Retail Sales...

[BAC5.2]

I don't know about you guys, but I know some dumbass fuckin womenfolk. I also know some stupidass men.

Every sex has their winners and losers.

[Matt Monson]

I worked retail at REI for about 8 years. I ran the camping and climbing department. For the most part it was a very enjoyable job since my customers were interested in the same things I personally did. And I got about every piece of camping,climbing,skiing, snowboarding and biking gear that you could possibly want at cost. Even though the pay was fair, it is like having 25% more income because of the discount on things that you would buy anyways.

These days, I guess you could say my job is retail. I work for a Porsche part business called Carquip. Most of our customers are speed and repair shops, but maybe 25% is straight retail customers. It is very different because it is phone and internet based. But still very enjoyable for many of the above reasons. I have already acquired a '74 914 for myself, and an '87 924S for my girl. If either of us got in financial troouble, we could easily sell our cars for profit.

As for the women in auto industry thing, I see that attitude in my work. I work with a woman that knows her shit since her dad owns the business and she grew up around these cars.

But on a regular basis, guys come in or call and cop an attitude. If they walk in the door, and I'm on the phone, and they ignore Marie to wait for me, my approach is always the same. After they ask their question, I play dumb, and turn to Marie, and say, "You know this stuff better than I do, what do you think?"

[evolutionmovement]

There's little hotter than an attractive chick who knows cars. Shame there's so few. Most women would rather look like deer caught on headlights than learn something mechanical. That said, I'd bet that your average woman who has owned older cars has more knowledge of cars than your average man just for the fact that they listen when you explain something rather than acting like they already know it when they don't. Were I a shady mechanic I'd take more advantage of men than women as their ego would assure me a better chance of getting away with it.

But to even the score in terms of stereotypes, I wrote a girl into my 2nd & up novels who has more natural driving ability than the main character and ends up working in a custom car shop.

Steve