Working retail can be incredibly difficult. If the job is done right, it's hard at its absolute best. And when the job is done wrong, the whole situation gets a thousand times worse for everyone involved. That's what Superstore had to work into the show.
Superstore was set in a fictionalized mega big box store styled after Walmart called Cloud 9. While the series made the environment relatable and funny, it also did a great job of showing how day-to-day life in such a place is somehow both mundane and utterly absurd at the same time. There's nothing quite like working retail to give some disturbing insights into the world.
Some Employees Take Things Way Too Seriously
Any big box retail store has a multitude of employees who work in different areas of the store. It takes a lot of people to keep an operation of that scale remotely functional, let alone even meeting expectations.
Keeping that in mind, there are always a few people who take the job way too seriously. On Superstore, Mateo, Glenn, and Dina are all prime examples of that, though they take it all seriously in their own disturbing ways.
Some Employees Don't Take Things Seriously Enough
But the other side of the coin is also quite often true. Working in retail in any size of store can be a mind-numbing, soul-destroying experience. And if that spot is a local extension of a big box chain, things can get rough quite quickly.
Some employees cope by not caring at all and doing the bare minimum required to not get fired. Garrett is the absolute master of this as he just barely cared enough to show up to work, let alone actually doing the job. Cheyenne actually had the perfect attitude for the job.
The Customer Is Almost Always Wrong
When it comes to retail, the customer is both the savior of the store and the bane of an employee's existence. The store needs the money to survive but customers are considered the worst part of working retail.
They rarely know what they're talking about, are often incredibly rude, and have zero respect for the staff or their time. This comes up again and again throughout the series, particularly when the staff is trying to close and the last customers just won't leave.
It Takes A Lot To Get Fired
Some of the worst customers will threaten an employee with talking to their manager. Normally, this doesn't amount to much as the customer is wrong 90% of the time. Still, there are scenarios when an employee actually commits a fireable offense.
Regardless, it's surprisingly hard to get fired from a big box store, though. Staffing these businesses can be difficult, so remotely competent staff tend to get a lot of leeway. Cloud 9 was staffed almost exclusively by people who shouldn't deal with the public.
Work Life And Personal Life Always Get Tangled Up
As is often the case with workplace sitcoms, people's personal lives and work lives become thoroughly intertwined. It's hard to derive comedy solely from people working in a retail store, an office, or a Brooklyn police station without the personal side of things.
Superstore certainly got that aspect down. There are people who are in competition with each other and never seem to get along. Then there are the random hookups that simply do not make sense outside of the store. And everyone is involved in everyone's business.
Customers Act Like They Own The Place
Expanding on the customer being wrong the vast majority of the time, they also frequently have a sense of entitlement the second they walk through the doors. Customers know their money keeps the lights on, and a lot of them act like it's their personal kingdom.
Viewers could see that coming up throughout the series. The customers of Cloud 9 did what they wanted, whenever or wherever they wanted. That included at least one customer going to the bathroom in a display toilet. That kind of stuff actually happens.
Small Mistakes Can Have Big Consequences
From the outside, retail jobs seem pretty easy. Thanks to employees like Garrett who basically do nothing and never try to hide that fact, it's easy to understand why there would be that kind of perception. In truth, it can be extremely complicated with a lot of moving parts.
The side effect of that is it's actually easy to make seemingly small mistakes that do serious damage. That was demonstrated in the pilot when Jonah accidentally marked down everything in the electronics department to $0.25. Of course, he wasn't fired for it.
10% Of The Employees Do 90% Of The Work
There's an old saying that goes something to the effect of "10% of the people do 90% of the work." For anyone who has ever worked in retail, they know that's not just a saying and is completely true more often than not.
At Cloud 9, a large percentage of the work appears to be done by Amy and Cheyenne. Well, at least the most competent work. Jonah and Sandra work pretty hard, too, but they also screw a lot of it up. But it also can't be denied that Brett is an absolute machine.
Managers Aren't Usually Competent
In the retail world, good managers are worth their weight in gold. That goes from the perspective of an owner as well as from the perspective of employees. Stores need a good manager who can balance both sides of the equation.
The unfortunate reality is that managers are rarely good. At Cloud 9, Glenn is a nice guy who means well but isn't particularly bright and is afraid to be tough. Dina, on the other hand, is way too tough and is bad with people. Retail frequently has both archetypes.
There's Always One Employee With An Ego
Any big box retail store has a wide range of people working there. Inevitably, there's always at least one person who thinks that they are better than the job that they are doing, so they have an impressively insufferable attitude.
On Superstore, that person is, without question, Jonah, particularly at the beginning of the series. While he eventually settles into the role, that doesn't change the air of superiority he brings to the job for a long time. It's quite infuriating.