Ridiculously Favored: I Influenced Fashion: The Sales Associate x Forever 21 Times Square New York City

Now I know when most of you think of a sales associate, you think of a person there to pick up the clothes you accidentally drop on the floor as you shop, a person who desperately needs a job so they take the easy route and apply to a retail store, a person whose title is just a fancy name for cashier, and a person who is there to be a customers servant.

If you think this, you are EXTREMELY wrong especially for a fashion retail sales associate.

In all actuality, an sales associate is a lover of fashion, a person who cares about their appearances, loves being surrounded by clothing and fashion accessories, and loves helping fashionistas with their everyday purchases.

In this photo, Forever 21 Sales Associate Vanessa P. looks dazzling in her blue comfy sweater, scarf, jeans, and boots.

During my weekend trip to NYC, I stopped in, well shopped in, plenty of stores in the heart of Times Square NYC. As I visited Forever 21, I met a lively sales associate by the name of Vanessa P. who attends Hunter College in Manhattan as a Sociology major.

In this photo, TeArra of Ridiculously Favored is with fashion sales associate Vanessa P. of Forever 21 in Times Square.

Vanessa started working at Forever 21 in January which was definitely a great way to start her year!

Ridiculously Favored: How do you like working at Forever 21?

Vanessa P.: I'm honestly doing it because I needed some cash. It's not because this is what I wanted to do in the future career wise. I like working here so far, it's challenging working with people, I like people but they can be quite messy and you have to pick up after them. It's my job but it gets challenging after awhile.

Ridiculously Favored: How do you think the customers view a sales associate and their tasks? Do you think they view a sales associate job as something easy?

Vanessa P.: Oh yeah, I definitely think they view our job as something easy. Many times if the customer doesn't want something they just leave it there or put it wherever they want. Me personally, when I shop I'm pretty neat. If I don't like something and lets say I'm nowhere near the item, I take it with me when I'm ready to pay and say to the cashier "here, I don't want this anymore." You know that's what I do, so for them to not do that, it gets me a little aggravated. But yeah, I definitely think that they see an sales associate job as something easy.

Ridiculously Favored: That is definitely understandable. Despite all of the challenges with customers, do you think a fashion sales associate influences fashion?

Vanessa P.: Yes. For starters we influence fashion with how we present ourselves, how we rock the clothes that are being sold at the store we work in. Number 2- the many times the customers come up to us asking for our opinion on outfit choices and pieces. Aside from us putting away clothes and what not, we also give customers advice, like "Oh maybe this will go with that outfit or maybe this jewelry will work." I feel in a way we help customers with there fashion sense.

And that's the beauty of it. Being a fashion sales associate is more than just tolerating the picking up of clothes behind customers. It's helping the customer put together outfits, pick the right accessories, and just simply influencing fashion one customer at a time!

Below are some photos snapped of Forever 21's Times Square Visual Merchandising. It's amazing.