Today I came across my favorite teenage movie (and I was 13, I remember when it came out), Empire Records. If you haven’t seen it, you were deprived as a youth. Immediately- drop everything…and add it to your NetFlix queue.
It is the movie about young adults who work at a Indy record store. All the 90’s steretype characters are there (set against a rockin’ soundtrack- which I still own)- the slutty girl, the goodie- goodie, the suicidal rage-filled one, the brooding boy with a crush on the goodie- goodie, the criminal(s) and the goofball. I lapped it up and I still do. In fact, when my Comcast info blurb popped up in the bottom quadrant of my screen and I learned it had only earned one star, I wanted to begin a letter writing campaign. I am sure all my friends would be on board (so would any girl who was a teenager in the mid-90s, for that matter).
I remember thinking how fun and glamorous it would be to work in a store! The comradery, the celebrities stopping by (Rex Manning), the romantic entanglements…..I was chomping at the bit. A life in retail was definitely something I aspired to do, in my 13-year-old dream world where I also was dating Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
After working at The Secret for over 2 years, I have learned that working in a store in not quite that fun. It has its moments. For example, I happen to love 70% of the girls I work with. I say girls because with the exception of a trickling of gay cashiers and the odd stock boy- that is what we are. So the romantic entanglements are out the window.
We have a good ol time, but we don’t hang out with each other in the break room rubbing elbows with shoplifters and trying seduce Rex Manning…or any other celebrity that might stop by. [TANGENT: My personal hell would probably be hanging out with shoplifters considering most of them are 15 and have Dooney and Burke purses…I have nothing in common with that demo.] We make do gossiping over Chick-Fil-A and deciding whether we like or have massive hatred for the new lingerie that has just arrived.
We do however get slightly cooler celebrities. In the two years I have worked there, I have seen or talked to the following “celebrities” [I use the term with quotes, because depending on who you are, their celebrity status is up for debate. ]
- Sammy Kershaw and Lori Morgan
- Aaron Neville (not in the store, right outside, but close0
- MJ (from the Real World Philly)
- Brooke (from the Real World Denver)
- Kelli Pickler
- Carrie Underwood
- Bucky Covington (he was on American Idol)
- Miranda Lambert
Anyway- moral of the story time. My stint as being a retail diva is coming to an end in the next week (I start a new, “big girl” job next week and I will only return to VS a couple times a month). I am glad that I got to have my Empire Records experience. It was not quite as edgy and intriguing as I hoped it would be- but it like the movie, it was fun while it lasted.
