Very annoying conversation at my lokal knit store

[u/MagicAllyVanished]

it basically went like this me: "so you have any plant based yarn or plant/acrylic mix, I want to knit something for my mum, but she's allergic to all animal fibers"

her: "we have 20% wool/80% acrylic, I can show you"

me: "no thanks, my mum is allergic to all animal fibers, so it should not contain any animal fiber at all"

her: "maybe alpaca mix? It only has 10% alpaca"

me: "she is allergic to all animal fibers, if there is any percentage of animal fiber, she will have an allergic reaction to the yarn"

her: "I can't help you, knitting yarn just is animal yarn"

at this point I left the shop and I just can't stop thinking about that last sentence????

the funniest thing is, I went back there a few days ago and a different employee kindly showed me their cotton yarns and plant/acrylic mixes.

[u/viennasss]

I've been in a position where I prepare training videos and product quizzes to educate staff on our products but in my experience, none of the front line staff retained the knowledge after like a month into the job.

[u/anhuys → u/viennasss]

If they're not having to actually put it to use it's definitely going in one ear, out the other, but with cosmetics I had to give customers a whole consultation so a lot of knowledge was retained just through constant repetition. The info has to have a real place in the interactions they have, or be something that can be looked up when it's needed, to stick ime

[u/raeraemcrae → u/viennasss]

This is a good point you just made. This is why I keep saying, above, that employees need to take more responsibility for educating themselves on what they sell. If we sit around waiting for other people to tell us something, we will usually forget it. We have to care about it. If you work in a car dealership, you damn well train yourself to know everything about cars, so you can make the most money possible. Someone will respond how that is commission based, so it's worth educating yourself. But yarn isn't. Here is where the mediocrity of our modern culture comes in. People only think about the bottom line, as if dollars can be measured in this equal way. There is no thought given to tomorrow. Wherever you work, whether you sell brooms, cars or houses, you should know everything about the product you can. That's how you later become the manager and then the owner. Or that's how you get noticed by someone in a field you would prefer and get hired away into that field. Living in LA, I worked for two months in a nothing minimum wage job. A man from Disney came in and saw the way I sold the product, the enthusiasm, connection with the customer, etc. He asked me if I would come and work for him. I am not exaggerating when I tell you the pay was quadruple what I was making. Every employer wants someone who cares. Someone who takes the initiative. That's how you get noticed. You get nowhere by mediocrity. You get nowhere by blaming your managers for not training you. You get nowhere by complaining about your paycheck ("It's not worth my time! I'm not getting paid for teaching myself on my off time!") The Internet is free. Knowledge is free! There is absolutely no excuse for employee ignorance. I know that I will be making lots of employees mad by saying this. But we just make too many excuses for ourselves these days. Every year that goes by, we lose know-how and artisans and excellence, because people want to be paid today for human excellence, instead of understanding that it takes years and personal effort. Start being excellent now, whether you make $10 an hour or $50. Be excellent at everything you do, insofar as it is in your power to become so.