knew a girl who told a customer to go insert something into him-self, when the customer complained to head office, she told the area manager to insert something into him-self. I remember thinking at the time that she was some kind of hero but as it turns out, she is a crack addled hooker now- so I guess it is swings and roundabouts.
Retail itself is often portrayed as a dead end job where not much happens, most of the time this would be right- but from time to time working in retail can be like the Kevin Smith cult classic ‘Clerks’. People having sex with dead people in the staff toilets, sharp witty banter about Star Wars and rudeness to customers are occasional, but do happen.
So after straying from my point, look out for how retailers are portrayed in Hollywood, if they work in fast food places, they spit in your food, if they work in record or comic shops, they are opinionated and take themselves too seriously, if they work in a supermarket, they couldn’t give a s**t. Hollywood has a habit of objectifying everything, even the retail worker. So it is nice to see the occasional glimmer of recognition, like Simon Pegg’s convincing team leader staff meeting at the start of Shaun of the Dead, or the night shift in clerks. It might not be real, but it can be fun comparing films to your own miserable vocation.
This little retail rant is brought to you courtesy of manmachine201 Come back next week to read more from his fevered mind…
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