Help Wanted

There’s nothing like a team of retail employees rallying for a bigger cause while trying to get through the mundane daily tasks that go with working at a retail store. Empire Records, Clerks, Superstore, High Fidelity – those movies and that tv show are all about the misfits and eccentric personalities that run these establishments which I love because I grew up working in retail. Some days were better than others, but that experience shaped me for sure.

Help Wanted is the book version of the aforementioned examples – the differences are that the reader has more time to get to know the backgrounds of each character while imagining what they look like. The long and short is that the crew at Town Square (which is similar to Target) are banding together to get their horrible Executive Manager, Meredith, promoted (yes, rather than fired) so she will be out of their faces and then one of them will get her job. Clearly the plan is flawed, but I admired the drive behind all of their strategic albeit misguided moves to make this happen.

Because I used to be one, I know that retail employees will always find something to work towards, complain about, or change. I love the way author Adelle Waldman references the “greatest-hits album of their grievances” because we all have them at some point regarding the people we work with. That being said, Meredith is described as having one of the most frustrating personality traits out there: “With Meredith, everything was both always about her and never her fault.” We all know people like that and they are the worst.

One of the most attractive aspects of this book was Waldman’s ability to make nuanced comparisons and sprinkle small but important details throughout the narrative. For example, “Her face was as blank as a museum security guard’s.” Brilliant. Also, the author’s reference to all the menial things that horrible corporate people do like using terms only said in training videos made me laugh out loud. I also liked the detail that went into describing the Town Square logo – “an image of the earth with an urban skyline on top and a tractor on what would be the Southern Hemisphere” – and Milo noticing that a shirt that looks like two shirts layered on top of one another was actually one piece. #retail

All the employees – as different as they are – want better lives for themselves and their families for a variety of reasons. Waldman’s understanding of the humanity of people trying to get by while working tough hours for not even close to enough money is what set Help Wanted apart.

Miscellaneous Thoughts:

Why did Waldman name the Store Manager Big Will and the Group Manager Little Will? Why not give them two different names?

I love that even in this big box store, it is noted that books held up well in the digital age.

Quotes:

“Milo’s voice became confidential, almost a whisper.”

“With someone who believed in him, he felt sure he could do so much, be so much.”

“Ruby had what Nicole’s mother called “presence.” She made other people react to her, not the other way around.

“Meredith was vain – but she was too self-absorbed to pay attention to anything that didn’t directly affect her.” Gross.

“Travis liked Joyce, who reminded him of his grandma. She died when he was ten, but she had been the best person he’d ever known.”

“one of those nights when the world had briefly seemed both funny and full of possibility”

“Robin said that it sounded like Milo had spent most of his life taking care of other people.”

“Ruby had a rare quality of being both a good talker and a good listener.”

“Life was often like this – people reacted with horror to minor technical violations of the rules while not saying anything about the things that really mattered, the things that hurt.” No truer words.